Beowulf Epic Hero's Journey Research Paper

Epic heroes are the ones who stand out, who are immensely extraordinary in all that they accomplish in the actions they take. An epic hero often takes on battles and challenges, and defeats them for the good of people. Most times they only appear in epic poems but, they do always take part in some sort of battle. Beowulf, is in fact, a true epic hero. He puts himself into danger and accepts any challenge even if the situation involves some sort of monster. Everything that Beowulf has done falls in line with the steps of the Hero’s Journey.
The first step in any hero’s journey is the call to adventure. Beowulf realizes that Grendel is an awful monster who is ruining people and everything around him. He comes to the fact that now he needs to go and defeat Grendel and take care of him once and for all. But, the people around him (Hygelac) hesitates which leads to the second step, the refusal to the call. He himself does not ignore the “call,” Hygelac does, he doesn’t …show more content…
Beowulf and his men crossover the ocean into Geatland to find where Grendel is and defeat him. All of him and his men were very eager to finally be able to defeat the monster troubling everyone. As they approach Grendel’s land more and more they enter step five, the belly of the whale. This is the official crossover from Beowulf’s world to Grendel’s world. The entering of worlds begins when Grendel attacks Heorot. Beowulf then goes into step six, the road of trials. This is where all the battles take place. Beowulf fights Grendel’s mother, Grendel, and the dragon. In step seven, the meeting of the Goddess, Beowulf does meet her when he completes the second battle of defeating Grendel’s mother. Step eight is crucial, the recognizing of the father. Beowulf comes back from winning the battle, and the King surprisingly wants to adopt him. These steps are just an example on how Beowulf molds the hero’s