In the epic poem Beowulf, Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, is used as a character to magnify the heroism main character, Beowulf, by comparison. In physical strength, achievements, and loyalty of their people, Beowulf is seen as superior based on how the two characters contrast each other in the same leadership position.
The most prominent and initial way we are told in the poem of how Beowulf contrasts to Hrothgar is his physical attributes. In the swimming contest, for example, how “when the going was heavy in those high waves, [Beowulf] was the strongest swimmer of all." (529-534) This demonstrates immediately to the reader close to the beginning of the poem how Beowulf is somewhat inhuman or has fantastic muscular ability. The fact that Hrothgar was unable to fend off or kill Grendel for killing his people and Beowulf was able to do so only with his bare hands further highlights his immense power, as Hrothgar is initially described as fading in age and strength.
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When originally fighting Grendel, Beowulf chooses “hand-to-hand is how it will be, a life-and-death fight with the fiend." (433-440) This is done without prior knowledge that Grendel is immune to weapons, so in reality Beowulf thinks he can take Grendel on barehanded, which he eventually goes on to do. In contrast, Hrothgar does not even attempt to go after Grendel on his own because of the risk of more people dying to Grendel. Even after Beowulf kills Grendel, he later tgoes on to kill Grendel’s mother as well, which clearly Hrothgar does not seem to have the ability to do, because Grendel’s mother is even stronger than Grendel, and Hrothgar was not able to kill Grendel in the first