Beowulf

Beowulf is a perfect description of the warrior mindset and its part in a society. A problem that people today obviously have in interpreting Beowulf is their lack of knowledge on the attitude portrayed in the story. Beowulf's culture is quite unique; instead of having a separated warrior class, the entire culture is centered about this train of thought. The philosophy of warriorship is made up of two important concepts, honor and death. Honor can be more specifically conveyed as a flow of obligation, justice, and courage. Death is a shorter subject, but it is equally important in understanding the character of this story.

The first aspect of honor is obligation. The center of a warrior's purpose is that of his obligations. Several times throughout the story, Beowulf goes out to fulfill his responsibilities. For example, initially, he goes to help the Danes, because his father swore to serve the former Danish king. Perhaps he feels obligated to kill Grendel's mother, because his victory that is the cause of her wrath. Certainly, however, he is compelled to defend against the dragon that was attacking the kingdom under his charge. Regardless, we can see that he consistently fulfills his duty to protect those who cannot.

Equally important as obligation is whether the hero's compellation is just. Justice is important in determining one's responsibilities; one is not obligated to anything unjust. We can see from the story that Beowulf's actions are very just. Releasing a people from the terror of the monsters of the land and killing a rampaging dragon are good validations for his obligations.

Also, courage is what ties the whole philosophy of honor together. Established, our warrior, Beowulf, recognizes his obligations and their importance, and his responsibilities are justifiable, but he also needs the courage to meet the trials before him. Courage by its very definition implies direct and immediate action. We cannot question that he has trouble meeting his challenges head-on; every encounter within the story (Grendel, his mother, the dragon) ends with victory. His final battle especially recounts Beowulf's courage, because he achieves not only the victory of defeating the dragon but, also, the facing of a noble death.

Finally, probably the most important aspect of a warrior's life, at least to himself, is that he dies virtuously. Every warrior hopes that a good