Role Of Fate In Beowulf

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Some people may confuse fate and coincidence. Fate meaning, you have a chosen path, now follow it, and a coincidence is set events that happen without an idea. The idea of fate plays a major role in decisions many characters make about their lives. Characters like Beowulf, Macbeth, and Sir Gawain, all had paths set for them. This path was a trail of fate, in which whatever is set to happen in life will happen. In the epic poem Beowulf, the hero’s path comes to him as a calling from a man named Hrothgar. “Twelve winters of grief for Hrothgar, King of the Danes, sorrow heaped at his door by hell-forged hands, his misery leaped the seas, was told and sung in all men’s ears” (Beowulf 64). This is Beowulf’s realization of what …show more content…
A man who was at a feast during New Year’s Eve at King Arthur’s castle. Although most of the time fate is provided to an individual, but Sir Gawain chose his fate. The Green Knight rode in on his horse and challenged King Arthur, in which Sir Gawain accepted the challenge instead. “I beseech you, Sire, let this game be mine” (Sir Gawain, 123) The challenge is to give The Green Knight a hit from his axe and the opponent would receive a hit in return in a year. Sir Gawain expects only to kill The Green Knight, and not to receive a hit later on. Little did he know, The Green Knight takes the hit, rises, grabs his own head, and rides off. This left Sir Gawain in shock, because now he knows, he will be taking a fatal hit from the axe in one year. “Look that you go, Sir Gawain, as good as you word, And seek till you find me, as loyally, my friend, As you’ve sworn in this hall to do, in the hearing of the knights” (The Green Knight, 179). Sir Gawain’s fate is looking like he is going to die in a year. Whilst Sir Gawain ventures out to find The Green Knight he comes upon a castle in which the lord and lady invite him to stay. Sir Gawain stays only a few knight in which the lord’s lady attempts to seduce him. Sir Gawain refuses but only accepts kisses. The last day, the lady gives him a sash, which can prevent death. Finally, he comes upon the Green Chapel, where The Green Knight waited. “He raises that ax up lightly and flashes it down, And that blinding bit bites in at the knights bare neck, But hard as he hammered it down, it hurt him no more than to nick the nape of his neck” (The Green Knight, 302). Sir Gawain kept his word, but was so afraid of his fate he cheated the lord and kept the
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