Who Is Beowulf An Epic Hero

In the book Beowulf the character Beowulf has all the characteristics of an epic hero. Ted Ed says on What Makes a Hero? That “The stages of the hero are The call to adventure, Assistance, Departure, Trial, Approach, Crisis, treasure, result, return, new life, resolution, and status quo”(Ted Ed). To be a hero they go through the stages and if they don’t they are not counted as much of a hero to people’s eyes. A hero must go through all stages like Beowulf. To start becoming a hero you must start somewhere and that is the call to adventure. This all starts when Beowulf hears about a monster that is terrorizing the land of Heorot. King Hygelac finds Beowulf and fourteen other men to go and protect. “He moved about/ like a leader he was, enlisting

When Beowulf is fighting the dragon: “The captain of evil discovered himself/ in a handgrip harder than anything/he had ever encountered in any man/on the face of the earth” (Heaney 749-751). With the fight with Grendel’s mother it is described like: “warming to this fight/with Grendel’s mother, gripped her shoulder/and laid about him in a battle frenzy” (Heaney 1537-1539). The fight with the dragon is described as: “the king of Geats/raised his hand and struck hard/at the enameled scales, but scarcely cut through” (Heaney 2575-2577). The approach is when the Geats throw a big feast for Beowulf for defeating Grendel in his honor. But they cannot get too comfortable because they learn there is a new enemy which is the mother. So due to that Beowulf is not done helping out, and same with the dragon appearing. The crisis Beowulf faces is when he faces death two times. When Beowulf was fighting Grendel and his mother he overcomes death especially when he fights with Grendel’s mom because she could have easily killed him but he was too powerful. Also the same thing with defeating the dragon. The treasure Beowulf receives is when King Hrothgar gives Beowulf his finest horses and a massive treasure for helping them. He also got the treasure from the dragon he was battling. The result from all of the fighting Beowulf has done he is now appreciated by the citizens and is a hero to the people’s