Similarities Between Beowulf And Heaney

A heroic character doesn’t necessarily have to be good in shape. In Beowulf: A New Telling, written by Robert Nye, Beowulf’s appears to be a weak boy, but he has characteristics of a hero while in Beowulf written by Seamus Heaney, Beowulf is described as the strongest man ever and yet, he has characteristics of a villain. Although Heaney’s Beowulf shows a great quantity of strength, Nye’s Beowulf shows wisdom and modesty and thus, he plays the role of a hero much better than Heaney’s Beowulf.

While strength is found in both Nye’s Beowulf and Heaney’s Beowulf, wisdom only appears to be in Nye’s Beowulf and it helped him figure out solutions to challenges. Differently from Nye’s Beowulf, who is powerful and wise, Heaney’s Beowulf is a

According to Beowulf in Beowulf by Heaney, “He has no idea of the arts of war, of shield or sword-play, although he does possess a wild strength. No weapons, therefore, for either this night: unarmed he shall face me if face me he dares.” (Heaney, 47). Beowulf put all his trust in his strength and his equipments such as his sword and helmet because he believes weapons had advantages over Grendel, the fiend that fights bare handed. It is clear that Beowulf is over self-esteem with his strength instead of being a wise man because he does not question whether Grendel is resistant to swords. In contrast to Heaney’s Beowulf, in Nye’s

Nye’s Beowulf is a humble hero who prefers himself to be the same as others while Heaney’s Beowulf calls himself better than anyone. This is clear in Heaney’s Beowulf after the scene of the Firedrake, the fire dragon, attacks the Geats for a slave taking his jews and angered Beowulf. In response to his people going to fight the Firedrake for revenge, Beowulf said, “Men at arms, remain here on the barrow, safe in your armour, to see which one of us is better in the end at bearing wounds in a deadly fray. This fight is not yours, nor is it up to any man except me to measure his strength against the monster or to prove his worth.” (Heaney, 171). Clearly, even though Beowulf became old, he still boast about his strength, which in this case, he says no man is better than him. This idea can put him into danger because the old Beowulf would go fight the dragon alone and due to aging he would not have the power he used to have. As a result of fighting alone, Beowulf was in danger and only Wiglaf came to save him. On the other hand, the humble Beowulf in Nye’s version realizes that he no longer possess the power he once did. This is mainly because Beowulf didn’t think he was any better than any old man due to his humble personality and an old person would not be stronger than when they were young. Therefore, Beowulf requested help from