Beowulf has the traits of a perfect hero. The poem explores his heroism in two separate phases: youth and age. There is, however, a clear division between his youthful heroism and his mature heroism as an aged king. These two phases of his life correspond to two different models of virtue, and a lot of the moral of the story centers on distinguishing these two models and showing how Beowulf makes the transition from a youthful hero to an aged king. In his youth, he was an incredible warrior, characterized mostly by his feats of strength and courage. For example, his swimming match against his friend Breca, where the two raced across the ocean to see who was the better s

The final part of the poem reflects even more on the responsibilities of a king, who must act for the good of his kingdom, and not for himself. Through Beowulf’s fighting of the dragon, it shows that although Beowulf has become an aged king, it is as if he just wants to pretend like he is still as vibrant as he was in his youthful age, and is able to defeat such a monster. This action proves fatal for Beowulf though, as he is eventually killed by the dragon in the end, which shows that Beowulf is indeed not the great warrior that he used to be. Which is also one of the main themes that the poet develops about the issue of aging.

The poet’s treatment and portrayal of Beowulf and Hrothgar develop certain themes about the issue and process of growing older and aging. Some of the themes developed are the wisdom that comes with age, envy, feeling threatened by younger people, and pretending like he/she has not even gotten any older. The theme of wisdom coming with age is mostly seen in the portrayal of Hrothgar, as we can see the wisdom he has attainted through his counseling of Beowulf, and passes it on. Envy and the feeling of being threatened by younger people are in a way the same thing. When an individual gets older, he or she begins to feel envious of the fact that younger people around them are able to do the things that he or she was once able to do. For example, how Beowulf still goes out to fight the dragon although he is well into his 70’s, while the younger men around

Some topics in this essay:
Hrothgar Beowulf, Beowulf Hrothgar, Overall Beowulf, , issue aging, process aging, aged king, feeling threatened people, envy feeling threatened, issue aging hrothgar, beowulf hrothgar, beowulf poet, threatened people, fighting dragon, youth age, dragon beowulf, feeling threatened,