Beowulf and King Arthur are both portrayed as heroes and someone to look up to. Some similarities are both of them are very brave. They are also both very compelling leaders in their own respective ways. Even with their similarities they have differences in their heroic qualities such as Beowulf not really being a human in the sense that he can do superhuman things and King Arthur being a normal human being. It's also interesting to note that King Arthur was more of a hero for his character whereas Beowulf was more of a hero in the sense that he slays monsters and dragons.
The first similarity between Beowulf and King Arthur are that they are both very brave. Beowulf traveled all the way to Denmark after hearing the plight their people were going through. He didn’t even know anything other than what he was told. As if that wasn’t brave Beowulf went on to never back down from any monster whether it be Grendel, Grendel's mother, or the dragon he didn’t ever run from a fight. While King Arthur didn’t do go around killing all these monsters he was brave in other aspects. Such as in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". When the green knight charged in the hall and issued a challenge when no one else volunteered he did. While he ended up not having to it
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The first example of this was that King Arthur was not an ordinary person but he had no special ability over anyone else. The reason his story was made into a story is because he was such a great leader, and the story of how he came to be leader gave people hope and something to strive for. Everyone knows the story of King Arthur and the knights of the round table and it just goes to show you even after all these years King Arthur's story is still affecting modern life. It can be assumed that King Arthur was a great leader and very compelling one because he had so many loyal fighters with him at the last
unlike Lancelot, The Knight of the Cart, Beowulf was not full of a want for the love of somebody else, but is instead an epic poem of a man with amazing strength, and power. With battles fought against monsters, and dragons for glory. Although the theme may have been different for these stories. The main characters shared a lot of the same heroic traits. For instance, Lancelot who was the most legendary of the round table for his strength in combat, and courageous determination.
In the epic poem “Beowulf” the character Beowulf is the foundation for all of our modern heroes, but was he really a great hero? A hero is classified as a person who is admired for their bravery, achievements, or nobility. Although Beowulf displays all these qualities, there are several reasons he is not a hero, mainly him being egotistical and arrogant. This is why Beowulf is not a heroic person. Beowulf is often caught bragging about himself and his great accomplishments.
Christopher Reeve (AKA the 1978 superman) said that, “A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles”. Both Beowulf and Modern day heroes are similar in that way in that they fight for the common good of people. That quote from Christopher Reeves on what a modern day hero is, also applies to the epic hero qualities that Beowulf has. Similarly Beowulf and a modern day hero defeat an evil so that good can prevail. Some examples are, Beowulf Slaying Grendel and Grendel's mother to save the land of the Danes, and soldiers fighting enemies that threaten the lives of a country, and police officers putting criminals behind bars.
Beowulf is about a warrior from Geatland who takes on the task of getting rid of a monster named Grendel who is terrorizing King Hrothgar’s land. He then kills the monster and it’s mother a while later only to face that his own kingdom is being terrorized many years later by a dragon. He successfully destroys the dragon, but not without giving up his own life. The 13th Warrior is about Northmen warriors, and an Arab, who takes a journey to another land to rid them of some type of “creatures”. King Hrothgar needs these 13 men to get rid of these “creatures” who won’t stop killing off the people of his village.
Grendel in both stories is described as a vicious "Monster", but is viewed differently. The character of Grendel, in the novel by John Gardner, portrays a different visualization than that of Grendel in the epic poem Beowulf. In the novel the story is told in first person point of view which gives Grendel human qualities while Grendel in Beowulf is told in third person point of view not giving Grendel his standpoint. In both works, the authors give two different perspectives of Grendel. Grendel in the novel is not seen as a "Monster", but as a human that has emotions and is very sympathetic about everything that comes his way.
The poem and movie of “Beowulf” are very different and they are also sort of similar. There are a lot more differences between the two than you would expect and while some of them are minor differences others are drastically different. Most movies are very different from the book they are made from. The biggest differences between the movie and poem were the three battles. The three battles have drastic differences.
Stories contain many characters with some that stand out more than the others. A person is considered the protagonist depending on who is telling the story and what story is being told. The protagonist is the main character in a literary work. Whether good or evil, the audience sympathize with the protagonist and understands the motif of the character. Beowulf is a protagonist whose encounters with evil proves him to be a strong heroic warrior.
Compare/Contrast Essay Beowulf is an epic hero, who is a strong and powerful man who comes from Sweden to Denmark to help a village that is being attacked by a man-eating monster named Grendel. Arthur, is a romantic hero who is the courageous king of Camelot who is a devoted leader and will do anything to protect his kingdom and people. Even though Beowulf and Arthur are two different heroes, they both share similar traits such as devoted followers, the use of magical weapons, and courageous traits throughout the story. Both epic and romantic heroes had devoted followers that helped them throughout battles. Beowulf was very strong, but when the people of Denmark thought he needed help.
The similarities of the movie and poem are only a few. However they are; the people in Denmark expected Beowulf’s help, when he was coming Beowulf came on ship with his Geats. After Beowulf killed, he went to look for his mother. When he battle with Grendel's mother, there were some similarities from the movie and in the epic poem. Beowulf found and fought in the mountains, in a dark, muggy craves.
Throughout the story of Beowulf and the movie Thor, there are many similarities; from the enemies they meet, the characteristics of the two warriors, and the things they have conquered. Both Thor and Beowulf have lots of pride. Thor is known as someone powerful and brave in Asgard, he has many enemies. Beowulf is known as a courageous warrior who can conquer any enemy, and he also has different enemies that he must defeat throughout the story. Both of the brave warriors come to figure out what their destiny must be, they are destined for greatness but they must go through great storms to achieve it.
Their differences can be categorized in their amount of patience, how they hold themselves around others, and their personal actions. Although both great warriors, Beowulf and Lancelot’s methods when acting on a mission differ. Lancelot shows a great amount of patience when
The first quality they share is courage. The two heroes demonstrate their courage in a different way. Beowulf is a hero with a lot of courage because he fights without weapons. He does not believe in using weapons to kill people. Beowulf is described as: “Dripped with his enemies blood”.
Written in England in the eighth century, Beowulf was a poem about a strong Geatish warrior. As much as he was strong, he was brave too, like the main character in the Epic of Gilgamesh, which was written a few centuries after Beowulf in Mesopotamia. Gilgamesh, the main character in the Epic of Gilgamesh, was the strong king of Uruk, who just so happened to be brave too. Although both of these pieces of literature were written in a vast period of time and place, they depict similarities in which they contain a strong, brave hero and differences in their behavior, and the way they carry pride.
They both go through the “Hero’s Journey,” and display many characteristics of a hero. Beowulf, however, better fits the qualities of an epic hero due to his unselfish personality, his fearlessness, and his nobility. One reason Beowulf is the better epic hero is because his intentions and motives were selfless. He always fought to save the people, not for glory or treasures.
As has been noted, many of Beowulf 's characteristics are also shared by traditional epic heroes. He 's brave and never "cowers", defeats previously unbeatable monsters, comes from nobility, and has incredible superhuman strength. Beowulf can be compared to any other epic hero, and the similarities found between them will be never ending. However, there are other characteristics that the king of the Geats possesses which make him be very different from most epic heroes. First, there is the issue with Beowulf 's lack of a moral compass.