Beowulf vs Sir Gawain
...on, with an unsuspected attack or challenge during a happy time. At the beginning, both Sir Gawain and Beowulf exhibit their bravery and courage in an unbelievable way. Sir Gawain volunteers to trade blows with the Green Knight to protect his king and serve him well. The Green Knight is huge and Gawain was the only one of all the Knights of the Round Table to accept the challenge. When Beowulf hears of the attacks by Grendel’s mother on some friends of his, he wastes no time getting there to help out in the problem. Beowulf shows his great bravery and his willingness to put his life on the line without thinking twice about it. Both of the main characters show the courage and bravery early in the story and exhibit one of the most important values of their similar cultures. These acts of bravery and courage when pain is evident are called stoicism. Stoicism is another major value of both the Anglo Saxons and the medieval people. The loyalty of a person to his Lord of King could be the most important thing to both the medieval people and the Anglo Saxons. Loyalty is shown in both books but not just bay the main character. In Beowulf, Wiglaf the young solider of Beowulf’s shows his loyalty to Beowulf by staying behind to fend off the dragon and save Beowulf. None of the other men tried to help Beowulf but Wiglaf showed his loyalty and did. Beowulf also shows loyalty throughout the story. When he hears of the troubles with his father’s friends he shows his loyalty to them and to his father by going to help. When he goes to fight Grendel’s mother he says to give all the treasure of his back to Higlaf, the king of the Deats, and Beowulf’s lord. This unwavering loyalty to Higlaf is just one more example of the story reflecting the major values of the culture. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Gawain exhibits a great amount of loyalty as well. At the beginning when he stands up to accept the challenge he is being loyal to Arthur. He doesn’t want his king to be hurt so he puts himself in the position. Gawain shows his loyalty and commitment to God when he doesn’t give in to the temptation of Bercilek’s wife. Even though she is extremely beautiful he doesn’t make love to her because he had a previous commitment to God and thought it better to honor that. During the time that these works were composed people had a strong belief that everything that happened to them was predetermined by God. In other words they thought it was their destiny to be a great warrior of to live a simple life. They thought God had supreme control over everything they did and the choices they made. Si...