1. Hero/Warrior Culture
in Beowulf and Other Myths
David Tang and Peter Wilson

2. “Beowulf ... clearly belong[s] to a subset
of the overall Indo-European sword-hero
complex. Moreover, [he] also share[s] at
least some elements in common with
figures belonging to other subsets of that
complex.”
- C. Scott Littleton

3. Premise
• Beowulf and his story largely follow
common archetypes
• However, Beowulf’s Anglo-Saxon warrior
•
culture is different from cultures seen in
other myths.
As a result, Beowulf is different from the
warrior-heroes seen in other stories

4. Cultural Differences
• In many ways, Beowulf, along with the
Anglo-saxon expectations of him,
epitomizes the familiar hyper-masculine,
brazen hero
o Strength and ability in battle
o Importance of boasting
o Binarism “(I will do x or die)” (Morey 487).

5. Cultural Differences
After all, isn’t this what you think of when you picture Beowulf?

6. Cultural Differences
• However, Beowulf’s role in the
community seems to be more complex
o Acts as “peace-weaver” through his actions
to promote good relationship between
tribes (Morey 486)


“[F]ulfills his society’s idealized feminine role”
(Morey 486).
Role as king includes great generosity, satisfying

7. Individual Differences
• Beowulf is, in many ways, a traditional
“sword hero” of mythology
o
“Beowulf [is] not only [a] refle[x] of a common IndoEuropean sword-hero tradition, but also of a subset of
that tradition that tells of a hero's descent to a
netherworld to slay a non-draconic monster and/or its
mother, one or both of whom are threatening the
survival of the hero's community” (Littleton 6).

8. Similarity to Theseus
• Both
o Come from afar
 Theseus from Troezen
 Beowulf of the Geats
o Enter dangerous and underground realms
 Theseus: most known for success in labyrinth
 Beowulf: Grendel’s mother’s cave and the dragon’s
lair
o Slay ravenous monsters with magical swords

9. Individual Differences
• Beowulf is an interesting combination of
brutish and sensible
o Often acts more than cerebral heros like Theseus
o Still acts with underestimated tact and shrewdness
o “The most accomplished binarist in the poem …
Beowulf is also aware of the often agonizing
circumstances of coming to a decision” (Morey
487).

10. Sources
Morey, Robert. “Beowulf’s Androgynous Heroism.” The Journal of English and
Germanic Philology 95:4 (Oct. 1996): 486-96. JSTOR. Database. 10 Oct.
2013.
Littleton, Scott. “Theseus as an Indo-European Sword Hero, with an Excursus
on Some Parallels between the Athenian Monster-Slayer and Beowulf.” The
Heroic Age1.11 (May 2008): Web. 10 Oct. 2013.
<http://www.mun.ca/mst/heroicage/issues/11/littleton.php>