Although Beowulf always gets all the attention for being being the good guy, Unferth should have won that praise. Unferth is more noble than Grendel or Beowulf because he displays courage through chasing after Grendel to fight him and save Heorot, he displays honor by challenging Grendel to a fair fight, perseverance through his constant attempts to continue fighting Grendel, and truthfulness through admitting he isn’t strong and he is probably going to lose.
To a Viking, being honorable meant staying true to your beliefs. Unferth does this in the mead hall owing to the fact that he doesn’t want to fight Grendel with Grendel at a massive disadvantage. So, he challenges him to a fair fight, honorably, when he says “For many months, unsightly monster, you’ve murdered men as you pleased in Hrothgar’s hall. Unless you can murder me as you’ve murdered other men, I give you my word, these days are done forever! The king has given me splendid gifts. He will see tonight that his gifts have not gone for nothing! Prepare to fall, foul thing! This one red hour makes you reputation or mine!” (Gardner 83). This was Unferth calling Grendel to battle, to contrast, Grendel started pelting him with apples after he said this, to humiliate Unferth. He even goes as far as to say he “got more pleasure from that apple fight than from any other battle in [his] life.” …show more content…
Unferth demonstrates this because although Grendel didn’t kill him (once again because he wants to humiliate him in front of his Viking brothers), he never stopped trying to fight him. He even went as far as to disguise as “a goat, a dog, [and] a sickly old woman.” (Gardner 90). Sometimes he just “throws himself” (Gardner 90) at Grendel, and other times he just “cunningly sneaks up behind” (Gardner 90) Grendel. This shows his unwillingness to give up until the job (in this case, the job of killing Grendel) is done. And never giving up is what it means to
To a Viking, being honorable meant staying true to your beliefs. Unferth does this in the mead hall owing to the fact that he doesn’t want to fight Grendel with Grendel at a massive disadvantage. So, he challenges him to a fair fight, honorably, when he says “For many months, unsightly monster, you’ve murdered men as you pleased in Hrothgar’s hall. Unless you can murder me as you’ve murdered other men, I give you my word, these days are done forever! The king has given me splendid gifts. He will see tonight that his gifts have not gone for nothing! Prepare to fall, foul thing! This one red hour makes you reputation or mine!” (Gardner 83). This was Unferth calling Grendel to battle, to contrast, Grendel started pelting him with apples after he said this, to humiliate Unferth. He even goes as far as to say he “got more pleasure from that apple fight than from any other battle in [his] life.” …show more content…
Unferth demonstrates this because although Grendel didn’t kill him (once again because he wants to humiliate him in front of his Viking brothers), he never stopped trying to fight him. He even went as far as to disguise as “a goat, a dog, [and] a sickly old woman.” (Gardner 90). Sometimes he just “throws himself” (Gardner 90) at Grendel, and other times he just “cunningly sneaks up behind” (Gardner 90) Grendel. This shows his unwillingness to give up until the job (in this case, the job of killing Grendel) is done. And never giving up is what it means to