Beowulf (Fate Again?)

Beowulf is perhaps the greatest hero we have covered so far this semester.  In his first two adventures, he established himself as a true hero by defeating Grendel and his mother.  While they were great victories, they happened so quickly that he really didn't have much time to show maturity and moral development.  That is what makes his final adventure against the dragon so memorable.  Fifty years after the previous adventures, we get to see a wiser individual who is still strong enough to get the job done even in old age.

The structure for the final part of his story was quite a bit different than the first two parts.  While we were kind of in the moment during his fights with Grendel and Grendel's mother, in this one we have a lot of flashbacks that show Beowulf's development as a leader.  We start fifty years after his previous victories, but by the end of the story we have pretty much been able to piece together all of the main events over the fifty year gap.  I was particularly impressed with how Beowulf didn't immediately make a grab for the throne when Hygelac died.  He did the proper thing and supported the rightful heir to the throne.  We have already established that Beowulf was a great warrior and he probably wouldn't have had any problem taking over the kingdom through conquest.  I think this showed great restraint on Beowulf's part and I'm not sure that many of the other characters we have covered would have done it the same way.

It is interesting to see Beowulf's development into a great king.  By waiting for the chance to be king, he prooved himself worthy of being king.  That is why it is particularly interesting to see how it all ends for Beowulf.  He has showed great wisdom throughout the story right up until he fights the dragon.  The story does a great job at telling how a king must ignore his own glory and do right by the people.  Beowulf had already shown to be a great hero during his warrior days.  He knows the responsabilities of being king and yet he chooses to ignore them.  It is a rather unusual decision for him to fight the dragon in light of his knowledge about what his death might mean for his people.  His death leaves them without a true leader and might signal an end to their kingdom.

Was the fight with the dragon fated to happen?  Did Beowulf have no choice in the matter at all?  It certainly seems like fate plays a big role in the end of his story.  Beowulf clearly sees his time on Earth is coming to an end.  Therefore, maybe he sees the conflict with the dragon to be inevitable.  He doesn't have the strength that he used to have and thus the dragon has time to inflict a fatal blow on Beowulf before Beowulf's fatal blow to the dragon.  Beowulf has won his people a great treasure, but at what cost?  In the end, despite his wisdom, he was unable to escape the warrior culture that dominated his early life.

The third part of the story really had a movie quality to it.  The dragon part reminded me of Reign of Fire.  Beowulf's final battle reminded me of the early 70s western The Wild Bunch.  In that film, a bunch of aging gunfighters know that their time and era in the old west has come to an end and they go out in a blaze of glory by shooting it out with an entire army surrounding them.  Perhaps this is what Beowulf was thinking when he challenged the dragon.  His time was at an end and he was going to go out in one last blaze of glory.

By defeating the dragon he was able to show his people that the old man had a little bit of greatness left in him still.  His followers didn't believe it anymore since all except for Wiglaf left him during the fight.  This was a real contrast to how they all stood and waited during his fight with Grendel's mother.  Beowulf was a champion again and died right after the battle.  This is kind of like a quarterback winning the Super Bowl and retiring after the game.  Maybe he was fated to have one more championship before his death.