Beowulf And Achilles Essay, Research Paper

Beowulf is a narrative about a adult male named Beowulf who desired celebrity and luck in life. The Iliad had a character named Achilles who is similar to Beowulf because he besides desired glorification. But they are two wholly different narratives written at different times and different topographic points by different people. Both narratives have alone qualities such as firedrakes in one and multi-gods in the other and that is what makes fabricated narratives like these classics. Since accomplishing celebrity is a end of these two characters, and since these are great plants of literature, people can associate to desiring to be celebrated in life. So this essay is about Beowulf and Achilles and what they went through to be celebrated and besides what they went through to maintain their celebrity.

The Iliad, written by Homer, is about a few hebdomads of a ten-year war between the Trojans and the Acheans. Achilles is one of the chief characters of The Iliad and he is a great adult male. All he wants is blood. His friend Patroclus was killed and he fights to revenge his friend and earn glorification in the procedure. He would non hold achieved glorification if his friend hadn & # 8217 ; t died though because Achilles knew that when he fought he would decease ( Iliad, p. 117 ) . His friend & # 8217 ; s decease is what led Achilles to the celebrity and glorification he received even though he couldn & # 8217 ; t truly bask it since Achilles died in the war.

Achilles & # 8217 ; cardinal to fame was non merely in killing hosts of Dardans but besides killing one of their beloved icons & # 8211 ; Hector. & # 8220 ; & # 8230 ; Brilliant Achilles drove his lance and the point went knifing clean through the stamp cervix & # 8230 ; & # 8221 ; ( The Iliad, ln 385 & # 8211 ; 386, p 195 ) . He killed Hector as retaliation for Hector killing Patroclus. Hector was the first Trojan icon to travel down in The Iliad although the following 1s went down subsequently on in the war, possibly non in The Iliad but in the Aenid. Aeneas speaks of the war in Aenid and he describes how Hector & # 8217 ; s male parent, Priam, met his decease.

After Hector & # 8217 ; s decease, Achilles would drag the organic structure every forenoon around his ground forces base three times to demo the achievement he had made in the war. The Gods didn & # 8217 ; t truly agree with him though because they kept mending Hector & # 8217 ; s organic structure ( non back to life though ) . & # 8220 ; & # 8230 ; All his lesions sealed shut, wherever they struck & # 8230 ; and many drove their bronze blades through his organic structure & # 8221 ; ( The Iliad, ln 496-497, p 209 ) . Finally, Priam ( with aid of Gods ) got Achilles to sell Hector & # 8217 ; s organic structure back for a clump of invaluable goods. & # 8220 ; Give ( Hector ) back to me, now, no more hold & # 8211 ; I must see my boy with my ain eyes & # 8221 ; ( The Iliad, ln 650 & # 8211 ; 651, p 212 ) . Bing begged by a male monarch increases his celebrity merely because a male monarch doesn & # 8217 ; t normally do that, particularly in this instance. Priam gets the organic structure and buries it and that & # 8217 ; s the terminal of The Iliad.

Whereas in Beowulf, written by an anon. poet, is about a adult male who is really strong. He travels to a distant land to kill a twosome monsters and earn glorification for himself. The quest Begins when Beowulf heads to the Danish palace. He is a Geat by the manner. His male monarch is Higlac and Beowulf asked him if he could go the seas to gain glorification for himself by assisting out the Danish and their male monarch, Hrothgar. When Beowulf eventually got to Hrothgar, Hrothgar was glad to see him ; he seemed to hold a batch of religion in Beowulf. & # 8220 ; Our Holy Father has sent him as a

mark of His grace, a grade of His favour, to assist us get the better of Grendel and stop that terror” ( Beowulf, ln 381 – 384 ) . The monster, Grendel, had already killed around 30 good work forces and what would be another adult male to him ( the male monarch uncertainties ) , even though the adult male was the strongest in the universe? Oh, by the manner, Unferth ( who sat at Hrothgar’s pess ) questioned and disliked Beowulf claiming he was non every bit strong as he makes himself out to be.

After Beowulf proved him incorrect, he went on his manner to gain his celebrity. That dark, Hrothgar left the hall and when the monster came, it was a rubric battle ( with one exclusion ) & # 8211 ; Beowulf verses Grendel! ( The exclusion being that one luckless Geat was in the manner ; you know, the one cat that dies in every narrative ) . Not merely did he best Grendel, but he did it without a blade or armour. Unfortunately Grendel did get away, minus a whole arm ( the Danish wanted him dead but they weren & # 8217 ; t excessively huffy ) .

The following dark, the also-ran & # 8217 ; s female parent decided to come up and do problem ( Revenge ) . She ends up killing one of Hrothgar & # 8217 ; s closest advisers. Having heard this, Beowulf jumped back on the & # 8216 ; celebrity train & # 8217 ; and headed for the monster & # 8217 ; s den & # 8211 ; a lake of pure immorality located a few stat mis from Hrothgar & # 8217 ; s Hall. The partly celebrated cat sank to the underside of the lake ( which took hours ) and he had an even better conflict with Grendel & # 8217 ; s female parent. After murdering the female parent, he found Grendel puting in a corner of the den and, utilizing a charming blade he found in the den, sliced Grendel & # 8217 ; s head clean off so he could claim all the glorification and have proof of how epic and great he was. The blade, after sliting through the pure immorality, was someway melted away so all that was left was the hilt, which he gave to Hrothgar as portion of the conflict set ( caput and hilt ) .

That was how Beowulf attained his glorification. After many old ages as male monarch of the Geats he faced another crisis & # 8211 ; a firedrake had awakened and started to destruct and kill people and edifices. Beowulf, being old now, figured that he had to murder the firedrake, otherwise others would hold called him a bad swayer and he would hold the sort of celebrity no 1 wants ( he wanted to be the hero to the terminal ) . So he gathered up his troop and headed away courageously to the tower where the firedrake slept. This was where he proved that he was really courageous and was a good individual who was honest. Those are the keys to being celebrated ( in fairy tale land anyhow ) . While all his work forces ( except one ) fled his side, he courageously fought the firedrake. He did non last the conflict against the firedrake, nevertheless, but Beowulf did pull off to murder him. And decease in conflict besides attributes to the glorification he earned and will go forth him to be a really celebrated adult male throughout history ( in the narrative. The adult male might hold truly existed ) .

Sad to state though that both characters Achilles and Beowulf died in the terminal ; nevertheless, we are all traveling to decease someday and both of them died when it was of import & # 8211 ; in conflict gaining award. Many of us in the existent universe will non acquire that sort of decease and that is why people like to read and listen to these sorts of narratives, so they can fantasy about being heroes and warriors in their ain heads.

Bibliography

The Norton Anthology, World Masterpieces, Vol 1. Beowulf: BEOWULF, translated by Burton Raffel. Copyright 1963 by Burton Raffel.