Lineage In Beowulf

In the epic poem Beowulf, we can observe many themes and symbols of importance throughout the plot. While every theme is at least somewhat significant to this story, the lineage of a character is clearly one of the major topics exemplified numerous times in the epic. The author made lineage critical to Beowulf by showing the many different ways that lineage affected the plot of the story, and how impactful a Beowulf’s lineage was to . In the modern world a person can be almost anyone they want to be, regardless of who their parents or grandparents were. Meanwhile, in Beowulf the opposite could not be truer. Lineage was a huge part of who a person was in the middle ages, and being born with a father or grandfather with a name of low fame or social status would make it difficult for the person to

By making this one of the first things Beowulf spoke in the poem, the author showed how important it was that others know whom your family was and what great feat (if any) that they accomplished. Lineage was also the main reason why our protagonist was even drawn to travel to the Danes in the first place. The poem reads, “Hrethel the Geat gave Ecgtheow his daughter in marriage. This man is their son, here to follow up an old friendship.” (Beowulf 373-376). Without Beowulf’s lineage to Ecgtheow, there might not be a story to tell since Beowulf would have never traveled to the Danes. Another example of the importance of lineage in the epic would be the relationship between Wiglaf and Beowulf. The story talks of Wiglaf before Beowulf battles the dragon and says, “That hand-picked troop broke ranks and ran for their lives to the safety of the wood. But within one heart sorrow welled up: in a man of worth the claims of kinship cannot