Beowulf Literary Analysis

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The fictional world in which the book Beowulf takes place in is nothing like the actual world of today. This is mainly because the fictional world Beowulf lives in is full of an entirely different set of creatures, culture, and even family values. The mythical creatures in Beowulf serve to highlight Anglo-Saxon culture of family unity and self-pride. The Anglo-Saxon culture plays a huge roll in Beowulf. One of the most important things in the Anglo-Saxon culture is family unity. Beowulf travels across the world in order to help another community who is being terrorized by monsters. Once he gets there, he goes and talks to a king named Hrothgar. Hrothgar asks Beowulf if he could go into the town and defeat the monster that was terrorizing the mead-hall. Beowulf accepted with great joy and waited until later that night to go into town, because he knew without a doubt that the monster would likely be there. Hrothgar told his men to be by Beowulf’s side if he needed help. Later that night, the mead-hall was filled with Hrothgar’s men and Beowulf along with his warriors. Shortly after they had arrived, Grendel came into the mead-hall and snatched one of Hrothgar’s men. Although Hrothgar told his men to stick by Beowulf, they instead ran and hid. “Suddenly/the sounds changed, the Danes started/in new terror, cowering in their beds as the terrible/screams of the Almighty’s enemy sang/in the darkness…” (Raffel 305-309). Hrothgar’s men did not show family unity towards Beowulf, even though his only reason for being there was to save their lives. Unlike Hrothgar’s men, the warriors that Beowulf brought along with him did not hesitate to get up and help Beowulf. The warriors that were with Beowulf, showed family unity by putting their lives aside when they thought their princes life was in danger. “All of Beowulf’s/band had jumped from their beds, ancestral/swords raised

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