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Recommended: Beowulf (hero
Beowulf Journaling
Chapters 1-10
Beowulf is a prince. He is the glory of Denmark. His father ruled the kingdom for a very long time and was loved by the people. Beowulf’s father dies and they have a huge funeral for him. Beowulf than becomes king. He reigns and is loved just as much as his father before him. Like his father Beowulf had a son and his name was Healfdane and he was a fierce fighter. Beowulf had three sons and a daughter. His daughter was given for marriage over to King Onela. She became a wife and a queen. Hrothgar taking the throne led The Danes to such glory. He was very rich and wanted a big house that could almost reach up into the heavens. This place was called Herot. He was very full of himself and wanted everything he could possibly take. Hrothgar and his men lived happily in the halls until the monsters within them would stir and reek havoc. The demon that headed them was named Grendel. Grendel did not like the men of Herot so when they were fast asleep from being drunk. He snuck in and killed 30 men dragging their bodies with him as he left. When Hrothgar found out about this the entire kingdom wept for the lost. There was no way to avoid Grendel, which they all soon found out soon after many more men had died when they were asleep. The only way you were safe was to travel a long ways away from Herot. Hate had triumphed. Grendel ruled Herot for many years while Hrothgar waited in grief and sorrow. Grendel would accept no bargain for giving the kingdom up to anyone. Grendel continued to hunt Hrothgar and his men. He wished to sit in the throne just like the king of Herot does, but he could not because it was protected by God especially for Hrothgar. Beowulf the nephew of the Geatish...
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...lf grieves and wonders what he might have done to deserve such punishment from God. Beowulf plans his revenge. He finds a shield that will protect him from the dragon’s fiery breath. Since he defeated Grendel with his bare hands. Beowulf feels no fear of the dragon. Beowulf is able to seek the thief and have him take him to the barrow where the dragon lies. They wish each other luck and Beowulf has a vision of his death. Beowulf makes his final speech and promises to fight the dragon no matter what. The fight between Beowulf and the dragon happens, but Beowulf does not make it out alive. The ending is terrible if he could easily kill a demon and manage to slay the demon’s mother he should have been easily able to kill a dragon. He has conquered so many quests that this one should have been easy. He maybe wasn’t as great as everyone thought him up to be.
Nobody dared to stop the bravest man in all the land known as Beowulf. Beowulf is the strongest warrior from Geatland. When Beowulf hears about the Danes and Hrothgar’s struggle to keep his men safe, he offers to help. The Danish king, Hrothgar, accepts Beowulf’s request to kill Grendel and his mother. Beowulf proves his strength and becomes famous when he defeats Grendel in a battle using nothing but his bare hands in Herot. He keeps Grendel’s arm as a symbol of his victory. Grendel’s mother looks for revenge, but she is also killed by the brave warrior. Beowulf becomes the King of Geatland after the king’s son, Heardred, is killed. Beowulf rules for 50 years and he is very successful in keeping peace across the land and Geatland becomes very prosperous. Beowulf later dies after a final fight against a dragon. The Geats build a tower strong and tall just as Beowulf requested so that sailors could find it from far and wide. Beowulf perfectly embodies the Germanic heroic ideal.
Beowulf is one of the most bravest legends. He has no fear! This man will go and fight whoever needs to be fought, with or without help. As soon as Grendel's mother came to get her son’s arm back, Beowulf immediately set out to go find and kill her. He went to the place where she lives and after he plunged into the water, Beowulf swam all the way down to her lair. After he reached the lair, “Beowulf got ready, / donned his war-gear, indifferent to death; / his mighty, hand-forged, fine-webbed mail / would soon meet with the menace underwater” (1442-1445). This task also seems to be a death sentence written all over it, but Beowulf looks death in the face, and goes after his mother. He knows that they are immortal, but right next to Grendel’s mother, is the only sword that can kill them. Beowulf is brave enough to grab that powerful sword, and kill both Grendel and his mother. Men today would not do that. Beowulf does not just stop at Grendel and his mother: he continues to fight more monsters to defend what is his. He then took a break and now decides to come home to Sweden. The son of Ecgtheow bids Denmark farewell, and has a moment with Hrothgar. Hrothgar says, “You are strong in body and mature in mind, / impressive in speech. If it should come to pass / that Hrethel’s descendent dies beneath a spear, / … and you are still alive, then I firmly believe / the seafaring Geats won’t find a
Beowulf is an epic poem that explores many themes and motifs within the Anglo-Saxon society. The Author, who remains anonymous, composed the epic around 1000 A.D. The literature focuses mainly on a Scandinavian warrior named Beowulf, who comes to the aid of Herot, a small town ran by King Hrothgar. Beowulf arises to rid the town of evil forces, such as the demon monster Grendel, and his savage mother who seeks revenge for the death of her son. As he ages, Beowulf presumes his title as king of Geatland, still eager to protect his loyal followers from danger. Though he is viewed as a godly force, the situations and the behaviors that Beowulf expressed, sometimes deviate how the Anglo-Saxons viewed his character. From this, the theme of "Good vs. Evil", which can be easily depicted in the literature piece, was constantly contradicted throughout the entire poem.
As Beowulf slayed the Water Witch after Grendel, citizens of Danes never bothered to think about what they would have done if it was their son who has been killed. Through this scene, a typical reader, including myself, would see Beowulf as a hero as well as a leader from a glance. However, because Hrothgar, the king of Danes who requested Beowulf's assistance, is the individual who informed and convinced Grendel as a threat, he is the leader of his Danish environment. Shunned from society, Grendel, in the other hand was not, for all his life, he only lived and interacted with his mother, the Water Witch. From this, I concluded that the poem Beowulf is written in the perspective the victors of this event, Hrothgar and Beowulf, since at the
Early in the poem, Beowulf hears accounts of Grendel’s destruction of Herot, Hrothgar’s majestic mead hall. Knowing his strength and military prowess, Beowulf immediately devises a plan, recruits men, and orders boats, thrusting himself into a battle that was not necessarily his to fight. Beowulf felt obligated to end Grendel’s reign of terror. Though he knew the death of Grendel would bring him fame and honor, the idealized Beowulf was able to set aside personal ambition in order to end the suffering of the Danes. Shortly after slaying Grendel, Beowulf again displays an awareness of duty when Grendel’s mother extracts revenge upon Herot, killing one of Hrothgar’s best men, Aeshere. Instead of leaving Herot in a state of frenzy, Beowulf comes to King Hrothgar’s side, pledging allegiance and service. Bolstering the defeated king’s moral, Beowulf boldly addresses the older King Hrothgar saying, “So arise, my lord, and let us immediately set forth on the trail of this troll-dam. I guarantee you: she will not get away, not to dens under ground nor upland groves nor the ocean floor. She’ll have nowhere to fall to. Endure your troubles to-day. Bear up and be the man I expect you to be.” Beowulf could not set aside his duty and obligation, though he knew full well the suffering and pain that might result from his actions. Thus, Beowulf is a portrait of
After the sight of the dragon, the slave hurries and grabs one of the treasures around him and runs away. The dragon then becomes angry at the fact that he was robbed and decides to burn down the houses of the citizens of Geatland at nightfall. Penny 6 So Beowulf (being the brave and heroic person that he is) decides to defeat the dragon. He has an iron shield made and is prepared for even the worst to occur (his death).
The character Beowulf, “a man of great strength and bravery” (Magill 388), is a hero in the way he defends his neighboring country, Denmark. When the word that a hostile creature, known as Grendel, was killing tons in Denmark, Beowulf set sail to help defend the people and rid them of the hideous monster.
Beowulf’s life was truly epic struggle. The monsters he battled made it so. Grendel and the dragon, capable of crushing men physically, stood for evils that could just as easily crush men in spirit. These two beasts represented society’s greatest fears, as well as detriments, and Beowulf fearlessly took them on. Grendel taught the hero a valuable lesson about maintaining one’s humanity in a world dominated by the dogs of war. The dragon, showed Beowulf’s mortality, his imperfection, but the hero eradicates it nonetheless, saving his people from not only physical threat, but sin. Bringing in such spiritual and moral dimensions, these two beasts certainly give the story of Beowulf depth.
Beowulf begins with a history of the Danish kings. Hrothgar is the present king of the Danes. He builds a hall, called Heorot, to house his army. The Danish soldiers gather under its roof to celebrate and have fellowship with each other. Grendel, who lives at the bottom of a nearby swamp, is awakened and disgusted by the singing of Hrothgar's men. He comes to the hall late one night and kills thirty of the warriors in their sleep. For the next twelve years Grendel stalks the mead hall known as Heorot.
When he accepts his first challenge in the poem, Grendel, a big and powerful creature with claws, had been tormenting Herot for “twelve winters” (Beowulf 62). Later, Hrothgar approaches Beowulf to inform him that the “only help, again, lies with [him]” and to “save [them] once more” from Grendel’s revenge-filled Mother (443-44; 446-47). In these moments, Beowulf embraces the role of being the ultimate hope to not just the Danes, but his fellow Geat brethren as well. After fifty years of ruling the Geats, he is once again put in a position of being their only hope when a big, powerful fire breathing “dragon begins terrorizing [them]” (62). Beowulf succeeded in stopping the dragon’s attacks at the cost of his own life. However, his mission was fulfilled. The Geats had been saved and proceeded to finish the final wishes of their fallen king.
In the beginning of it there was Herot, which was good, and Grendel the evil monster which hated it. When Grendel finally got tired of all the cheers and laughter he went up to it and killed most of the warriors in it. To prove it, “Snatched up 30 men, smashed them unknowing in their beds and ran out with their bodies”(2). However, Beowulf later arrived, so when Grendel attacked Herot that night, it was Beowulf and Grendel fighting it off. In the end evil lost, Grendel was killed and Beowulf was a hero. Beowulf mortally wounded Grendel cutting his arm off and letting it hang. But another evil lurked in the shadows seeking revenge. It was Grendel 's mother who was much more evil than her son, Grendel. So Beowulf, still feeling triumphant about killing Grendel, set off for Grendel 's mother. Thus the theme of good versus evil comes up again. The "good” powerful hero Beowulf was traveling down to the "evil” Grendel 's mother, who was prepared and anxious to avenge the death of the son. After the battle, it was Beowulf won again and She-wolf failed her mission. However, 50 years later and Beowulf very old his next battle will be difficult. When a mysterious stranger had taken a chastise from a evil dragon 's lair to make amends with the king of the Geats Beowulf, the evil dragon was furious. He went to Beowulf 's kingdom and breathed fire upon it. Thus, Beowulf was now ready for his last another in
Beowulf begins with Grendel attacking the Danes out of vengeance and hatred. Grendel is the relative of Cain which means that he is outcast to eternal darkness as punishment for the crime of Cain killing his brother Abel. Therefore, when Grendel hears laughter in the hall named Heorot, he is angry and a little envious, so he goes on a killing spree in order to put an end to the warriors’ happiness. Because of Grendel’s attack upon the Danes, Beowulf arrives in order to put an end to the killing spree: “And now alone I shall settle affairs with Grendel the monster, the demon” (Donaldson, p.8). The author offers no other solution to solving this issue with Grendel but battle, and after the battle is fought and Beowulf wins, Grendel’s hand is preserved as a trophy. Beowulf is rewarded with gifts for his courage, and now the Danes are at peace.
Beowulf feels a sense of loyalty to Hrothgar which leads Beowulf “…to sail the swan’s road and search out that king, / the famous prince who needed defenders” against the marauding monster, Grendel (200-201). Beowulf’s generosity leads him to Hrothgar’s mead-hall to save Hrothgar from the clutches of Grendel. Regardless of fate and lineage, Beowulf is driven by forces out of his control. It is true that the qualities of an Anglo-Saxon warrior drives Beowulf to become the hero he is, but his lineage and fate define his
In the beginning of the novel, we find that that a mysterious creature attacked Hrothgar, the king of Danes and his army. In response to the situation, Hrothgar decides to call Beowulf who happens to his nephew. In this account of the story Beowulf is the hero to the Danes. He defeats the monster and it's mother. In contrast, in the novel Grendel, Grendel tells the story from his perspective. He describes to the how he wanted to be friends with the humans. In hi attempt to communicate, he is unsuccessful and finds himself being attacked. After trying several more times to befriend the humans, he deices to carry out his plan of being what society ‘wants’ him to be.
Beowulf’s first accomplishment as an epic hero was his battle with Grendel. Grendel was a huge beast, a descendent of Cain, who ruthlessly murdered innocent Danes because he felt pity for himself. Upon hearing of the Dane’s problem, Beowulf set off to help the Danish without having been called upon. Even though Beowulf had men backing him, He drew battle with Grendel alone and without armor or weapons. Yet, Beowulf emerged victorious with the arm of Grendel as his trophy. Beowulf then went on to kill Grendel’s vengeful mother and a huge fire-breathing dragon who thought it had been done wrong by the Geats. Alas, the killing of the dragon would be Beowulf’s last great battle for the dragon took Beowulf’s life in the struggle for his own.