Beowulf Research Paper

A traditional epic is a long narrative poem with a hero that has a high social status among the people they are with. The plots usually involve supernatural events, a struggle between good and evil and journeys to distant lands. Beowulf is an old epic heroic poem with an unknown author. It is considered to be the first piece of written English literature. The Anglo-Saxon time period was applied to this story as its time period and the character Beowulf proves to be the embodiment of the traits of a good warrior. According to the Anglo-Saxons, a warrior has to have courage, strength beyond any normal soldier and to be loyal to a fault. Beowulf sets out on his journey to fame and glory with his men that will later pass on the story of how a human defeated the evil from the world. Beowulf demonstrates the traits of a traditional epic through heroism, supernatural happenings, and the life or death struggle of good and evil. The epic tells of three fights that Beowulf has encountered in his lifetime. The first one was with Grendel who wasn’t attacking Beowulf himself but rather Hrothgar’s men. Beowulf takes it upon himself to stop the

Beowulf and his men came to Herot to kill Grendel so that Hrothgar’s followers may live in peace. When Grendel came upon the first Geat, it was described how he ate them. “Grendel snatched at the first Geat/He came to, ripped him apart, cut/His body to bits with powerful jaws,” (Raffel 298-300). Even though Grendel came from the bottom of the swamp, the description of his killings gave proof that he was monster since a regular person can’t rip a body to pieces with their mouth. Many times in Beowulf, there are events that take place where it can’t be replicated in reality thus taking it up to a supernatural affair. Even though there are those qualities that make it unbelievable it brings in the traits that make an