SMG90
October 20th, 2009, 01:16 AM
This is kinda lengthy. This was my topic for my term paper that relates heroism in Beowulf to modern heroes. This essay focuses heavily on Halo as a means of comparison. Sorry for the awkward formating, I just copy/pasted.
Heroism Then and Now
By: Stephen Good
Heroism Then and Now
Heroism as described in Beowulf is contemporary with the heroic ideal of modern society. Though times have changed and Humanity has evolved, the same heroic ideal exists. Heroism in modern society can be found in many different places. Whether a person looks into a comic book or plays a video game, the ideals of a hero have changed little since the day that Beowulf was written.
When a person thinks of a hero, he thinks about a person that is able to overcome impossible odds for the betterment of society. A hero is willing to sacrifice himself in order to complete the mission. The sense of duty that a hero has is overwhelming and more meaningful than the hero’s life itself. Beowulf epitomizes the Anglo Saxon warrior and hero. He is depicted as more than human throughout the poem as can be seen in the Geats’s confrontation with the coastal watchman.
Nor have I seen a mightier man-in-arms on this earth
than the one standing here: unless I am mistaken,
he is truly noble. (247-250)
Beowulf is also depicted as unbelievably strong, with the ability to rip Grendel’s arms off with his own bare hands. This is significant because, Grendel had been terrorizing the Danish mead hall for a long time. The Dane’s most competent warriors were all unable to compete with the abomination that was Grendel. Beowulf also dared to tread where others would not. Beowulf was the only person willing to pursue Grendel’s Mother into the murky swamp. Beowulf defied the odds and killed Grendel’s Mother.
Though Beowulf is described as being strong and courageous, he is also depicted as generous and loyal. Beowulf had obtained a large sum of wealth from Hrothgar and the Danes, but Beowulf presented the vast majority of his earnings to the Geatish king Hygelac. “These, King Hygelac, I am happy to present to you as gifts. (2148-2149)”
Toward the end of the poem, Beowulf becomes a great king. When the Dragon wakes from its slumber and terrorizes his people, Beowulf takes action into his own hands. Though Beowulf is an old man at the time, he decides to fight the beast alone. As his comrades flee when Beowulf begins to struggle, it is Wiglaf that joins the fray as Beowulf’s soul reinforcement. When the fog of battle receded it left Wiglaf, a new honorable hero, and a dying Beowulf. Beowulf was strong and brave to the end. He sacrificed himself for his people.
Most modern tales of heroism show some parallels with Beowulf. A common example is Superman, who exists as a modern cultural icon. He has been around for decades, as opposed to centuries, and is depicted in comic books, television shows, movies, and games.
Superman is a man for the people and puts his life on the line all the time. He is courageous and selfless. Superman saves the world daily, but asks for nothing in return.
Superman, however, is not human. He was born on the planet Krypton and sent to Earth before his home planet’s destruction. Superman is indeed invincible, except for exposure to the mineral Kryptonite.
Batman, like Superman, dedicates his life to helping others. Unlike Superman, however, Batman is human. The secret identity of Batman is Bruce Wayne, a rich entrepreneur. Most people would agree that Bruce has it all. Why does he endure so much when he already lives the good life? The reason is that, like Beowulf, Batman is generous, courageous, and strong. Batman is wealthy, but cares enough about the common citizen that he feels that it is his duty to protect him. He could easily give up in intense, almost hopeless situations, but he perseveres.
A better example is the Master Chief. The Master Chief is a character from the popular video game and book series Halo. Halo takes place in the twenty-sixth century as an evil alien juggernaut, called the Covenant, wages a religious crusade against humanity. The Master Chief stands as the last best hope for humanity. He and Beowulf were both the last hopes for the people they were destined to save. The Covenant exists in the story as the spiritual equivalent of Grendel.
The Master Chief was one of many children inducted into the military at the age of six. Imagine how frightened and confused these children must have been when they where told they had been called upon to serve. This fact is apparent in the Fall of Reach.
“The children had dark circles of fatigue around their eyes. They had all been collected, rushed through slipstream space, and only recently brought out of cryo sleep. The shock of their ordeal must be hitting them hard…”
These children were trained and surgically altered to become Spartan-II super soldiers equipped with state of the art armor. When the Covenant attacked some human controlled worlds, most of the Spartans were killed. The Master Chief, after a failed attack plan, fled on a ship to find himself stranded on a mysterious ring world. This ring world was built by an ancient extinct race called the Forerunner as a last resort weapon against a mysterious and deadly enemy. The Covenant revered the Forerunner as gods and sought to activate the ring world to move on towards salvation. “I shall light this sacred ring, release it's cleansing flame, and burn a path into the divine beyond! (Halo 2, Level 8)”. The problem was that the ring would only lead to their extermination. “Halo doesn't kill flood, it kills their food. Humans, covenant, whatever. We're all equally edible. (Halo: Combat Evolved, Level 9)” As the Chief pushed on to learn the secrets of the ring, the Forerunner’s ancient foe, the Flood, attacked. The Flood are highly adaptive and intelligent parasitic life forms that infect and control sentient organisms. As the flood plan to leave the ring world to infect other worlds, the Master Chief acts, destroys the ring, and narrowly escapes. The Master Chief learns of the Covenant’s plan to assault Earth and is able to not only deal a significant blow to the Covenant, but is able to travel back to Earth to warn its citizens. Towards the end of First Strike the Chief and his remaining team reflected upon their current victory over the Covenant. “Today they had won. They had stopped the Covenant. John would return to Earth with a warning and enough intel to keep the scientists at ONI busy.”
As the Covenant deals with a new Flood problem, their forces also bombard Earth. The Covenant excavates and uncovers a Forerunner structure under the African city of New Mombassa. This structure is found to be a portal that leads to another larger Forerunner world, called the Ark.
The Ark is discovered to be a place where the Covenant can activate the six remaining ring worlds. As the Master Chief progresses in his assault against the Covenant, the Flood find their way through the portal. The Master Chief valiantly fights through hordes of Flood and Covenant forces and is able to defeat the Covenant. The Flood, however, remain an imminent threat to humanity and all other life. The Master Chief discovers that the Ark serves the purpose of constructing replacement ring worlds. The Chief promptly travels to the ring world that was a replacement for the ring he destroyed and decides to activate it locally. He makes sure all surviving Humans alongside him are sent back to Earth safely, and stays behind. The Master Chief activates the ring and boards a ship as the ring is activating. One half of the ship exits through the portal back on Earth, while the other half is missing. The Master Chief is declared missing in action, or MIA, a tradition for all fallen Spartans. This tradition creates the appearance that a Spartan never dies, a tradition that creates hope for all.
Though both stories take place in dramatically different time periods and both fight dramatically different enemies, they both parallel each other in plot and virtues.
The enemies that the Master Chief fights and the enemies that Beowulf fights are indeed very different, but what they signify is the same. Beowulf’s defeating of Grendel is spiritually equivalent to the Master Chief’s triumph over the Covenant. Grendel sought to terrorize Herot, the Danish mead hall, and was seen as an undefeatable enemy. The Covenant, a super advanced collection of alien races joined under a common religious faith, sought to eradicate humanity.
Beowulf is viewed as the only hope for the Danish people. He is tasked with the impossible task of killing the abomination that is Grendel. The Master Chief is viewed as the last best hope for humanity. This task of taking down such an unbelievably powerful foe was seen as impossible. Beowulf defied the logic of many and defeated Grendel. To make the feat more impressive, Beowulf defeated Grendel in hand-to-hand combat. The Chief’s initial battles against the Covenant were able to serve as a temporary reprieve from the Covenant onslaught. The problem was that, like Beowulf, this was only the beginning.
After the defeat of Grendel, the Danes felt that they were finally going to be able to relax. Lurking in the shadows, however, Grendel’s mom attacked. Grendel’s mom attacked to avenge the death of her son Grendel. Beowulf again astounded the Danes by diving into the murky lake in pursuit of Grendel’s mom. Beowulf was able to defeat this even more powerful threat shortly after pursuing her. The Covenant and their final assault on Earth and their final push to activate the rings on the Ark act as a spiritual successor to Beowulf’s epic battle with Grendel’s mom. Here, the Master Chief did what all thought impossible, he defeated the Covenant. The alien menace that loomed in the back of the fearful minds of all human beings was finally destroyed. Both Beowulf and the Master Chief did what all thought impossible. They each defeated enemies that appeared to be undefeatable. The enemies had caused much strife to all.
Many years later, after Beowulf’s ascension to king of the Geats, his kingdom was attacked by a powerful and greedy dragon. The old king, trying to act like a young man once more, decided to take on the dragon alone. Beowulf, unfortunately, overestimated his abilities at his old age and began to struggle with the powerful beast. When all looked grim, Wiglaf jumped in to help the old warrior kill the dragon. When the battle subsided, Beowulf had won at the cost of his own life. Wiglaf, however, was able to survive. The Master Chief suffered a similar fate. The highly adaptive Flood was continuing to grow stronger by the second. The Flood existed as the Master Chief’s dragon. He made the final push to sacrifice himself in order to destroy the Flood. Like Beowulf, the Master Chief was going to finish the fight by himself, but a new friend stepped in to assist him. One of the Covenant races, the Elites, had separated from the Covenant after a bloody civil war and sided with humanity. The Master Chief made certain that all human and Elite forces were prepared to retreat back to Earth through the Ark’s portal. Alongside him, an Elite leader named the Arbiter, decided to stay with the Master Chief to the end as the other’s retreated.
ELITE SHIP MASTER. We are aboard, Humans (http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Humans) and Elites (http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Elites).
UNKNOWN ELITE OFFICER. Will you not come with us, brother?
THE ARBITER. No. This is our fight. And I will see it finished. (Halo 3, level10)
During this final battle, the Master Chief would disappear, leaving the Arbiter to survive.
Beowulf and the Master Chief certainly had their enemies, but they also had rivals. Unferth criticized Beowulf before his battle with Grendel. Beowulf, however, successfully countered with great brilliance. Unferth later expressed his respect for Beowulf by providing him his legendary blade Hrunting. The Master Chief had a similar rival. Major Antonio Silva felt that the Master Chief and all Spartans were freaks. He believed that the Spartans would play an insignificant role in winning the war. When Silva caught wind of the Chief’s plan to destroy the ring world in The Flood, Silva seemed to hold more respect for the Chief. He admitted that the Chief was one hell of a soldier. “I’m not a fan of the Spartan program, you know that, but I’ve got to give the ******* credit. He’s one helluva soldier.”
The virtues in both stories are similar. Both Beowulf and the Master Chief are courageous, strong, and generous. In her “Critical Essay on Beowulf” Marie Lazzari states, “Beowulf is, indeed, on one level a very simple story told with great elaboration, A man of great strength, courage, and generosity fights three monsters, two as a young man, the third in his old age.”
Beowulf provided his time to the Danish people and readily gave his earnings to King Hygelac and eventually gave his life for his own people. The Master Chief donated his entire life to military service and to the protection of humanity. The sense of duty and honor they both had is astounding. They each risked it all for the well being of others.
Every generation has its heroes. Beowulf, as a character, remains a great symbol of heroism today. Men may be remembered, but a hero becomes legend. Beowulf is a legendary symbol of heroism and will continue to be. Just like the Spartans in Halo, a hero never truly dies.
Cited Works
Beowulf. Trans. Seamus Heaney. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
“Critical Essay on Beowulf." Epics for Students. Marie Lazzari. Detroit: Gale
Research, 1997. Discovering Collection. Gale. Infolink/Seton Hall Prep School. 9 Mar. 2009 <http://find.galegroup.com/ips/start.do?prodId=IPS (http://find.galegroup.com/ips/start.do?prodId=IPS)>.<o:p></o:p>
Dietz, William C. Halo: The Flood. New York: Random House Publishing Group, 2003. <o:p></o:p>
Halo 2. Vers. 1.3. Redmond: Microsoft Game Studios, 2004<o:p></o:p>
Halo 3. Vers. 1.2. Redmond: Microsoft Game Studios, 2007<o:p></o:p>
Halo: Combat Evolved. Vers. 1.0.8.616. Redmond: Microsoft Game Studios, 2001.<o:p></o:p>
Nylund, Eric. Halo: The Fall of Reach. New York: Random House Publishing Group, 2001.<o:p></o:p>
---. Halo: First Strike. Random House Publishing Group, 2003.
Heroism Then and Now
By: Stephen Good
Heroism Then and Now
Heroism as described in Beowulf is contemporary with the heroic ideal of modern society. Though times have changed and Humanity has evolved, the same heroic ideal exists. Heroism in modern society can be found in many different places. Whether a person looks into a comic book or plays a video game, the ideals of a hero have changed little since the day that Beowulf was written.
When a person thinks of a hero, he thinks about a person that is able to overcome impossible odds for the betterment of society. A hero is willing to sacrifice himself in order to complete the mission. The sense of duty that a hero has is overwhelming and more meaningful than the hero’s life itself. Beowulf epitomizes the Anglo Saxon warrior and hero. He is depicted as more than human throughout the poem as can be seen in the Geats’s confrontation with the coastal watchman.
Nor have I seen a mightier man-in-arms on this earth
than the one standing here: unless I am mistaken,
he is truly noble. (247-250)
Beowulf is also depicted as unbelievably strong, with the ability to rip Grendel’s arms off with his own bare hands. This is significant because, Grendel had been terrorizing the Danish mead hall for a long time. The Dane’s most competent warriors were all unable to compete with the abomination that was Grendel. Beowulf also dared to tread where others would not. Beowulf was the only person willing to pursue Grendel’s Mother into the murky swamp. Beowulf defied the odds and killed Grendel’s Mother.
Though Beowulf is described as being strong and courageous, he is also depicted as generous and loyal. Beowulf had obtained a large sum of wealth from Hrothgar and the Danes, but Beowulf presented the vast majority of his earnings to the Geatish king Hygelac. “These, King Hygelac, I am happy to present to you as gifts. (2148-2149)”
Toward the end of the poem, Beowulf becomes a great king. When the Dragon wakes from its slumber and terrorizes his people, Beowulf takes action into his own hands. Though Beowulf is an old man at the time, he decides to fight the beast alone. As his comrades flee when Beowulf begins to struggle, it is Wiglaf that joins the fray as Beowulf’s soul reinforcement. When the fog of battle receded it left Wiglaf, a new honorable hero, and a dying Beowulf. Beowulf was strong and brave to the end. He sacrificed himself for his people.
Most modern tales of heroism show some parallels with Beowulf. A common example is Superman, who exists as a modern cultural icon. He has been around for decades, as opposed to centuries, and is depicted in comic books, television shows, movies, and games.
Superman is a man for the people and puts his life on the line all the time. He is courageous and selfless. Superman saves the world daily, but asks for nothing in return.
Superman, however, is not human. He was born on the planet Krypton and sent to Earth before his home planet’s destruction. Superman is indeed invincible, except for exposure to the mineral Kryptonite.
Batman, like Superman, dedicates his life to helping others. Unlike Superman, however, Batman is human. The secret identity of Batman is Bruce Wayne, a rich entrepreneur. Most people would agree that Bruce has it all. Why does he endure so much when he already lives the good life? The reason is that, like Beowulf, Batman is generous, courageous, and strong. Batman is wealthy, but cares enough about the common citizen that he feels that it is his duty to protect him. He could easily give up in intense, almost hopeless situations, but he perseveres.
A better example is the Master Chief. The Master Chief is a character from the popular video game and book series Halo. Halo takes place in the twenty-sixth century as an evil alien juggernaut, called the Covenant, wages a religious crusade against humanity. The Master Chief stands as the last best hope for humanity. He and Beowulf were both the last hopes for the people they were destined to save. The Covenant exists in the story as the spiritual equivalent of Grendel.
The Master Chief was one of many children inducted into the military at the age of six. Imagine how frightened and confused these children must have been when they where told they had been called upon to serve. This fact is apparent in the Fall of Reach.
“The children had dark circles of fatigue around their eyes. They had all been collected, rushed through slipstream space, and only recently brought out of cryo sleep. The shock of their ordeal must be hitting them hard…”
These children were trained and surgically altered to become Spartan-II super soldiers equipped with state of the art armor. When the Covenant attacked some human controlled worlds, most of the Spartans were killed. The Master Chief, after a failed attack plan, fled on a ship to find himself stranded on a mysterious ring world. This ring world was built by an ancient extinct race called the Forerunner as a last resort weapon against a mysterious and deadly enemy. The Covenant revered the Forerunner as gods and sought to activate the ring world to move on towards salvation. “I shall light this sacred ring, release it's cleansing flame, and burn a path into the divine beyond! (Halo 2, Level 8)”. The problem was that the ring would only lead to their extermination. “Halo doesn't kill flood, it kills their food. Humans, covenant, whatever. We're all equally edible. (Halo: Combat Evolved, Level 9)” As the Chief pushed on to learn the secrets of the ring, the Forerunner’s ancient foe, the Flood, attacked. The Flood are highly adaptive and intelligent parasitic life forms that infect and control sentient organisms. As the flood plan to leave the ring world to infect other worlds, the Master Chief acts, destroys the ring, and narrowly escapes. The Master Chief learns of the Covenant’s plan to assault Earth and is able to not only deal a significant blow to the Covenant, but is able to travel back to Earth to warn its citizens. Towards the end of First Strike the Chief and his remaining team reflected upon their current victory over the Covenant. “Today they had won. They had stopped the Covenant. John would return to Earth with a warning and enough intel to keep the scientists at ONI busy.”
As the Covenant deals with a new Flood problem, their forces also bombard Earth. The Covenant excavates and uncovers a Forerunner structure under the African city of New Mombassa. This structure is found to be a portal that leads to another larger Forerunner world, called the Ark.
The Ark is discovered to be a place where the Covenant can activate the six remaining ring worlds. As the Master Chief progresses in his assault against the Covenant, the Flood find their way through the portal. The Master Chief valiantly fights through hordes of Flood and Covenant forces and is able to defeat the Covenant. The Flood, however, remain an imminent threat to humanity and all other life. The Master Chief discovers that the Ark serves the purpose of constructing replacement ring worlds. The Chief promptly travels to the ring world that was a replacement for the ring he destroyed and decides to activate it locally. He makes sure all surviving Humans alongside him are sent back to Earth safely, and stays behind. The Master Chief activates the ring and boards a ship as the ring is activating. One half of the ship exits through the portal back on Earth, while the other half is missing. The Master Chief is declared missing in action, or MIA, a tradition for all fallen Spartans. This tradition creates the appearance that a Spartan never dies, a tradition that creates hope for all.
Though both stories take place in dramatically different time periods and both fight dramatically different enemies, they both parallel each other in plot and virtues.
The enemies that the Master Chief fights and the enemies that Beowulf fights are indeed very different, but what they signify is the same. Beowulf’s defeating of Grendel is spiritually equivalent to the Master Chief’s triumph over the Covenant. Grendel sought to terrorize Herot, the Danish mead hall, and was seen as an undefeatable enemy. The Covenant, a super advanced collection of alien races joined under a common religious faith, sought to eradicate humanity.
Beowulf is viewed as the only hope for the Danish people. He is tasked with the impossible task of killing the abomination that is Grendel. The Master Chief is viewed as the last best hope for humanity. This task of taking down such an unbelievably powerful foe was seen as impossible. Beowulf defied the logic of many and defeated Grendel. To make the feat more impressive, Beowulf defeated Grendel in hand-to-hand combat. The Chief’s initial battles against the Covenant were able to serve as a temporary reprieve from the Covenant onslaught. The problem was that, like Beowulf, this was only the beginning.
After the defeat of Grendel, the Danes felt that they were finally going to be able to relax. Lurking in the shadows, however, Grendel’s mom attacked. Grendel’s mom attacked to avenge the death of her son Grendel. Beowulf again astounded the Danes by diving into the murky lake in pursuit of Grendel’s mom. Beowulf was able to defeat this even more powerful threat shortly after pursuing her. The Covenant and their final assault on Earth and their final push to activate the rings on the Ark act as a spiritual successor to Beowulf’s epic battle with Grendel’s mom. Here, the Master Chief did what all thought impossible, he defeated the Covenant. The alien menace that loomed in the back of the fearful minds of all human beings was finally destroyed. Both Beowulf and the Master Chief did what all thought impossible. They each defeated enemies that appeared to be undefeatable. The enemies had caused much strife to all.
Many years later, after Beowulf’s ascension to king of the Geats, his kingdom was attacked by a powerful and greedy dragon. The old king, trying to act like a young man once more, decided to take on the dragon alone. Beowulf, unfortunately, overestimated his abilities at his old age and began to struggle with the powerful beast. When all looked grim, Wiglaf jumped in to help the old warrior kill the dragon. When the battle subsided, Beowulf had won at the cost of his own life. Wiglaf, however, was able to survive. The Master Chief suffered a similar fate. The highly adaptive Flood was continuing to grow stronger by the second. The Flood existed as the Master Chief’s dragon. He made the final push to sacrifice himself in order to destroy the Flood. Like Beowulf, the Master Chief was going to finish the fight by himself, but a new friend stepped in to assist him. One of the Covenant races, the Elites, had separated from the Covenant after a bloody civil war and sided with humanity. The Master Chief made certain that all human and Elite forces were prepared to retreat back to Earth through the Ark’s portal. Alongside him, an Elite leader named the Arbiter, decided to stay with the Master Chief to the end as the other’s retreated.
ELITE SHIP MASTER. We are aboard, Humans (http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Humans) and Elites (http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Elites).
UNKNOWN ELITE OFFICER. Will you not come with us, brother?
THE ARBITER. No. This is our fight. And I will see it finished. (Halo 3, level10)
During this final battle, the Master Chief would disappear, leaving the Arbiter to survive.
Beowulf and the Master Chief certainly had their enemies, but they also had rivals. Unferth criticized Beowulf before his battle with Grendel. Beowulf, however, successfully countered with great brilliance. Unferth later expressed his respect for Beowulf by providing him his legendary blade Hrunting. The Master Chief had a similar rival. Major Antonio Silva felt that the Master Chief and all Spartans were freaks. He believed that the Spartans would play an insignificant role in winning the war. When Silva caught wind of the Chief’s plan to destroy the ring world in The Flood, Silva seemed to hold more respect for the Chief. He admitted that the Chief was one hell of a soldier. “I’m not a fan of the Spartan program, you know that, but I’ve got to give the ******* credit. He’s one helluva soldier.”
The virtues in both stories are similar. Both Beowulf and the Master Chief are courageous, strong, and generous. In her “Critical Essay on Beowulf” Marie Lazzari states, “Beowulf is, indeed, on one level a very simple story told with great elaboration, A man of great strength, courage, and generosity fights three monsters, two as a young man, the third in his old age.”
Beowulf provided his time to the Danish people and readily gave his earnings to King Hygelac and eventually gave his life for his own people. The Master Chief donated his entire life to military service and to the protection of humanity. The sense of duty and honor they both had is astounding. They each risked it all for the well being of others.
Every generation has its heroes. Beowulf, as a character, remains a great symbol of heroism today. Men may be remembered, but a hero becomes legend. Beowulf is a legendary symbol of heroism and will continue to be. Just like the Spartans in Halo, a hero never truly dies.
Cited Works
Beowulf. Trans. Seamus Heaney. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
“Critical Essay on Beowulf." Epics for Students. Marie Lazzari. Detroit: Gale
Research, 1997. Discovering Collection. Gale. Infolink/Seton Hall Prep School. 9 Mar. 2009 <http://find.galegroup.com/ips/start.do?prodId=IPS (http://find.galegroup.com/ips/start.do?prodId=IPS)>.<o:p></o:p>
Dietz, William C. Halo: The Flood. New York: Random House Publishing Group, 2003. <o:p></o:p>
Halo 2. Vers. 1.3. Redmond: Microsoft Game Studios, 2004<o:p></o:p>
Halo 3. Vers. 1.2. Redmond: Microsoft Game Studios, 2007<o:p></o:p>
Halo: Combat Evolved. Vers. 1.0.8.616. Redmond: Microsoft Game Studios, 2001.<o:p></o:p>
Nylund, Eric. Halo: The Fall of Reach. New York: Random House Publishing Group, 2001.<o:p></o:p>
---. Halo: First Strike. Random House Publishing Group, 2003.