Strategies, Weapons And Battles In The Epic Of Beowulf

The epic of Beowulf consists of three battle where, the main character, Beowulf himself, battles his greatest foes. enemies. Beowulf has different strategies, weapons and reasons for fighting each one of his foes, along with a specific motivation when fighting the maleficent monsters. Beowulf will fight Grendel, Grendel 's mother, and the dragon. Grendel and his mother are giants feared by all but Beowulf, the Dragon is the protector of treasure and will stop at nothing to keep it safe. Beowulf is not only fighting for himself, he is fighting for his hierarchy and for his people. The first major battle in Beowulf is against the giant troll, Grendel. The fight ensues when Grendel attacks the mead hall, kills the kinsmen, and then eats them, …show more content…
He decides to fight the dragon as a payment to the king of Danes. In this battle, Beowulf is in full armor and is equipped with a powerful sword. “I would carry neither weapon, nor sword against the serpent, if I knew how I could make good my boast with such an enemy, as I did in the day of Grendel,” says beowulf as he prefers to have no weapons with him so he can boast his strength. The dragon is outraged before the battle because a there has stolen a golden goblet from the Dragon, making nothing easier for Beowulf. In this battle, Beowulf shows no superhuman feats by sticking to the armour and weapons he had brought with him. This shows the aging and oncoming weakness. With greedy motives, Beowulf tries to steal the Dragon 's treasure and is bitten by the Dragon, poisoning Beowulf and ultimately killing him. The Dragon is also killed in the duel when Beowulf located a small flaw in the pattern of scales on the evil serpent, using this to his advantage and stabbing the …show more content…
When fighting Grendel, Beowulf shows the most strength and heroism than any other battle he partakes in, this is because he fought him without any armour or weapons, while in the other two battles, either a weapon or armour are needed because he is incapable of defeating the foe without assistance. Another big difference among the three battles is the motivation behind them. Beowulf fought grendel and had motivation from the heinous crimes he had committed to the revellers in the mead hall, in the other two duels, his motivation is not near as empowering, for he is either trying to defend his reputation or repaying the king of Danes. A third and most significant difference between the battle where the armour and weapons used. In the first battle, no armour or weapon is needed, Beowulf is powerful enough to defeat the foe without assistance. The battles against Grendel’s Mother and the Dragon, he is unable to defeat the foes without help and in his final battle, Beowulf is in full armour and comes ready to fight with a powerful