Examples Of Glory In Beowulf

Griffin Turner

Mr. Arnold

English 12 - A

9 September 2015

Glory in Beowulf

As a young kid Nate had imagined he was fighting feared monsters, many times more than once. He would defeat these monsters and parade around like he owned the world. Nate was imagining that he had much glory from killing these monsters, like the way that Beowulf had real glory from defeating his monsters. Every time that Beowulf killed a monster he gained more glory and treasure. As the leader of the Geats he had to be fearless to show his glory and prove his ability as a leader. In reality there are two kinds of glory, real earned glory and glory made by telling false stories or making things seem better than they really were.

False glory is very easy

And only one of them Remained, stood there, miserable, remembering, As a good man must, what kinship should mean. His name was Wiglaf, he was Wexstan’s son And a good soldier; his family had been Swedish, Once. Watching Beowulf, he could see How his king was suffering, burning. Remembering Everything his lord and cousin had given him, Armor and gold and the great estates Wexstan’s family enjoyed, Wiglaf ’s Mind was made up; he raised his yellow Shield and drew his sword. . . . (691-705)

Wiglaf was the only person that had stayed to help his king and by doing this while all the other soldiers ran away it magnified his glory infinitely more than before. It was magnified so much that Beowulf made him king because of his bravery and loyalty to him. The theme of glory in Beowulf is shown many times and is shown in two different ways. The first was self glory from when Beowulf killed Grendel and freed the Danes from his terrible nightly feasts on their bodies. The second was when Wiglaf was the only one who stood up and fought alongside his king when he was needed. The second probably gave the more glory in the end because Wiglaf became the king after that fight. This is where glory was in the story of