Beowulf: A Hero's Journey Through Attitude

The story Beowulf portrays many different elements such as heroism, attitudes, and ceremonies as well as the very different culture. Beowulf represents the hero in the story just like in present day today how there are police, firefighters and doctors. These three things did the same as beowulf has been doing which would be protect the innocent and defeat the villains. Beowulf's attitude in the story is filled with dignity and courage and seems a lot like an example of a soldier or warrior which in this case would be described as a ̈hero¨.

His attitude has always been to help the people in need and he is more than willing to volunteer. All beowulf wants to be is a hero who helps protect everyone and it seems to me like he enjoys killing all these monsters.

The story expresses the culture and its values of the anglo-saxons which is where everything originated from and since the heroes often reflects their culture this is what beowulf is doing.

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Even though to the modern day none of this is real or relevant it still expresses a very important set of cultural values that people should still follow for example dignity and respect. Beowulf's seen his culture as something to take pride in and to protect said in the book ¨i have heard moreover that the monster scorns in his reckless way to use weapons; therefore, to heighten Hygelac's fame and gladden his heart, I hereby renounce sword and the shelter of the broad shield, the heavy war-board: hand to hand is how it will be, a life-and-death fight with the fiend.

¨ (433-440) even though grendel was a very worthy opponent he still had no chance of defeating beowulf.

Another thing that came with beowulf and his and his people would be the ceremonies that came along with life, death, celebrations, and marriage. Some of the ceremonies aren't what you think they would be in today's modern world. For example, in the beginning it talks about shield sheafson burial and how they put him on a ship and put all of there treasures on him and set him off in the ocean. Hildeburh is also another very important ceremony in this burial it said “The glutton element flamed and consumed the dead of both sides.” they basically cremated their bodies which would be a more modern term.as far as for celebrations this is what the king did for beowulf ”Then Halfdane's son presented Beowulf with a gold standard as a victory gift, an embroidered banner; also breast-mail and a helmet; and a sword carried high, that was both precious object and token of honour.” (1019-1023)

As far as beowulf's attitude he takes his culture and his people very seriously and will do whatever it takes to protect them, like when he fought Grendel and Grendel's mother came to avenge her son and he ended up fighting with her. Both of these battles so far were all very different and he took a different approach every battle so i think he does that on purpose so they don't know his every move for example if he did fight the same way every single time they would know what to prepare for. Also in the book it says “Beowulf got ready, donned his war-gear, indifferent to death.”(1441-1442) him saying “indifferent to death” means that he has come to the realization that death is going to eventually come and he really doesn't care and the reason for that I think is because in his mind if he were to die during a battle he went out fighting for his people.

Overall these elements that beowulf portrays throughout the story so far make him the hero that the story pictures him to be. His pride and dignity are both featured in all the elements such as attitude, heroism, ceremonies and culture. Beowulf is the actual definition of a hero and these 4 elements with a little explanation will do more than make you believe it.