Betrayal In Beowulf

Throughout human history, monarchies from any culture were always concerned about two things, foreign power and internal destruction. Either of these two factors can easily destroy a nation, but the preventions of these things never work well in a long period of time. In the poem Beowulf, Beowulf has faced the threats from barbarous creatures and also the betrayal of his own noblemen. From his fights with all three creatures, Grendel, Grendel’s mother and the Dragon, the support that Beowulf gets from his people plays an important role. One can be knowledgeable about the threats from the outside, but the internal fissure of the kingdom is very hard to interpret. It is reasonable to believe that the disloyalty from the noblemen is crueler than the threats from monsters. The loyalty of Beowulf’s warriors is more meaningful in the fight than …show more content…
Because a goblet is stolen from the dragon, it decides to punish the Geats by burning their houses which includes the great hall where Beowulf lives in. Beowulf this time asks a group of noblemen of his to stay outside of the dragon cave to back him up, while he is fighting for the goodness of his people and his dignity. During the fight, Beowulf is unable to attack the dragon effectively due to his age, and he has been driven into the corner a corner. Once the dragon breathes the fire, the “hand-picked troop broke ranks and ran for their lives to the safety of the wood” (Beowulf 175). It is so irony that the troop picked by Beowulf himself abandons their king when he needs the most help in his entire life. Because of their betrayal, Beowulf dies in the barrow of the dragon (Beowulf 183). The dragon is the kind of danger that is predictable, but disloyalty is going to come while one is still unconscious about it, and that makes betrayal crueler than monsters. Only one time his troop abandons him, and he dies. Disloyalty is the cause of Beowulf’s