Greedy Dragon In Beowulf

The Villainy of the Greedy Dragon

Villains in classical epics often serve the purpose to enhance the hero’s reputation and add to their grandeur. In Beowulf, Beowulf faces two villains as a young warrior: Grendel and his mother, who are both descendants of cain and outcasts of God. Fifty years later, as a king he goes on to face his final villain, the dragon. In a fairly matched battle, Beowulf manages to slay the dragon but also gets killed in the process. The dragon is characterized as greedy, impulsive and wrathful. He enhances the novel by developing themes of mortality, pride, and loyalty.

The poet describes the dragon’s villainous behavior as sinful and impetuous. The dragon guards a treasure hoard which is robbed by an escaping slave,

angering the dragon: “His pent-up fury / At the loss of the vessel made him long to hit back / And lash out in flames. Then, to his delight, / The day waned and he could wait no longer” (2304-2307). The dragon blames all humans for the theft and takes revenge through impulsive killing and burning. Given the backstory of dragons, their main function is as purely greedy creatures: “He is driven to hunt out / Hoards under ground, to guard heathen gold” (2275-2276). The epic describes how the dragon’s main function is that of greed, solely focused on finding a treasure that is not his and protecting it with vengeance and wrath. The dragon exemplifies greed and wrath, and the dragon acts as a foil to Beowulf and brings out his excessive pride, which are three of the cardinal sins. Similar to Grendel and his mother, the dragon was born into his life as an outcast of God. This reinforces the Christian elements of the poem that exhibit humans as God’s chosen race. Thus the dragon’s villainy is characterized as being vengeful of the human race and going against the will of God.
The dragon enhances the novel through acting as a foil to Beowulf and influencing the theme that pride will end in demise and loyalty will be rewarded.

The dragon burns Beowulf’s palace, causing Beowulf to consider taking revenge: “Yet the prince of the rings was too proud / To line up with a large army / Against the sky-plague. He had scant regard / For the dragon as a threat, no dread at all / Of its courage or strength, for he had kept going / Often in the past” (2345-2350). Beowulf disregards the advice Hrothgar gave to him when he was young, and he overestimates his strength based on his feats of the past. Beowulf goes into battle without an army and is killed due to his ignorance. This speaks to the theme that pride will end in one’s demise. Another theme, the theme of loyalty, is established through Wiglaf’s devotion to Beowulf. Wiglaf stays and fights alongside Beowulf after his men flee. As Beowulf is dying, he unclasps “the collar of gold from his neck and gave it / To the young thane, telling him to use / It and the war shirt and the gilded helmet well” (2810-2812). This is symbolic of Beowulf passing the kingdom to someone worthy, because the golden collar was given to him by Hrothgar for his loyalty to that kingdom. Wiglaf contributes to Beowulf’s reputation and fame through acting as someone who is worthy to uphold the Geats and their

status.
The dragon in Beowulf is a reflection on Beowulf and mankind's mortality.

Beowulf, a mortal human, is described with “God-sent strength” (2184) and as being one of the strongest men alive. While the dragon is a monster and a representation of greed and wrath, he still manages to kill Beowulf. As Beowulf is dying, Wiglaf tries to keep him alive through splashing water on him, yet it is to no avail: “Much as he wanted to, there was no way / He could preserve his lord’s life on earth / Or alter in the least the Almighty’s will. / What God judged right would rule what happened / To every man, as it does to this day” (2855-2859). It was Beowulf’s fate to die fighting the dragon. Although some might minimize Beowulf’s achievements due to the fact that they were decided by God, there was no divine intervention or help from God, making Beowulf’s accomplishments completely of his own free will. The dragon too met its fate by dying at the hands of Beowulf. When Beowulf’s men come back to see Beowulf’s body, they see the dead dragon lying next to him: The serpent on the ground, gruesome and vile, / Lying facing him. The fire-dragon / Was scare some burnt, scorched all colors. / From head to tail, his entire length / Was fifty feet. He had shimmered forth / On the night air once, then winged back / Down to his den; but death owned him now, / He would never enter his earth-gallery again ” (3039-3027). The poet emphasizes the beauty of the dragon throughout the passage, describing how

it shimmered and flew. This separates the dragon in part from the other monsters of the epic, whom the poet described as humanoid monsters. The dragon dies side by side with Beowulf, symbolizing the equality of the battle. The dragon was a worthy last warrior for Beowulf to fight. Beowulf and the Dragon’s deaths reflect how all things no matter great or evil will eventually die.
The dragon’s fight with Beowulf leads the conclusion of the poem. The dragon contributes to the ending of the epic through themes of mortality, with both the warriors of the fight dying. Although the dragon and Beowulf meet their fatal ends, Hrothgar told Beowulf after he had slain Grendel that “You have made yourself immortal / By your glorious action” (953-954). The dragon allows the epic to conclude with Beowulf dying after fighting a worthy foe and being immortalized through an amazing reputation.