Beowulf Part One

Beowulf Part One
Find Glory and thy name is immortal



The epic poem Beowulf exemplifies the ideals of the Anglo-Saxon heroic code. Loyalty to one's Lord, physical and moral courage, an acute sense of Fate, and gaining immortality through brave acts and having your name repeated forever. It is these ideals that drive Beowulf to travel to the homeland of the Danes (Jutland) in search of glory.
When Beowulf hears of the havoc the monster Grendel is wreaking on Hrothgar's soldiers as they sleep in their master's mead hall, he sees it as an opportunity to achieve immortality. He has attempted other feats of bravery in the past, but not to great success. On page forty-four to forty-five, Beowulf boasts about how he competed with a fellow Geat to swim from Geat-Land to Jute-Land and, even though he failed to reach Jute-land first, he cleared the seas of the monsters that inhabited it. This act of bravery will not quite make his name travel down through the ages, but when he kills Grendel and later Grendel's dam his ledgened on earth is secure. Beowulf returns triumphant to his homeland: where he is crowned king.
By winning himself fame in defeating monsters, Beowulf has proven his bravery and moral courage and is crowned king and his immortality is secure.