Honor in Beowulf and Grendel
... the honor code after Grendel's mother kills Esher, Hrothgar's trusted advisor. Hrothgar's grief seems understandable. Beowulf speaks of it as a weakness— a folly and impotent way of responding to the death of a good friend. Beowulf reminds Hrothgar that seeking vengeance is the real warrior's reaction and the truest sign of love and loyalty. This reflects is a basic value of warrior culture, mainly an Anglo-Saxon approach to life. In Grendel, Grendel thought he had a great characteristic. He thinks killing Beowulf would mean that he is honoring Hrothgar reign. But the case is that Beowulf came to Denmark, he was the one was going to kill Grendel and with that he was the one that was being honorable to the Danes. Grendel almost feels obligated to kill Beowulf, for Herot’s honor would be bruised if Beowulf killed Grendel, seeing that Beowulf is not a Dane. In their society, honor was a value that warriors live, fought, and died by. It was a good thing to do for your reputation. It was also a way of proving yourself to the Chief. Honor wasn’t just a continuous theme in Beowulf and Grendel; it was a way of life. It was greater than all things that matters now a days. For example, Beowulf states, “So fame/Comes to the men who mean to win it/ And cared about nothing else,”(1534-36) this statement explains how much honor really does mean to the warrior customs. Honor was greater than love, death, and even life itself. It transcended death; if you were honorable your name would go throughout generations to come. Your legacy would be immortal. Honor was so crucial to the warrior civilization that so many claimed to have it, but only few actually possessed it. So many claimed to have courage and to be fearless but only Beowulf proved himself worthy of having Honor and living by that honor. Unferth, for example, stated that Beowulf was a boastful loser to Brecca, but in reality Unferth was the one that killed his two brothers, his closest of kin. In that society it meant you cowardly more than anyone else. The way honor is portrayed as a code, is the way people follow this code ‘till the death. They fight, they die, and while doing this they live this code with no question. Now a days people think of honor as a dead virtue, just like chivalry. Honor doesn’t matter anymore. All that matters is who has this much money or...