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Vanessa Pacheco
Mr. Morodkhan
English 4
26 October 2010
Hero Cycle:
Every story, noble, poem, or anything that has to do with a Hero has a cycle
which is very similar. In fact, they do have the same cycle beginning with Spiderman,
Superman and ending with Beowulf. At first when they are in the birth stage is when they
are known and have a disadvantage, next they discover their destiny, a fight or a battle
then happens, they then go through a romance or a good friendship when they have trust
in someone, and finally they return home. With the help of the friend they make they then
realize what they have accomplished and the cycle goes on again.
For Beowulf’s disadvantage was when he was known he has some miss
accomplishments. The one who Unferth kept reminding him of was when he swam across
the lake against Brecca and lost. He had lost because of the waves not being good enough
to swim across they were too strong. In lines 506-519, “You’re Beowulf, are you-the
shame boastful fool who fought a swimming match with Brecca…And at the end victory
was his, not yours.” (Raffel 39) Unferth is making Beowulf think back on that loss. He is
saying it in front of everyone because he wants him to feel bad and know that he isn’t
going to be able to accomplish anything. They are making it seem that Grendel is going
to be a mission that’s not going to be accomplished. The people in Herot started to lose
faith in him because of what Unferth had said. He was like any other person in town and
that made him not be able to defeat Grandel in the peoples mind. They didn’t think he
would be able to fight him.
Beowulf’s destiny then was to prove Herot that he can do something to prevent
Grendel from ruining their mead fest at the mead hall. He realizes that Grendel is an issue
for Herot and he needs to prove them what he can do and be a good person that doesn’t
let people down. This is his chance to prove what he can do for that reason in lines 430435 he says: “That this one favor you should not refuse me- That I, alone and with the
help of my men, May purge all evil from this hall. I have heard, too, that the monster’s
scorn of men is so great that he needs no weapons and fears none. Nor will I.”(p.36)
Right there he is taking a risk and wants to prove what he can do with no help from the
people in town. They need someone to be able to defeat their troubles and Beowulf sees it
like it’s his chance to be the one to do that for them. He is known son of a great solider,
therefore he needs to keep his fathers name high and let them know that his family is the
same. That they are all willing to do anything to save people and be Heroes.
The part of the cycle when they fight, after the hero discovers its destiny in this
noble, is when Beowulf fights Grendel. The fight with Grendel was a big turning point in
the story because it’s a time where Beowulf shows what he is capable of doing. When the
hero makes a big achievement, it makes the person reading it see the difference between
the hero and the other people. The things the hero does is what makes him/her unique.
Most of the time the author makes the task seem impossible to make the hero be a hero
and accomplish an impossible task that without him the other people wouldn’t be able to
do. For example in Beowulf, lines 676-686 where it says “Grendel is no braver, no
stronger than I am! I could kill him with my sword; I shall not, easy as it would be. This
…Let God his wisdom extend his hand where He wills, reward whom He
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chooses!”(p.44) This basically shows how brave Beowulf is in his battle and to show how
thins are impossible but that he is still going to take the task.
Another point in the cycle is when the hero makes a friend or has a romance. That
person is the person who the hero trusts and make them realize the accomplishments they
have done. Beowulf then gets a friend who he trusted, who was Wiglaf. Wiglaf was the
one who helped Beowulf defeat the dragon. The friendship between the two was great
they would go to the battles together even though Wiglaf wouldn’t go into the battle to
him until it came to the fight with the dragon. Beowulf trusted Wiglaf so much that she
gave his place as king to him. He was the one that told Beowulf what accomplishments
he had done and made him feel like a hero. They both got along good. As soon as
Beowulf died he then would become the new king of Herot.
The return home is the last part of the cycle. That’s the point where they start they
start to realize what they really have done. Beowulf got greeted very well when he
arrived to the mead hall to celebrate his defeat. In lines1807-1813 it states: “Then Unferth
came, with Hrunting, his famous Sword, and offered it to Beowulf, asked him to accept a
precious gift. The prince took it, thanked him, and declared the weapon one he was proud
to own; his words blamed it for nothing, were spoken like the hero he was!” (p.79), that
just describes how important things were to the people that the person who gave Beowulf
a hard time (Unferth) gave him the sword which was very special to him. The sword was
now Beowulf’s and was going to be used to defeat anything that crossed his way.
Beowulf showed them his power and didn’t let them down.
Every type of writing that has to do with a hero has the same cycle that gets
repeated many times in the same story. The hero never has an ending to all the
accomplishments. They are always the ones who make the town a better place and defeat
anything on the way. They just make everything better and never fail in most stories.
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Work Cited:
Raffel. Burton. Beowulf. New York: The New American Library, 1963