Beowulf

Heroes of Today and Yesterday The epic poem Beowulf describes the most heroic man of the Anglo-Saxon times. The hero, Beowulf, is a virtually invincible person with all the extraordinary traits required of a hero. He is able to use his super-human physical strength and courage to rescue his people from the wretched monsters, Grendel, and Grendel’s mother. He encounters hideous monsters and the most ferocious of beasts but he never fears the threat …

…be the villain or an innocent bystander. Beowulf had no problem sacrificing one of his greatest men to Grendel ”Grendel snatched at the first Geat...Snapping life shut”(262-68), while a modern hero would have tried to save everyone, including the villain. Today’s heroes are more forgiving, and allow the villain to pay his debts, and be done. Instead of, like Beowulf, killing the enemy and having it be done that way. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**