Beowulf is the hero in this story. That is clear when he is introduced and hears about the beast wreaking havoc on the people, and when he actually slays Grendel and then must fight Grendel's mother. But what I want to talk about is how we know he is a hero not solely based on his actions. We can see what type of character he is based on the way is written to carry himself and to speak.
I've learned that in Greek literature, a hero is not always the perfect protagonist who does the right thing and saves the day, but rather someone who has shown great strength and accomplishment, or who had power or favour from the gods. Beowulf is similar and yet very different. While Beowulf had shown great strength and accomplishment, he also might be seen as arrogant, vain, or pompous. That is how we know he was a hero. He was written with such boastful demeanour, not as vanity, but because that is customary heroic behaviour.
When I read Beowulf in high school, we learned that in Anglo-Saxon literature, somewhat like the Greeks, authors like to paint their heroes in a way that can come across as arrogance to show the reader that this person will be the hero in the story.
I commented on Racheal Gregson and Brooke Hutcheson's posts.
You make a great point. The heroes in Greek culture were shown as the the overarching, powerful leaders, but they were not very humble or very approachable. Those heroes are completely different than we think of nowadays like Marvel.
ReplyDeleteI like that you pointed out that hero’s in Greek text are made to look arrogant. I did not know this so I assumed that Beowulf was an arrogant person.
ReplyDeleteThat makes a lot of sense when you think about. We see satirical movies about heroes being pompous and air-headed but those are just jests at what heroes were seen as during those time periods. Many times, they had to act brave and courageous because they had many common people looking to them as a fountain of strength and hope. This became increasingly more prevalent during the knight-era.
ReplyDeleteI do find it funny how, for many years, heroes were presented as being a bit more arrogant and pompous than we would see as appropriate today. These ancient heroes thrived within the morally gray area as not all of their actions were very heroic.
ReplyDeleteToday, many of the heroes that we root for are humble underdogs. These newer characters possess sound morals and down-to-earth attributes that we ourselves can better relate to.
Agreed! I've always thought Beowulf to be a bit too arrogant for my liking, but I can't really blame him for how he was written. Like you said, the criteria for heroes was a bit different back then, and over the years, people's preferences have changed as they always do. Confidence, not internal morality/integrity, was the key back then.
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