Hero In Beowulf

To the average person, a hero would be defined as a strong, brave, courageous fighter who isn’t scared of anything and is very confident. And yes, that is a ‘hero’. But though the book Grendel, by John Gardner, we know there are many different forms of heroes. The question is, who exactly is the ‘hero’ in Grendel? There were many interesting characters we’ve gotten to know while reading this novel. From the Dragon, to Beowulf, even to the main character, Grendel, they were all unique and had something to put onto the table. The classic answer to this question of who the hero is would be Beowulf. Throughout the book Grendel attacks the human’s mead hall over, and over, and over again, mercilessly killing a hand full of soldiers every time. So, Beowulf was a mighty man who traveled across the sea to the mead hall that Grendel was harassing. The next time Grendel came to destroy the mead hall, Beowulf was ready and killed Grendel. The night before Grendel fought Beowulf, Beowulf made it clear how strong he was to the …show more content…
Although he played a short but very vital part in the book, the Dragon is not the hero. Basically, the Dragon is a character that Grendel goes to see in chapter 5. The Dragon claimed he could see the past and the future, and while talking with grendel on pages 60 to 74 the dragon goes into depth about the ‘order of the universe’. Like on page 66, “His eye opened wider, his body brightened from end to end. ‘You tell me what’s true?’ he said.” The Dragon is just a cranky old person who is just spewing gibberish. In this talk between the Dragon and Grendel, the Dragon also claims, “You stimulate them! You make them think and scheme” (72). While yes, this is true to an extent, you could also see this as the Dragon just giving an excuse for Grendel’s violence towards the humans. The Dragon’s obligation in this book was to basically justify Grendel’s want and greed for violence against the