Beowulf” I had a fixed purpose when I put to sea. As I sat in the boat with my band of men, I men to perform to the uttermost what your people wanted or perish in the attempt, in the fiend’s clutches. And I shall fulfill that purpose, prove myself with a proud deed or meet my death here in the mead-hall” (632-638) Boasting in the poem seems to be a suitable and accepted form of self-assertion. It is interesting to see how the protagonist Beowulf is able to boast with out appearing to be conceded. As odd as it may seem he is very humble with his boasting. It is more like he’s selling himself to Hrothgar and his county men by telling them what he can do for them rather than bragging.
I came to this conclusion because of the Danes reaction to Beowulf’s boasts. They are not threatened or offended by his boasts instead they feel protected, even thought they have yet to see him in action they have solely heard the stories of his triumph. Unferth is the only one who challenges Beowulf claims. He harasses Beowulf about his swimming match with B reca (506-528).
But he doesn’t challenge Beowulf because he is concerned that Beowulf is not capable of defeating Grendel, he simply jealous of the attention that Beowulf is getting.
Beowulf, with confidence, accuses Unferth of being drunk (But it was mostly beer that was doing the talking 531-532) and describes what really happened in the swimming match (530-558).
His responds with a boast indicating that he had to slay the whale-beast and eight other sea creatures. He may have done this to maintain his reputation with the Danes. Near the ending of the poem Beowulf makes his final boast: he promises to fight the dragon, only if it will leave its barrow and face him on open ground. He is not a strong as he was as a youth but he put up a good fight. He is able to kill the dragon (with some help from Wig laf) but dies form a poisonous bite that the dragon inflicts on his neck.
The Essay on Beowulf Grendel Dragon Men
Beowulf is a great epic adventure intermingled with Christianity and Celtic culture. As the adventure starts Grendel the dragon has been terrorizing Herot and killing Hrothgars men. Grendel is a huge dragon who eats men and terrorizes Hrothgars mead-hall. Grendel is symbolic to the Devil, who destroys peace and takes the lives of humans. Grendel has been killing Hrothgars men and tormenting Herot ...
Through the poem we see Beowulf as a character that is able to boast and be true to his words. Even to his end he was able to fulfill his promise.
