beowulf
...es of that day took no shame in boasting and bragging of their many successes. Throughout this epic, Beowulf constantly reminds us of his heroism by exulting his every stellar victory. He begins with an interlude of his past successes by telling the great Hrothgar how “The days of [his] youth had been filled with glory.” To prove his ostentatious claim, Beowulf tells Hrothgar how he effortlessly defeated any adversary that stepped his way. His greatest claim is his tale of how he “drove five great giants into chains.” Beowulf not only believes that he is powerful and great but, that he ,alone, is the sole hero in this saga. This is a far cry from the “team player” heroes of today. Beowulf’s most portentous line comes about when he says “I, alone and with the help of my men, may purge all evil from this hall.” An anglo-saxon hero truly believed that your destiny was in the hands of god and god only. Their heroes threw the coined phrase that “destiny was in the hands of the beholder” into a completely different realm and took their conviction of fate up to a higher level. Beowulf was governed by this law of heroism. Every time he stepped to a challenge he conceived that “god must decide who will be given to deaths cold grip.” Beowulf thought that in each battle the gods were the ultimate referees and when his contenders had been beaten they had only been given the “fate they had earned.” It seems that the outcome in Anglo-Saxon time was always already decided and that fate may ultimately “unwind as it must.” It seems that generally the only trait that a hero of today shares with and Anglo hero is super human strength. We thrive on believing that Mark McGwire’s ability goes above and beyond our own and that true intelligence is a trait that many of us are invisible to but, the Anglo hero took super human strength a notch up. An Anglo hero was not just special but, “super human”. They could easily blow down a house with a breath or bend iron with a fingernail. An anglo-saxon hero was not just someone special but someone amazing who took a normal mans task and not only met it, but ...