Beowulf Hero Quotes

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Many typical heroes from ancient lore had certain traits that defined them as heroes. Such traits can be strength, courage, wits, fearlessness, and so forth. Beowulf is a hero because he contains at least three of the common heroic qualities, which include immense strength, courage, and wits. Beowulf is a hero because he has is abnormally strong like many other conventional heroes, such as Hercules. An example of Beowulf’s strength can be seen in his fight with Gretel when he killed him and tore off his arm. In Beowulf it states, “Soon then saw that shepherd-of-evils that never he met in this middle-world, in the ways of earth, another wight with heavier hand-gripe; at heart he feared, sorrowed in soul, — none the sooner escaped (Beowulf, Chapter 11).” This quote shows that Beowulf is stronger than a demon, which clearly illustrates the abnormal strength that Beowulf has. Other than physical strength Beowulf also shows that he has the mental fortitude to stand up to his opponents. Secondly, Beowulf is a hero because he has courage like many other heroes in ancient lore, such as Perseus when he fought Medusa. Beowulf showed that he had a …show more content…
In the fight with Gretel, Beowulf showed his wits when he decided to rip off Gretel’s arm after knowing that swords would not be effective against him. The scene is described in the phrase, “He was safe, by his spells, from sword of battle, from edge of iron. Yet his end and parting on that same day of this our life woful should be, and his wandering soul far off flit to the fiends’ domain (Beowulf, Chapter 12).” This quote describes how Gretel was basically invincible to anything that could cause any serious damage, which further highlights the ingenuity of Beowulf when he decided to use his bare hands to rip Gretel’s arm off. In that situation I doubt that anybody would think of using their bare hands against a demon when a sword and magic spells could not even hurt