An Epic Hero is Someone

An Epic Hero is someone who is larger than life and shows the values of their society. Beowulf is an image of an epic hero because an epic hero performs heroic deeds. He fights and kills Grendel and his mother and was a big reason that the dragon is dead. No one was willing to take on the challenge of taking on these beasts, except for Beowulf. All of his enemies had beyond human powers and took an extraordinary hero with super-human abilities to defeat them.

Beowulf showed his qualities by volunteering to fight Grendel, Grendel's mother, and the dragon, when no one else wanted to take that chance on losing their life. Beowulf was nearly defeated in all of these battles but because of his character he got through each of the battles victorious, with a little help at the end.

Beowulf is an unmatched warrior in battle. Although he is smaller and mostly human, he seems to be outnumbered in size and strength but always finds that last win or die effort in order to win his fights. The quote The battle was over, and Beowulf had been granted new glory (340-341, 43), expresses that Beowulf had won the battle that he was predicted to lose, and with his epic hero qualities, had been granted glory by defeating an enemy who seemed far greater than him, but beat the odds and won.

The quote The Danes had been served as he'd serve them; Beowulf, a prince of the Geats, had killed Grendel, ended the grief, the sorrow, the suffering forced on Hrothgar's helpless people by a bloodthirsty fiend (350-355, 43)expresses how Beowulf is the outstanding warrior that everyone trusts to fight for them. He helped to end the grief and sorrow just by killing one person and ultimately declared himself as the number one person in Herot. The quote Then Beowulf rose, still brave, still strong, and with his shield at his side, and a mail shirt on his breast, strode calmly, confidently, toward the tower, under the rocky cliffs: no coward could have walked there! reveals that beowulf was nearing the end of his life, but still took on a challenge almost impossible, even at his old age, to stay strong, courageous, and loyal to Herot and to himself.

Beowulf has been known to battle supernatural foes or enemies. In the quote Out from the marsh, from the foot of misty hills and bogs, bearing God's hatred, Grendel came. (233-235, 40) exhibits that one of Beowulf's enemies comes from bogs and swamps and is so awful that he has earned the hatred of God. The story of Grendel had to start somewhere, and that's where Grendel's mother shows up. The quote And all at once the greedy she-wolf who'd ruled those waters for half a hundred years discovered him, saw that a creature from above had come to explore the bottom of her wet world explains how awful Grendel's mother was and where he gets it from, but it also explains that another one of Beowulf's enemies is a disgusting weird looking supernatural and non-human creature, who knows a lot about killing and being feared widely around the world.

The last enemy Beowulf faces is the dragon. In the quote Quickly, the dragon came at him, encouraged as Beowulf fell back; its breath flared, and he suffered, wrapped around in swirling flames. (687-691, 54) explains how the dragon is larger and stronger than Beowulf by throwing him to the ground. Beowulf is already superhuman but the dragon is supernatural and superior.

Beowulf is superhuman which also means he must have supernatural abilities. The quote His mind was flooded with fear-but nothing could take his talons and himself from that tight hard grip displays the strength of Beowulf's enemies but because of his abilities he is able to eventually escape the grip and win. (276-279, 41) Beowulf also was able to withstand things that regular humans could not. In the quote And there the water's heat could not hurt him, nor anything in the lake attack him through the buildings high-arching roof. (470-472, 48) displays that he can dive into the fiery lake and not be hurt by the water as everyone else would, and then he is able to go and carry out his mission of eventually killing Grendel and his mother. In Then he saw, hanging on the wall, a heavy sword, hammered by giants, strong and blessed with their magic, the best of all weapons but so massive that no ordinary man could lift its carved and decorated length. displays how Beowulf has superhuman strength because he is able to lift a sword that was made by giants, and he is able to lift the sword to battle Grendel' mother with it.

Beowulf shows epic hero qualities because he seems to be a descendent of God disguised as a man as he is able to fight without competition (until he gets old) and is able to beat the most feared and supernatural warriors in the world.

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