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Beowulf As A Hero Essay

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Beowulf has been a lasting character. His heroic acts have been the subject of poems and books for more than a millennium. However, with this progression, this character - who started off as an ideal hero of medieval time - came to reflect what a hero is in today's society.

Heroes in collected works reflect the morals of a society. When Beowulf's story was initially recounted as an oral tradition among northern European tribes, its intention was to exemplify what one must achieve to become an ideal member of their society.In it, Beowulf could commit no sin. He was resilient, clever, and extremely valiant. If need be, he'd come to blows with his adversaries- frequently monsters - with his bare hands. He took great risks, yet always came out triumphant. Also, he gave the impression that he had a sense of where he belonged in his society, and what his destiny in life was.

Later, after Christianity was introduced to the region, the poem was chronicled by monks. Some attributes of the legend were altered. This time, Beowulf came to epitomize the ideal Christian warrior who safeguarded the people from the agents of Satan and hell by using his God-given might and guile. Its intent was to convert its audience to Christianity. Beowulf was already a beloved hero of people like the Danes and Anglo-Saxons. His recruitment by Christianity helped, in …show more content…

Instead of adorning the pages of an epic poem, he was a 3-d character in a motion picture, literally and figuratively. However, this wasn't the same beloved Beowulf. He was disconsolate, sullied, and constantly battling demons within himself rather than on the forefront. The movie version of Beowulf is a huge digression from the original. In it, Beowulf (like the original) was a desirable hero for hire. However, early in the film he is shown to have a weakness: women, more specifically, supernatural women. This was a weakness never pointed out in the poetic version of the

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