Hero In Beowulf

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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 people in the mead hall. He had said, “‘But it was granted to me that I might kill him with my sword, which same I did. Then others attacked. They pressed me hard. I killed them…”’ (162). This illustrates how Beowulf is shown as the stereotypical ‘hero’. But, Beowulf is not the hero. Beowulf is not the hero because he didn’t do anything that astonishing. Sure, he killed Grendel at the end of the book, but Beowulf wasn’t in the book until the very last 2 chapters. Also, why should we idolize murderers? “I understood at last the look in his eyes. He was insane” (162). This was Grendel’s thoughts as he watched Beowulf. This goes to show Beowulf isn’t some mighty hero, he is just a bloodthirsty crazy man who is drawn to anywhere there is fighting. Beowulf didn’t come to save Hrothgar. Beowulf came to have a challenging fight, and to show off to the Danes how strong he was. A common thought through this whole question is Grendel. He is the protagonist, the book is named after him, obviously he is the hero, right? Well, not so fast. While yes, Grendel was the main character and there is a possibility he could be considered the hero, there is also a lot of evidence that isn’t on his side. Since the book was written with Grendel’s thoughts and actions, we got to see how Grendel perceived the world. Grendel was greedy for prey. He couldn’t help himself from raiding the mead hall. Sure, Grendel was somewhat human-like because he could understand their language and looked a little bit like them. But he loved the taste of humans. Grendel was not heroic. He just went through life doing what he wanted, and the only real battle he fought he lost. Although Grendel had a large role in the book, he is not the hero. Along with Grendel, the Dragon is an important character. …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 humans. The real hero of this novel is the Shaper. There are a few reasons that the Shaper was the true hero. Even though Grendel despised the Shaper, exclaiming how the Shaper was “‘Ridiculous”’ (47), the Shaper showed Grendel

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