How Did Beowulf Fight

In the epic, Beowulf fights 3 different monsters. Each of these monsters symbolizes something different, attacks for different reasons, and gives Beowulf a different result from the fight. Each battle also progressively gets tougher for Beowulf starting from Grendel, then going to Grendel’s mother and then the dragon. Beowulf has a different mindset going into each battle and prepares for each in a different way. The first monster Beowulf encounters is Grendel, a ferocious demon-like creature who attacks the people of Heorot because he is evil, jealous, and hates the sound of happiness. He storms into the mead hall of Heorot at night and slaughters 30 men. Beowulf get summons by Hrothgar the king of Heorot to fight off Grendel because Hrothgar has heard great things about him. Beowulf agrees because wants to help the people of Heorot but mostly because he wants to gain glory and fame for himself. He intends to fight the beast unarmed with his 14 men and is very confident as stated in line 677 “When it comes to fighting, I count myself as dangerous any day …show more content…
This time, Beowulf needs to fight back for more personal reasons, the monster is attacking his village this time, not anyone else’s. To prepare for the battle, Beowulf does not do much. He simply fights the dragon unarmed and he is too proud to assemble an army. This leads to his downfall. The dragon inflicts a serious wound on Beowulf, but he does so right before Beowulf’s friend helps him kill the dragon. This fight symbolizes fate. Beowulf’s hubris leads to his downfall. The first battle Beowulf defeats the monster with the least amount of struggle, and they each progressively get harder from there. Beowulf’s confidence also increases throughout each fight, leading up to the final one where he goes in to fight the toughest monster of all of them, unarmed, and without people to help back him