Natalie Henderson
Jenny Perkins
ENL2000
25 January 2016
Beowulf: The Significance of Boast
When first encountering the boastfulness and exaggerated stories of Beowulf I formed the expectation that he was narcissist and bit unrealistic. Beowulf repeatedly bragged and boasted of his feats, he spoke very highly of himself to other characters throughout the poem. For example, when Beowulf arrived to Heorot he speaks to the herald named Wulfgar about his destiny to kill the monster of the Danes. Once he is introduced to King Hrothgar, Beowulf begins boasting about his successful defeats of other monsters to build himself up before speaking of Grendel, the monster of the Danes. It is this part in the poem that somewhat revealed the importance of his boastfulness in this poem. Other heroic tales have helped us form a set of characteristics that tend to describes heroes, one of those characteristics being humble. Humbleness is not only a heroic trait but that of a good person—which is why Beowulf’s bragging tends to throw the audience off. Beowulf builds himself up with his words. By this I mean he boasts about his previous ventures and his success to come because this helps the Danes and King Hrothgar gain confidence in him concerning the defeat of Grendel. Beowulf’s confidence in this defeat of the monster helps boost the confidence of his dependents. It also shows how powerful words can be, what you say you must fulfill, your words must be actions, etc.
Beowulf has established