English 4
Aug/12/2012
Beowulf Essay
Beowulf was a brave warrior who followed the warrior’s code throughout the entire story. The warrior’s code was something that Beowulf and other warrior’s followed, this code stated the warrior should never run away he should always stand and fight. During this essay I will talk about how Beowulf not only met the warrior’s code but went far beyond the norm through his three great battles
The first of his three major battles was Grendel, a beast who ventured into Heorot (the Danish mead hall) and swept up all the drunken men for a feast. Hearing of this monster Beowulf set sail from Sweden to Denmark to face Grendel. Before the battle he and his men only had one drink to ensure they had their wits about them. Then later in the night they lay waiting for the beast to appear acting as if they were drunk and unconscious. Grendel burst through the large metal doors. The stench of so many of the dead choking the air, looks around and finds his first target, one of Beowulf’s men. He snatches him up, bites his head off and proceeds to drink him like a juicy-juice before consuming him whole. His next victim wouldn’t be taken so easily though. The foolish Grendel grabs at Beowulf who is waiting patiently for the beast. Beowulf then grabs onto Grendel’s arm and proceeds to tear it clean off at the shoulder. Scared Grendel runs with his tail between his legs back to the hellish pit he calls home where he dies before his own mother.
The second battle was against Grendel’s mother who lived in a cave under a hellish lake. Before he ventured into the lake he told Hrothgar to send his rewards from defeating Grendel back to his home to entice others to follow the warrior’s code and come to fight Grendel’s mother. He then proceeds to dive into the lake and fight sea monsters until Grendel’s mother grabs him and forces him into her cave where tears and bites at him with no prevail because he had the finest armor in all the land. He takes out Hrunting a gift from Unerth and swings at the monster but the sword proved as useful as a butter knife. He manages to get away and finds a giant sword which he uses to decapitate Grendel’s mother and then Grendel’s dead body because he was pissed.
The third battle is against the fire dragon which takes place when Beowulf is seventy. He prepares by getting a stronger shield that won’t burn from the fire dragon’s breath, and then he ventures into the fire dragon’s home turf. During the battle Beowulf is attacked repeatedly by the fire dragon’s breath. All his warriors except for Wiglaf abandoned him. The fire dragon now clutching Beowulf in his teeth narrowly escaped because Wiglaf stayed and attacked the dragon letting Beowulf give the final blow, nut it was to late the poison was killing him.
Throughout the entire story Beowulf followed the warrior’s code of Comitutus from battle with Grendel when he tells the Denmark king to send his chewed up armor back to his homeland to encourage others to follow in his trail to the final battle with the fire dragon where he wouldn’t back down. The only other warrior to follow the code seemed to be Wiglaf while the other men retreated in fear.
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