Since time immemorial, human consciousness has been deeply influenced and disturbed by the primordial battle of good against evil. The human mind has resorted to various genres and forms to narrate, symbolize and transmit the battle of the forces of good and evil. It is understood that almost all extinct or existing cultures and civilizations have their creation stories against the backdrop of the battles of light against darkness. Literature, which is a prominent form of human expression, has always been concerned with this fascinating subject. Writers of English literature have resorted to various methods to symbolize the fundamental concerns of the human intellect and its fundamental realities.
In that context, Beowulf, which stands out in the world of literature as one of the earliest works of Old English verse, explores the heroism and virtue of the protagonist from two different dimensions and tends to be a symbolic presentation of the struggle of the good against evil, in which the poet successfully uses a range of literary and thematic devices to turn the work into a piece that is astonishingly illustrative, extremely fascinating and occasionally intimidating at the same time. In the first part of the story, the Beowulf that the reader sees is a man of unbridled spirit and in the second part, he matures into a man of wisdom and courage. In fact, the emphasis of the story [Line 25: “Behaviour that’s admired is the path to power among people everywhere.”] it is based more on virtue than courage and that adds a human touch to it without which Beowulf would still be a hero, but just an ordinary hero.
For a literary work to be able to present the battles fought between good and evil effectively, it is imperative to have a hero who is not only goodness embodied, but also a character larger than life, who has the necessary strength, character and courage to be able to defend the forces of good. He is even more so in the Germanic tradition of storytelling, and in that sense, Beowulf is an exemplification of a perfect hero in every sense of the word. Although Beowulf is presented, in his encounters with Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon, to readers essentially as a formidable fighter, he is also endowed with immense character and virtue, in addition to his tremendous ability as a cunning warrior, to follow. crossing for the cause of the people to whom he owes his loyalty. History is replete with instances and incidents that glorify Beowulf’s courage and ferocity typical of a great warrior.
Repeatedly, Beowulf is shown to challenge the sea monsters, the incarnations of evil and filth, and is victorious against them. The other notable trait attributed to the character of Beowulf is that he is a firm believer in the principle of just fighting and never resorts to cunning or deception to dominate the enemy. It is not only winning what matters, but winning without losing grace that really matters [“Let whoever can win glory before death” (Lines 1387-88)]. The real value of Beowulf’s plot lies in the moral implications it has for the reader and not in the adventurous struggles that seem to constitute it as exemplified in Hrothgar’s exhortation. It points out the danger of being carried away by success, which makes success unsustainable. [O flower of warriors, beware of that trap” (Line 1758)].
Another essential trait for a superhero to be and appear viable is to be endowed with an abundant brute force that is capable of subduing evil. Beowulf deftly fits this ancient mold of combining strength and courage, which remains a timeless parameter of heroism in literature.
