What Motivates In Beowulf

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In life, there are many motivations to make people do certain things. Money, love, and power are three of the most common motivations for people. According to the Anglo-Saxon code this is not the case for what motivates them. In the Old English epic poem Beowulf, there are many factors that motivate Beowulf to fight the three monsters. The first monster is Grendel who is followed by the second monster which is Grendel's mom. The final monster is a fearsome dragon who is out for revenge. In the epic poem Beowulf, the three things that motivate Beowulf to fight the monsters are duty, glory, and treasure.

Beowulf’s motivation to fight off Grendel in the epic poem Beowulf is that it is his duty. A duty is something that a person must …show more content…

Someone from the Land of the Geats has stolen fro the dragon while it slept. Now, the dragon is out for revenge. Beowulf knows that he must fight the dragon although he is old and not as strong as he once was. As Beowulf is tragically injured as of his soldiers run except for Wiglaf. Together Wiglaf and Beowulf destroy the dragon. As Beowulf dies he gives the kingdom to Wiglaf and tells him to build a lighthouse in his memory. The treasure that Beowulf gets from the dragon can either be physical or emotional. It conveys on page 64 line 867, “Crying that no better king had ever lived, no prince so mild, no man so open to his people, so deserving of praise.” The physical treasure is the treasure and riches of the dragon, while the emotional treasure is helping his people.

There are many different things that can motivate people. There are three major motivators for Beowulf to fight the three monsters in the epic poem Beowulf. Duty is what motivated Beowulf to fight Grendel. Although Beowulf may have not wanted to fight Grendel he knew he had to. Beowulf was motivated by glory to fight against Grendel’s mom. Beowulf had to achieve something that would make his name live on after he had died. Treasure motivated Beowulf to fight against the dragon. Beowulf got both a physical treasure and an emotional treasure from his victory over the

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