Beowulf And Harry Potter Comparison

Even though the Harry Potter series and Beowulf were written hundreds of years apart, they both are exceedingly comparable to each other with minimal differences. When a person first reads the novel and poem separately, they are not going to see the connections at first. Archetypes, or motifs, are things that appear in many works of literature that are not connected in any way. There are several archetypes that connect Beowulf and Harry Potter.
Archetypal characters are types of characters that fit a sort of mold. Characters that appear in Harry Potter and Beowulf include the hero, scapegoat, and loner/outcast. An archetypal hero is “a figure, larger than life, whose search for self-identity and/or self-fulfillment results in his own destruction”

Images include numbers, gardens, and yin/yang. It can be argued numbers have a distinguished significance in Beowulf and Harry Potter. In Beowulf, the numbers fifty, thirty, twelve, and three are extremely important. Beowulf was king for fifty years. The dragon was fifty feet long. Beowulf had the strength of thirty men in each arm. Grendel attacked for twelve years. There were three major battles during the epic poem. In Harry Potter, the number seven has more significance than any other number. There are seven books in the series. There are seven Weasley children. Seven players in a Quidditch team. Seven Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers. Seven Horcruxes. Plus, many other sevens portrayed throughout the

The call happens when the hero is called upon to his quest. The call happens within Beowulf when he hears stories about Grendel’s attacks. Harry Potter is called upon by others to defeat Voldemort. Although he decides on his own to act upon the call, others must call him to save the wizarding world. The decision is when the hero decides to go on his quest. Both Beowulf and Harry Potter had to decide for themselves whether or not they wanted to fight for their