(A Discussion on the Motivations of Beowulf) Beowulf is an Epic poem estimated to be written in the year 1000, with an unknown author. Before this story was written it was known as an oral story, or one only told by speaking. This story is the code of the Anglo-Saxon people. To define the Anglo-Saxon code consisted of living a life where you gain Glory, or respect. They believed you have a duty to accomplish in your life. They also believed in having a role model that followed finding glory and respect, that younger people and peers tried to be like. Beowulf is the role model that the Anglo-Saxon people tried to follow. “Beowulf is a prince of the Geats, a tribe living in what is now southern Sweden. He is peerlessly noble, brave, …show more content…
Everyone wants to be a hero, and everyone wants to be like the hero's we see in our everyday lives. “For the stories of hero’s life answers the fundamental question we all ask: How then shall we live?”(Podles). Everyone wants to be a hero, or remembered for a heroic act. Beowulf is no different than the rest of us when it comes to craving the want to be a hero. Beowulf after fighting Grendel’s mother in his second battle of the epic poem, he is spoken about in a Speech by Hrothgar. “Your fame, friend Beowulf, is blazoned abroad. Over all wide ways, and to every people”(1163). Hrothgar is explaining in his speech that Beowulf's success on defeating both the monsters he faces made him a hero. He explains that he has received fame, that people all over the world will know what he has done to save the people of the Danes. This is part of the Anglo-Saxon code. The people either are a hero from acts such as the one Beowulf performed, or the people give their heros fame, they strive to be like them. Beowulf's motivation to defeat Grendel's mother was to be a hero and have the fame a hero …show more content…
“Its hero, Beowulf, is the biggest presence among the warriors in the land of the Geats, a territory situated in what is now southern Sweden, and early in the poem Beowulf crosses the sea to the land of the Danes in order to clear their country of a man-eating monster called Grendel”(Heaney). Beowulf followed all of the Anglo-Saxon codes and become a hero to all over the world. He had many succucess and gained fame and glory from all his adventures. All people looked up to him, especially his people of the Geats. Beowulf is a hero that all people should look up to and use as a base on how to live their