The Importance of Highly Valued Traits to Anglo-Saxons (Courage, Generosity, Loyalty, and Courtesy) in Beowulf

Very high quality essay, citations from text included. Ancient Anglo-Saxon society was based around four highly valued traits; Courage, Generosity, Loyalty, and Courtesy. It is of these four characteristics in which many epic tales were created, and thus passed down for many years through oral account. All of these attributes compile to form what we consider today as a heroic figure. The poem Beowulf denotes all of these traits through many of the heroic characters …

…help. In order for someone to be considered a heroic figure in Anglo-Saxon times, one had to have four main qualities; Loyalty, Courage, Generosity, and Courtesy. In the epic poem Beowulf, Beowulf illustrates that he is an ideal paradigm for the expression of an epic hero. By being courageous, loyal, generous, and courteous, Beowulf lays the ground not only for the future king of his people, Wiglaf, but also to many epic heroes to come.