Virtue and Community in Beowulf

Virtue and Community in Beowulf

Sandra Brownlee

Literature 2235

Professor Harold

December 1, 2014

VIRTUE AND COMMUNITY IN BEOWULF

Beowulf is the oldest surviving piece of Literature in English. Beowulf would be hard for the modern English speaking speaker to read because the Anglo-Saxon spoke in Britain before the Norman Conquest of 1066. Beowulf is recognized as a piece of epic British and English culture. Beowulf is written in Britain it is about Scandinavia-Danish and Swedish warriors. Beowulf has many different theories about its composition, but it is thought to be partly from oral culture of Anglo-Saxon Britain. The epic was written down between the 8th and 11th centuries and called the Nowell Codex. IT was not until 1815 the piece was published. The poem is narrated in the third person. The setting of the poem was in Denmark and Geatland. Beowulf was done in three parts which are Grendel's control of Heorot Hall, The vengeance of his mother after he was slain, and the rage of the dragon.

The main characters in Beowulf are as follows:

• Beowulf was the hero who fought Grendel and his mother and a dragon

• King Hrothgar was King of the Danes and a father figure to Beowulf

• Grendel was the demon who preys on Hrothgar's warriors

• Halfdane was Father of Hrothgar, Heorogar, Halga, and the unnamed daughter

• Wealhtheow was the gracious queen of the Danes

• Unferth was a Danish warrior

• Hrethric was Hrothgar's elder son

• Hrothmund was the second son of Hrothgar

• Hrothulf betrays his cousin, Hrothgar'

• King Hrethel was the Geatish king who took Beowulf in after the death of Ecgtheow

• Breca was Beowulf's childhood friend

The characters in Beowulf are all trying to establish their own identities. This is known as good ole bragging today. A man setting around the fire boasting about their accomplishments and the exploits is no different than the men of today.

"Nor have I seen a mightier man-at-arms on this earth than the one standing here: unless I am mistaken, he is truly noble. This is no mere hanger-on in a hero's armour." (244-251) (Greenblatt, S., 2004)

Beowulf displayed four virtues; loyalty to his town and village, generosity to anyone he came in contact, brotherly