How Does Beowulf Relate To Each Other

How do the three battles in Beowulf even relate to each other? In Beowulf translated by Burton Raffel, the three battles just appear to all be simple obstacles in the form of enemies that pose an immediate threat. But when looking at things deeper, these enemies are not only just external obstacles but they are internal ones that change who Beowulf is throughout his life. Beowulf begins this poem as a cocky and arrogant warrior trying to fight for selfish reasons. At the end of the poem beowulf sacrifices his life for his people. In Beowulf, the three battles relate to each other by providing a personal transformation for Beowulf.

Beowulf is mainly battling Grendel to prove his strength. In the beginning of the poem Beowulf claims that he owes Hrothgar a favor because he helped his father in the past. But at the feast when

Beowulf is challenged by Unferth who claims he lost in a swimming battle, Beowulf goes on to brag about his feats and why he lost the battle. “All of that race from the earth. I swam in the blackness of the night, hunting monsters Out of the oceans, and killing them one by one” (Raffel 155-158) Instead of doing the mature thing and just sticking to killing Grendel for his father, Beowulf decides to brag about how he killed sea monsters while swimming in the ocean. At this moment, the battle went changed into something for Beowulf to prove his strength. In other words, Beowulf only fights the first battle for selfish reasons and isn’t really worried about protecting anything except for his reputation. Which is why after the battle he uses Grendel’s arm as some sort of trophy to prove his heroism and courage. Different from later in the poem when Beowulf fights to protect others and not really to prove himself.

Beowulf battles with Grendel’s mom for both selfish and selfless reasons. In the second battle Beowulf starts to fight for other things besides his honor. In this battle he does want to kill Grendel’s mom because she took the arm of Grendel (his trophy) but he also wants to kill her because she killed Hrothgar’s closest friend. “She’d taken Hrothgar’s closest friend, the man he most loved on all of earth; She’d killed a glorious soldier, cut A noble life short, No Geat could have stopped her:” (Raffel 414-417) So in this Battle Beowulf does show some sort of internal progress since he isn’t just killing Grendel’s mom for selfish reasons, but also because of others(Hrothgar). This contrast from Beowulf’s battle with Grendel because he is showing some moral progress by not just killing for his honor and pride.

Beowulf battles the dragon to protect his people.

In the last battle Beowulf fights the dragon because he is terrorizing his people. Instead of Beowulf being a young and brash warrior who wants to prove he is the best, he simply just wants to protect his people. Even when he is saying how he is going to use a sword, armor, and shield because of the enemy he is facing he shows maturity. “But his breath will be burning Hot, poison will pour from his tongue. I feel no shame, with shield and sword and armor against this monster” (Raffel 616-619) Young Beowulf wouldn’t have been wise enough to recognize that he has to use a sword and armor. Young Beowulf probably would have only done it to gain fame and not do it just to protect people. In his battle with Grendel, Beowulf wanted to get his arm to show off and prove his courage. In his battle with Grendel’s mother, Beowulf kills her for both selfish and selfless reasons. This battle contrast to both because Beowulf did it for the sole reason of protecting his people. The fact that Beowulf sacrifices his life just to protect others shows the transformation of Beowulf as a warrior, king, and

person.

In conclusion, the three battles of Beowulf show his transformation from a young, selfish, and honor seeking warrior, to a wise and selfless king. Now of course Beowulf still was somewhat boastful but the difference was he knew he was already proven and respected. He really had nothing else to gain from this battle, he just wanted to simply protect his people. That is how these three battles relate to each other, they all are internal obstacles that further Beowulf as a person and human being.