Beowulf: What Makes Someone A Hero

What Really Makes Someone a Hero There are many qualities that can make define a person as a hero, such as: bravery, strength, speed, selflessness, courage, honor, loyalty, and an overall sense of strong morals. By this definition, there are many heroes in the world but most go without any recognition. When the word hero is used, the common first thought is about comic book heroes like Superman, Batman, or Iron Man. The word hero is more associated with fictional characters then people in real life. What it means to be a here also changes between reality and fiction. A person in real life has to be smart, brave, selfless and needs to be doing some sort of charity work to get any recognition while in fiction they just need to be faster than a speeding bullet to gain millions of fans and become famous.

His personal character had nothing to do with what made him a hero. In the story, Beowulf defeated a monster that had been plaguing Herot Hall which made him a local hero. When he also defeated that monsters mother, his fame grew. As Beowulf grew older, he became Kind of the Geats, and was considered a great ruler. The kingdom had money and nobody was willing to attack from the fear they had of Beowulf. His hero status was wrought from being strong, and none of his followers were bothered by the fact that he was so hubris. This eventually lead to his death when he went to battle a dragon alone in his old age even when he knew age and fate were against him. During this time period, people did believe heavily in wyrd, which means dying in battle is an ominous fate you cannot avoid, so this was really not uncommon during this time, but it was still foolish. The poem about Beowulf just shows that heroes in fiction are based more off of physical feats throughout the history of