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The story beowulf summary
The significance of beowulf
The significance of beowulf
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Recommended: The story beowulf summary
With the great power possessed by Beowulf, great battles are destined to be fought for glory, protection, and reputation. As the demon Grendel approaches the great kingdom of Danes, his mother coming to avenge the wrongs done to her son, or when a great dragon is awakened, posing a massive threat only a warrior the likes of Beowulf can deal with. This creates a situation in which constant battle for glory, honor, and protection keep taking place. He travels to distant lands to maintain his warrior status, whilst battling the creatures posing problems to him.
This epic opens in the kingdom of Danes, under the ruling of Hrothgar, and Denmark sat peaceful for a duration before this upcoming incident. However, Grendel, a demon descended from Cain, continues to slaughter men in this kingdom for twelve years, effectively taking it over. Beowulf, considered the greatest warrior in all the land, called upon to oppose this beast, voyages across the sea with fourteen of his greatest men. Beowulf goes to Hrothgar and offers to fight Grendel unarmed. They feast in the mead hall built by Hrothgar and then head off to bed.
Grendel’s desire to attack these men pose a very barbaric nature, as believes these men are intrusive, and continues his mental need to slaughter them. Grendel also despises the noise and happiness of the men in the hall. These men have to remain absent from the hall as a whole, just to stay alive. He continues to strike fear inside the men of this village, constantly eager to attack.
Beowulf waits anxiously, not putting much time or effort into preparing for this battle. He sleeps unarmed, once again getting his point across about his intention to fight Grendel with nothing but his bare self. Grendel eventually bursts in...
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...ragon to open ground where a fair fight can take place, suited up with his mail-shirt armor and a helmet, begins to fight the dragon. Beowulf hacks at the sides of the dragon, though not penetrating his thick scales. The dragon bites Beowulf in his neck, not knowing at the time, but injecting venom into his body “he soon discovered that, hit him in his breast, welled with a deadly poison (Lines 2713-2715)”. On a last ditch effort, Beowulf pulls out a dagger and stabs it into the dragon’s flank, killing it.
Beowulf has continuous triumph throughout the epic, being courageous, triumphant, and loyalty to his own strength as well as the faith that his men and Hrothgar have in him. Never backing down from a challenge, this causes his eventual downfall. He will never be forgotten, constantly saving the lives of many as well as avenging the lives of many of his comrades.
He lives in solitude in a cave at the bottom of the lake and is angered by the parties in the mead hall. To further emphasize the archetype, he is said to go on raids only during the nighttime. This shows more of his loneliness because he can not show his face in broad daylight. When his arm is ripped off, Grendel runs away. This shows his cowardice since he runs instead of finishing the fight on the spot. For the Anglo-Saxons, death in battle was the most glorious type of death, Thus Grendel running away would have been mocked by the crowd and re enforced the quality of courage. When the battle itself begins, Beowulf decides to fight Grendel bare handed. His comrades however stay to help him fight. This reveals the theme of loyalty. This theme is prominent during the main battle because Beowulf is shown to be, “Surrounded closely by his powerful thanes” (98). This ties into the theme of loyalty to one’s kin because although the weapons do no damage, Beowulf’s brethren stay by his side to help. This is also used to emphasize the Anglo-Saxon warrior culture, the battles serve as a way to show the listener the deep cultural significance of the kinship of the warriors. They are treated as one group,
Beowulf wants to fight Grendel, a monster wreaking havoc, and is boasting that he is more powerful and courageous.
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.
The story begins with Grendel taking the lives of countless innocent men. It seems to all that there is no one who can face this great monster who lives down in the swamp. The king, Hrothgar, becomes concerned for the health of his country and seeks out help from someone of great strength. In hearing this, Beowulf sees it as an opportunity to increase his popularity and fame. Upon arrival, he is anxious to come face to face with the great beast. In addition, he declares that he will fight Grendel without any weapons to prove who is truly the strongest. After his victory, Beowulf gets his fame and becomes king of another land for fifty years.
The epic Beowulf is one of the oldest poems written in English. According to the Norton Anthology, "the poem was composed more the twelve hundred years ago, in the first half of the eight century. Its author may have been a native of what was Mercia, the Midlands of England today, although the late tenth-century manuscript , which alone preserves the poem, originated in the south in the kingdom of the West Saxons" (Norton 21). Although the poem is of English origin, it speaks of tribes (the Danes and the Geats) that are from the "Danish island of Zealand and southern Sweden respectively" (Norton 22). The main character, Beowulf, demonstrates that he is a warrior who places heroism and bravery over his own well-being and life. Beowulf is a hero and an example of a great warrior. His actions give us a good example of the pagan warrior mentality. The pagan society is a warrior society, in which courage and bravery are extremely prevalent. Beowulf fights against monsters and dragons, and he would rather die in battle, then anywhere else. Beowulf is called upon to help defeat Grendel, who is a monster that has taken over the hall of Heorot. He is greeted with great hospitality. Hrothgar, the King of Denmark, is relived to see Beowulf. There is some skepticism by Unferth, who recalls a fight in which Beowulf lost in Battle. Unferth is wrong, and Beowulf says this great line: "fate often saves an undoomed man when his courage is good." Beowulf defeats Grendel with great ease and the people of the hall are gracious to Beowulf.
Beowulf is a hero that shows honor respect and courage. In lines 710-1007 is where the battle with Grendel happened. Thinking of the destruction that he will get, Grendel bursts into Heorot. Grendel tears the door from its hinges with his hands and quickly becomes a Geatish warrior while Beowulf carefully looks around. When Grendel reaches out to pick Beowulf up, he is surprised to find his arm gripped with a strength than he never knew could even happen. Confused and frightened Grendel doesn’t want to run back to the safety of the swamplands. He tries to escape, but Beowulf wrestles him down to the ground. The crash around the hall, making noise on the walls and smashing the mead-benches. Grendel begins to panic in pain and fear; the sound
This demonstrates his boldness since he was the set out man toward the Geats. By picking the most grounded and boldest individuals, Beowulf mirrors that he himself more likely than not been considerably more valiant with a specific end goal to have the capacity to lead his honorable individuals. Thusly in picking the overcome men he did, not just did he demonstrate the amount more overcome he was, Beowulf additionally demonstrated that he was by a wide margin and epic saint. Beowulf had three huge phases of his life. The real battles changed his life until the end of time. Grendel, Grendel 's mother, and the mythical beast was the hardest adversaries, he ever needed to battle. The New York Times states "Beowulf" was an early love, and a sort of Rosetta Stone for his imaginative work. His investigation of the ballad, which he called "this most noteworthy of the surviving works of old English lovely workmanship," educated his reasoning about myth and dialect. I trust that Beowulf will never be overlooked in light of the fact that regardless it demonstrates the distinction amongst immaturity and senior
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.
Throughout the story, Beowulf fights three battles against frightening monsters. Beowulf, the prince of the Geats, was a well known warrior with extreme strength who makes a promise to protect his people under any circumstance. In the poem, his strength is tested, but he uses it to save many people in battles against: Grendel, Grendel 's mother, and a dragon. Before, during, and after each of these battles Beowulf shows many similarities and differences in his actions.
In the beginning of the novel, Beowulf takes interest in the plight of Hrothgar, King of Denmark, and wants to help him fight Grendel. Grendel is a large monster that has been harassing members in the mead-hall of the Heorot. Beowulf owes Hrothgar a favor, due to the fact that Hrothgar saved his father in years past. Hrothgar is honored to have Beowulf attempt to fight the swamp monster, and decides to hold a feast in his name. When Grendel shows up to the feast, Beowulf illustrates his bravery by fighting Grendel without any armor. When Beowulf wins the battle by ripping Grendel’s arm off, everyone in the mead-hall praises Beowulf for his acts of courage. In this scene, Beowulf proves that he is a hero by fighting off a monster that everyone else was afraid of. This made him look
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.
When a fight breaks out, a few would want to end it in victory and live in peace. Some others love the thrill of war and fight for their honor and glory. These are known as warriors or gods of war because they love to fight for the sake of fighting. Some start wars for their love of battle and others in search of beast to kill and win their prize as the best of the best. One of these warriors fight till their bones are old and ready to give in not giving a care in the world. This warrior is named, Beowulf. In the story called, Beowulf, the tale explains Beowulf’s adventure and battles with characterization, conflict, symbolism, and imagery as he fights beast who terrorize Herot from beginning to end.
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.