Premium Content Beowulf as Just a Man
By Benjamin Keni Cook Piiru - March 18, 2008
Beowulf, as a character, is often described as the original model for the hero found in literature from antiquity to the modern day. New interpretations of the text, however, focus more on Beowulf the man rather than Beowulf the hero of Heorot. If we focus less on the struggle between good and evil found in the poem, and more on this new idea of Beowulf as a man and representative of mankind, then each of the three monsters that he faces in the poem symbolize three distinct turning points or stages in any man’s life.
Beowulf is largely untested in...
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