He died during the fight, so he fought by saving his kingdom. “The old man’s mouth was silent, spoke no more, had said as much as it could; he would sleep in the fire soon. His soul left his flesh, flew to glory (Raffel, 110 2820-2828)”. He fought the all the monster for the king and the people of the kingdom. He died, but he took the dragon with him.
It was very important for Beowulf to have his reputation because he was a warrior, a warrior would to anything to have the honor. Beowulf earned most of his honor by killing dangerous monsters. Also he showed pride by denying a position as being a king, the king saw the respected he had. But long after Beowulf became king, and for 50 years there are peace. “They walked quickly. The young king knew they were back, Beowulf and his handful of brave men, come home safely home; he sat, now waiting to see them, to greet his battle-comrades when they arrived at his court. They came. And when Beowulf had bowed to his lord, and standing in front of the throne had solemnly spoken loyal words (Raffel, 84 1968- 1977)”.
In conclusion Beowulf’s Reputation didn’t just come because he was king for a long, long time and had peace with other kingdoms for 50 years straight because kingdoms feared him. It was because he killed and saved the kingdom 3 times from extremely deadly monsters and also fought in victorious