Beowulf's Downfall

The poem, Beowulf, opens up talking about a small town ruled by King Hrothgar who is being troubled by a demon named Grendel. King Hrothgar throws parties every night for the Danish people around the same time Grendel tries to sleep, which makes Grendel mad. In return, Grendel comes into the Hall at night killing and eating majority of the Danish people. Being the fact the King Hrothgar is too old; there is nothing he can do to protect his people. A warrior by the name of Beowulf hears about the trouble King Hrothgar has been having and decides to return the favor to the King, because he helped out his father. Not knowing that Beowulf is at the Hall, waiting on him to come, Grendel shows up ready to kill and eat some more of the Danish people.

Beowulf stops him just in time, they began to fight, and Beowulf cuts Grendel’s arm off.

With a missing arm, Grendel flees the scene, running under water to his home, where he eventually dies. Upset that her son is killed, Grendel’s mom decides to go after Beowulf, and he ends up killing her as well by cutting her head off. After completing his mission, Beowulf returns to his home, where they quickly make him the King of Geatland. Beowulf ruled for fifty years, protecting his people Geatland. Thinking that his fighting days are over Beowulf has to defeat a dragon who comes to Geatland, destroying everything. Although Beowulf defeats the monster he becomes mortally wounded, and shortly dying from his injuries. Beowulf has since been remembered to be a heroic and honorable king who portrayed three important morals: bravery, loyalty, and honesty of the Danish people in a positive

light.
The moral that stood out to most of the Danish people in Beowulf was his bravery. Before fighting Grendel, Beowulf removed his helmet from his head and armor from his body and decided to face Grendel using his hands as his weapon. He wanted the fight to be done the right and fair way and talks about how using weapons and armor would make the fight too easy. After the fight he even brags saying, “When it comes to fighting, I count myself as dangerous any day as Grendel” (677-678). This reckless and majestic action alone demonstrated him as a brave and courageous knight. Even fifty years later when Beowulf is put up to fight the dragon, he still showed the same qualities. The dragon spits fire out of his mouth to attack Beowulf and the only loyal knight, Wiglaf, he stills decides not to use weapons.
Loyalty was something that Beowulf displayed throughout the whole poem. His whole reason for helping King Hrothgar was because Hrothgar helped out Beowulf’s dad. Cleaning up his family’s debt, Beowulf was ecstatic to show his loyalty to the King. When Beowulf returns back to his home, he continues showing his loyalty to his uncle and king Hygelac. Beowulf even putt his life in danger even when he felt like the king wasn’t making the best decisions. After the death of the king Beowulf has a chance to become king, but is too loyal than ambitious to go against the kin’s wishes. The Queen offered Beowulf the throne after the king dies, but Beowulf refuses. Beowulf thought that the title should be passed down to the king’s son and decided to serve the young king faithfully, jus as he did his father. Beowulf waits until after the young king die to become king. He then ruled with privilege and obedience to his city and his people up until his death.