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Warrior vs. King//Haylee Lynd

    In the first two acts(if you will) of Beowulf, Beowulf appears to represent the "Christian hero." He fights in the name of God, gives praise to God for his wins, and says that it is up to God to determine the winner of the fight. He fights for the Danes and is given the opportunity to rule their kingdom as a result of it(further in the story after King Hrothgar's death) but chooses not to take it, rather he assists the more rightful heir to the throne in ruling. In the first two acts of the story, it is okay that Beowulf fight, despite the risk it puts on his life, because he is not leading a kingdom. His death would, arguably, not leave an entire kingdom in ruin devoid of leadership. In Act III of Beowulf, the case is different.
    The threat within the third act of Beowulf is a dragon who has terrorized the Geats. They "bore the brunt of his[the dragon's] brutal assaults and virulent hate" (2317-2319). The threat posed by the dragon bring into question what makes good king. Is Beowulf a good king for killing the dragon which is assaulting his people or is he wrong for risking his life and, thus, risking the loss of the nation's king?  
    Beowulf acts courageously in going to avenge his people of the dragon. However, he is responsible for his people, so risking his own life might be putting the Geats in more danger than the dragon is. Beowulf acts too greatly out of pride in his fight against the dragon. He has the power to raise an army against the beast, yet chooses not to do so because of the fights he has been able to win in the past. While his pride is founded, it is simply unwise(plus he's aged). Beowulf was a righteous warrior but an unwise king. He trust in the Lord in the first two acts and behaves in a way appropriate to his status. He acts as a Christian hero. However, in the last act, he fails to do so, which leads to his death.

P.S. I commented on Hailey Morgan's and Caroline Tucker's posts.

Comments

  1. Emma Kate PattersonMarch 1, 2021 at 8:23 PM

    I like that you pointed out that Beowulf says that it is up to God to determine the winner of the fight. I find this interesting because as we have discussed in class Beowulf did not live in a Christian centered society and I think it is cool that the Christian Religion was brought into a book set in a society that was not Christian centered.

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  2. Jamie PetersMarch 1, 2021 at 10:10 PM

    I point back to my blog post when I say that Beowulf was exercising the tried and true method. It is not unlike Moses hitting the rock in Numbers 20:10-12, performing the same action he did in Exodus 17. The only difference in these two instances are the instructions from God. Because of Moses' disobedience in hitting the rock the second time, he was not allowed to enter the Promised Land, much like Beowulf's continuous belief in himself led to his downfall.

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  3. Logan TurnerMarch 2, 2021 at 9:11 AM

    In all honesty, I kind of interpreted this as more of a sacrifice of a sort. I believe he was 80 years old or so when he fought the dragon. That's old for us, and practically unheard of back then. In my medieval lit class, we talked about how kings very rarely retire from being king, they usually die or get killed. My head canon is that Beowulf knew his time was nearing its end, and chose to sacrifice himself since he felt like he was going to die soon anyway

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