Throughout the history of mankind there have been many books and stories written which preview a hero doing dangerous, epic deeds for the good of others. The same is true in the story of Beowulf, titled Beowulf. Beowulf was written by the Anglo Saxons by an unknown author. In the book Beowulf, Beowulf follows the role of the archetypal hero and fulfills it by going on epic quests to help, and save kingdoms. This is shown whenever Beowulf sets out to fight Grendel, an awful beast who is terrorizing Hrothgar’s kingdom.
Beowulf explained how Unferth was wrong and claimed that Unferth should not make such accusations when he killed his own family. Beowulf overcame his shadow, and later on Unferth becomes a
In the epic poem Beowulf, the protagonist, Beowulf, faces three “monsters” at different times in his life. The poem begins with Grendel, a monster who attacks only in the dark of night, tormenting the kingdom of Hrothgar. The last two sections of the epic detail the conquering by Beowulf of Grendel’s mother and the dragon. The battle between the monsters and Beowulf represent the theme of good versus evil in the poem, as well as the fusion of pagan and Christian ideals in the changing Germanic society. Grendel’s mother’s actions directly juxtapose the role of a woman in this time period, and the greediness of the dragon with his treasure contrasts with the virtues of what would be considered a good king.
When Beowulf begins, the life of Shield Sheafson is summarized with his arrival as an orphan and his eventual dominion over the Danes as a great Danish king. Several generations pass until King Hrothgar is in control of the Danes, a mighty king with the fortunes of war favoring him. Eventually, Hrothgar decided to build a vast mead-hall known as Heorot, which was used to house King Hrothgar’s warriors where he would treat them to a large feast. He also used Heorot to house his throne room.
Beowulf is the main hero in the poem, and he travels to the land of the Danes to help King Hrothgar get rid of the monster Grendel. After having slain Grendel, there is still a huge crisis present. Grendel’s mother comes to the Hall of Heorot to avenge the death of her kinsmen by killing Aeschere. Aeschere is one of Hrothgar’s most trusted advisors, and his loss bear’s heavy on Hrothgar’s heart. In the culture displayed in Beowulf, the bonds of friendship and kinsmanship are very important to the characters.
Despite Unferth’s challenge and jealousy towards Beowulf, his actions help Beowulf admit his flaws amidst his greatness. Beowulf first encounters Unferth, one of Hrothgar’s courtiers, when he goes to the Danes to help King Hrothgar fight Grendel.
While reading Beowulf, one might think that Wealhtheow’s role in Beowulf is insignificant, or that she is merely an extension of Hrothgar, the Danish king. But after studying her character, the queen of the Danes clearly holds a far more powerful role than at a first glance. Her speeches are brief, but full of meaning and authority, and her astute counsel is often relied upon by Hrothgar. While she plays only a small role in Beowulf, Wealhtheow demonstrates that women played an integral part in medieval culture. Wealhtheow’s wisdom and respect is apparent in her role as the cup-bearer.
First of all, despite the fact that men are highly emphasized in Beowulf, women are highly absent in the story. Even within the first couple of sentences, the style and wording create an atmosphere in which
Beowulf reflects the traits that conformed to their masculine norms . While sorrowful Hrothgar laments the deaths caused by Grendel’s mother, Beowulf urges him to “not grieve” and to “avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning” (1384-5). However, earlier the epic alluded to a story about a princess named Hildeburh who after losing her husband, child, and brother, was “waylaid by grief” (1081). There is a definite contrast between how men and women are expected to confront loss- according to the patriarchal values, men avenge and women weep. Therefore, Beowulf is even more of an ideal masculine hero because he adheres the the Anglo-Saxon gender roles.
In the poem,”The wife's lament”, by Ann Stanford, and the excerpt of Beowulf, by an anonymous author both have distinct characters. For example, the wife in the poem states that,”I should find the man well matched to me hard for fortune mournful of mind hiding his mood thinking of murder”.(line 18-20) In this quote the other tries to describe how hard it is to deal with the wife and that the future husband should hide his murderous thoughts if he has any. However, in the Beowulf excerpt, Beowulf claims,”I slew nine sea-beasts with my sword. I have never heard of a fiercer fought by night under heaven’s vault nor of a man who endured more on the ocean streams.
These themes are mostly found in the weapons, armor, and treasure in the story, which not only serve to further key plot lines, but are also heavily laden with symbolism. One of the first examples of the not-so-subtle symbolism in Beowulf we see is when Beowulf prepares for his fight against Grendel. He is well aware of how many men Grendel has killed and just how dangerous this monster is, yet Beowulf refuses to use any armor or weapons when he fights the beast. Later, in the second act of the story, Beowulf seeks out and faces off against Grendel’s mother. This time, Beowulf is fully equipped with chainmail armor and Unferth’s family sword, Hrunting.
The ancient Anglo-Saxon poem “Beowulf” was written by an unknown poet sometime around 1000 AD, and the movie that was based off of that, “The 13th Warrior”, was produced by McTiernan, Crichton, and Ned Dowd, with Andrew G. Vajna and Ethan Dubrow back in 1999. Due to the fact that “The 13th Warrior” is a loose retelling of “Beowulf” one can expect to see some similarities between two works, however, there is one key difference that separates “Beowulf” from “The 13th Warrior”: the role of the 13 warriors within the two works. In the movie “The 13th Warrior”,the producers decided to portray each conflict as a group conflict, not just as Beowulf’s alone, whereas in the poem “Beowulf”, the group is almost completely ignored and Beowulf alone is seen as the sole-protagonist up until his death.
In the book, Beowulf actually strangled Grendel’s Mother, and he did it with his bare hands. In the movie, though, he went to Grendel’s Mother with the task of killing her, but instead, he fell in love with her. Another example of how there is much contrast was when in the movie, Hrothgar was actually the father of Grendel, while in the book, Cain, was the father of Grendel. A third difference was when in the book, Beowulf decided to go back to his beloved home in the land of the Geats after he had killed the hideous mother of Grendel, but in the movie, instead he stayed in the kingdom of Hrothgar, in the land of the Danes and became their king. One final example of the discrepancies between the two plots was when in the book, Beowulf goes against the mystical fire-breathing dragon who was just another beast that Beowulf had to kill.
The speeches and boasts were the same, with Beowulf telling how great he is and King Hrothgar telling how hard, yet important, it is to be a warrior. Another similarity is the fight between Grendel and Beowulf. In the movie, Beowulf tore Grendel’s arm off, and fought him by hand, not by sword or shield—same goes for the book. In conclusion, both the poem had their similarities and differences.
n both the excerpt about Unferth from Beowulf and the poem “The Wife’s Lament”, the themes of betrayal and anger are shown within the stories; however, they are expressed differently. To begin with, Unferth shows his anger towards Beowulf by attempting to embarrass him in front of all the men, including King Hrothgar. For example, Unferth states “No one, neither friend nor foe, could keep you from your sad journey, when you swam out to sea… Breca outslayed you, he was stronger” (427-435). Unferth is trying to say that Beowulf is weak and can’t compete with anyone or anything.
