The Idea Of A Hero In Beowulf Essay

The idea of a hero during Anglo-Saxon times was simple. A hero had to do one thing to be a hero; he would have to fight the evil monster and win. After this, he would be a hero. Today, this is not the case. There are many different forms of evil that a person can fight to be considered a hero. This “evil” today includes many more things than in the previous Anglo-Saxon times. In the epic Beowulf by Seamus Heaney, he depicts Beowulf as a hero based on a different set of ideals that a hero can have today. Beowulf was portrayed as a hero because of the actions he performed. He battled dangerous monsters to defend his people. This was a defining characteristic of a hero during Anglo-Saxon times. After his battle with Grendel, "Beowulf's …show more content…
To be a hero, evil still must be conquered. But today, this evil can be a wide range of things. In Beowulf, it was just the monster at hand, such as Grendel or the dragon. During Anglo-Saxon times, it was “pleasant for people there, until finally one, a fiend out of hell, began to work his evil in the world” (Heaney 99-101). The creature-like imagery of the phrase “fiend out of hell” elicits the feeling that the “evil” in their world was considered the monster at hand, and nothing else. The evil of that time only consisted of the monsters and creatures that were beaten physically, and that was it. Today, “physical courage is not the only component of heroism. Those who exhibit moral courage are also heroes” (Clark). Evil is now also considered social and ethical issues as well. While the modern definition of evil still includes monstrous creatures and other terrible humans, the term has a larger definition today. The evil of the present-day can be things such as health and social issues. For example, the person who finds the cure to a disease will be looked at as a hero. While things such as war and other types of fighting are still viewed as evil. the term evil has grown to define a larger set of