What Makes Beowulf A Hero

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“Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy,” this sentence is the central idea behind the story of Beowulf. Beowulf is an epic poem describing the story of how heroic Beowulf saves the Danes from the ferocious monster, Grendel. The poem contains many examples, which prove to the reader why Beowulf is a wonderful leader and a prime example of a hero. Not only does Beowulf do what most heroes do best, save an entire town from a horrible monster, but he also shows a number of heroic qualities seen in many great leaders. All of these things are what makes Beowulf such a special hero compared to others in literary works of this time. Epic poems must contain not only a hero, but also how these hero’s good deeds the hero does relate to the…show more content…
Most people would let all of this power go straight to their head, but Beowulf did a marvelous job of keeping his loyalty to the people and never taking his power too far. He was only there to help the Danes, as that is the reason he had come to their land in the first place. Beowulf’s last endeavor for the Danes happens to result in his death. In his last battle to save the Danes, Beowulf, shows an ultimate act of loyalty to his people. Although in his old age now, Beowulf stepped up to the plate one last time in an attempt to save his people from a furious dragon that someone accidentally disturbed. Beowulf knew in the bottom of his heart that this was going to be his last battle because he had simply gotten too old and far too weak to fight a dragon. During his battle Wiglaf, who was a close friend of Beowulf, came to his rescue and attempted to save Beowulf. Unfortunately Wiglaf could not save Beowulf from the dragon, but he did aid him in killing the wretched beast and possibly saving the entire land from its wrath. This act of pure kindness and loyalty from Wiglaf, helped prove to Beowulf that some of his followers would stand behind him while others would fail

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