Beowulf Leadership Essay

Words: 1041
Pages: 5

The ability to lead successfully is a characteristic many strive to obtain. Everyone can learn to qualities of a great leader, however there a select few that can truly lead. History is scattered with glorious leaders: Alexander the Great, Winston Churchill, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, to name a few. There are certain attributes that all great leaders share; selflessness, strength, confidence, and loyalty. In Seamus Heaney’s translation of the epic poem, Beowulf, the hero of the poem-Beowulf-fights three separate monsters, each more difficult than the last. Throughout his journey, the audience realizes that Beowulf exemplifies each of the elements of a prominent leader.
Selflessness is a person’s ability to put their needs aside in order to
…show more content…
For a person to have confidence, they must “believe in themselves and have the skills to back it” (Fox). It is important to note that while Beowulf appears to be cocky in many parts of the poem, he is not because he has the skills and techniques to defeat the monsters. Throughout the poem, Beowulf exemplifies confidence on many occasions. Case in point, when Beowulf is preparing to fight Grendel, he says “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” (lines 436-440). To be able to fight an awful monster, without any weapons, takes a deal of confidence, not to mention courage. Another example of Beowulf’s confidence is when he decides to battle the dragon. Before the battle, Beowulf sensed that his death was near and it is obvious to the audience that this realization was disturbing him (lines 2419-2420). While this example may demonstrate courage more so than confidence, the fact that Beowulf trusted his fighting skills showed that he had the confidence to face the dragon- even when the odds were stacked against him. If Beowulf did not believe in himself throughout the poem, nobody else would have