Essay On The Hero's Journey

Beowulf essay

In order for one to be a hero they must go through the hero’s journey. The Hero’s Journey is a way that heroic stories paths have followed throughout many years. The journey has many parts but go into two main parts, the ordinary world and the extraordinary world. As the hero goes through the story, they are able to go though the journey many times. The earliest story we have using the Hero’s Journey is Beowulf. In Beowulf, Beowulf goes through the Hero’s Journey three different times. the Hero's Journey we will look at is the battle with Grendel's mother.

The first section of the hero’s journey is in the ordinary world. In Beowulf the ordinary world is when Beowulf is enjoying the glory of defeating Grendel. The next step on the journey is the call to action this is where the hero gets the invitation to go into action. The call to action in Beowulf is when Grendel’s mother comes to take revenge for Grendel’s death. The last step before the extraordinary world is the acceptance. The acceptance from Beowulf was when he chases Grendel’s mother to the swamp.

Now the hero is in the extraordinary world, will they go through a test.

Beowulf enters the extraordinary world by jumping into the swamp. As the hero is in the extraordinary world they will get various help throughout. The hero get help from supernatural aid, allies/helpers, and talisman. Talisman is an object that has magic to help the hero. Beowulf’s help is his strength, the men he brought to help, and the heavy sword. The last two parts of the extraordinary world is the supreme test and the results from the test. The test is either going to make or break the hero. The test that happen in Beowulf was when Grendel’s mom was on top of Beowulf. The results from this test was that Beowulf saw the sword on the was and used it to slice off the head of Grendel’s

mom.

The last part is when the hero comes back to the ordinary world. The way Beowulf come back to ordinary world was when he came out of the lake to see his man standing there waiting on him. The next part of coming back to the ordinary world is the reward. The reward shows what the hero did in the extraordinary world. In Beowulf the rewards he gets are the sword that killed Grendel’s mother, Grendel’s head, and glory. The finally step to the Hero's Journey is the return to normal. Normal for Beowulf is going back to his people and living with his new glory.

The reason that the Hero’s Journey is so important is because it used over many years. We have used this method because it helps keep the story together. Without this the story would be jumping from place to place. There is a possibility that the method would still be here even if we didn’t make it a thing. As Beowulf shows it has been around without actually being a thing.