Beowulf as a heroic figure in Anglo-Saxon literature

Beowulf is one of the oldest known written poems in Old English, dating from the 8th to the 11th century. Its actual authorship is unknown, hence the 300-year estimate of publication, and was probably, like the Homeric epics, the result of centuries of oral tradition. It is epic in nature, over 3,000 lines, and also has several complex plot and character developments, with both and literary tradition that likely dates back to the tribal cultures of Northern Europe during the Imperial Roman Empire (Tolkien 127). In the poem, Beowulf, a Geat clanenemies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geat

hero, battles three of his tribe: Grendel, who has been attacking the resident warriors of a mead hall called Heorot in Denmark; Grendel's mother; and an unnamed dragon. Beowulf's final confrontation after he has become King of Geatland (modern Sweden). In this battle, he is fatally wounded, giving the final and ultimate sacrifice of his life, to his clan, his country, and his people. To honor him, he is buried in a mound of earth set with stones called a tumulus, a way to ensure that his epic nature will forever be remembered (Hiett xi-xiii).

The emphasis on Beowulf, again, like the Iliad and Odyssey, is on heroic tendencies rather than royal bloodlines. Most cultures have a Beowulf -- like story, just as most cultures have a flood and creation story. This is likely because each society has similar needs to explain and explore both the natural and supernatural worlds. Set into this structure is also an ethical/moral tome, biblical in many ways, and advice of keeping true to task and the faith of goodness:

Beloved Beowulf best of warriors,

Avoid such evil and seek the good,

The heavenly wisdom. Beware of pride!

Now for a time you shall feel the fullness

And know the glory of strength, but soon

Sickness or sword shall strip you of might,

Or clutch of fire, or clasp of flood, or flight of arrow, or bite of blade,

Or relentless age; or the light of the eye

Shall darken and dim, and death on a sudden,

O lordly ruler, shall lay you low. (1758-1768).

Poems like Beowulf, and the Iliad and Odyssey, especially as oral tradition, frame the journey of the hero through trials and tribulations to, eventually success. This is an archetype that appears again and again throughout history, more as a way to extrapolate and emphasize the best that humans can offer as opposed to being born into a tradition of royalty. The saving of society, though, is usually met with grave personal sacrifice, sometimes of wealth, more often of loved ones, or, in the case of Beowulf, the ultimate sacrifice -- giving up one's own life in the service of society (Raffel intro). So, too, fate is interspersed with a very simple concept of armor -- which corresponds to linage, reputation, and the essentials of what makes an individual unique, certainly not just that they were born of royal blood, but that somewhere and somehow they reached down to the very depths of their soul and found the courage, stamina and something "heroic" in which mere mortals can only hope for:

Beowulf donned his armor for battle,

Heeded not danger; the hand-braided byrny,

Broad of shoulder and richly bedecked,