brief composition over Achilles and Beowulf
The Iliad is an epic that describes the heroic journey of Achilles: he is an exceptional warrior, who has incredible adventures and finally proves himself to be a great hero when he defeats a great enemy. However, Achilles isn't alone in the pantheon of epic heroes. The Anglo-Saxon epic hero Beowulf also shares with Achilles attributes that distinguish him among men: he takes action while others idly talk, and his deeds are the stuff of great adventures, and he too overcomes great foes to become a hero worthy of an epic song.
In Beowulf, the exceptional eponymous hero, characterized by great deeds, is the foil to Unferth, renowned only for drinking and talking. After Beowulf recounts his adventures to Hrothgar, Unferth disparages his deeds: “You’re Beowulf, are you—the same / Boastful fool who fought a swimming / Match with Brecca, both of you daring / And young and proud, exploring the deepest / Seas, risking your lives for no reason / But the danger? / All older and wiser heads warned you / Not to, but no one could check such pride” (Raffel 505-511). The very qualities that Unferth criticizes Beowulf for having are the characteristics of a hero; of course, Beowulf is “daring”; otherwise, he wouldn't be in the land of the Danes to aid Hrothgar by fighting Grendel. Night terrors visited upon Hrothgar's mead hall have unfortunately become the status quo with the nether-fiend Grendel slaughering in the dark. Beowulf is the king's hired assassin whose job it is to “sla[y] […] the monster of the status quo” (Joseph Campbel). And yes, Beowulf is “risking” his life, but what glorious deed isn't commensurate with great “danger”? Perhaps even Unferth sees himself as an “older and wiser” person, but he's not as great a warrior as Beowulf because he's not the one killing Grendel for Hrothgar. And heroes are known by what they do, not what they say—especially when “hot with ale.” (Raffel 531). Unferth is the foil to Beowulf, as Thersites serves as foil to “The Iliad”'s Achilles.
The Iliad is an ancient Greek epic that praises great warriors doing great deeds, but the world it describes isn't just full of heroes, and Homer illustrates the difference. Achilles himself “sacked a walled city” (Homer 16.65) and for this great deed was awarded by “the sons of Achaea” (Homer 16.65) the beautiful girl Briseis. In the poem, Achilles is an exceptional warrior who distinguishes himself by his actions. The army holds him in high esteem not for what Achilles says but for what he does. That is why he is awarded Briseis. The son of Peleus is exceptional among men. In contrast, Thersites is a talker but no great warrior: “His head was full of obscenities, teeming with rant, all for no good reason...” (Homer. 2. 247-250). What distinguishes the two soldiers: one is an idle talker while the other does great deeds. Being no idle talker, it is no surprise that Achilles has many adventures before the walls of Troy.
Achilles evinces his exceptional ability when slaying the enemy around the rivers that flow by the condemned city of Troy. The river Scamander laments to the gods that his waters “are crammed with corpses now, no channel in sight to sweep my currents out to sacred sea" (Homer. 21. 246-247). Achilles alone slaughters numberless enemy along the river; the corpses of dead Trojan soldiers stain the river blood red. Scamander is “crammed” with the bodies of soldiers—unable to escape the killing hands of mighty Achilles. In fact, the river is so crammed with dead enemy that they are unable to be swept “out to the sacred sea.” Killing enough enemy to clog a river is incredible. However, Achilles' adventure does not stop at the death of countless Trojans, it becomes even more incredible when he fights against the river: “Achilles surged on too with high hurdling strides, charging against the river, on, breakneck on and the river could not stop him, not for all its reach and tide race" (Homer. 21. 342-344). In the world of ancient Greek mythology, Achilles stands apart as a great warrior who single-handedly took on many Trojans and even river-gods.
Achilles isn't the only mythological hero renowned for adventures, the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf rivals the Greek warrior with adventures of his own. Under water, Beowulf battles deep sea monsters. Describing his incredible feats under the sea to Unferth, Beowulf states:
Lucky or not, nine was the number
Of sea-huge monsters I killed.
What man, Anywhere under Heaven's high arch, has fought
In such darkness, endured more misery or been
harder
Pressed? Yet I survived the sea, smashed
The monsters' hot jaws, swam home from my
journey.(Raffle 574-580)
The monsters that Beowulf slaughters might not be numberless like the Trojan soldiers killed by Achilles, but that doesn't make their defeat any easier. The great warrior says, "nine was the number," and they were "sea-huge monsters;" moreover, we must remember their killing happens under water, after he's already been swimming five days with Brecca (Raffle 574-579). In "darkness," Beowulf "smashed / The monsters' hot jaws, [and] swam home..." We might rightly ask with Beowulf: "What man [could have...] endured more misery"? Perhaps only Achilles himself. Verily, these two are brothers in great adventures. And like Achilles' battle on the shores of the Scamander, Beowulf's underwater battle with "sea-huge monsters" is a prelude to even greater deeds still to come.
Not only does a hero take action and have adventures, he overcomes a great enemy. Discussing this quality of a hero, Nietzsche in his book “Human All Too Human” explains, “If a man wants to become a hero the serpent must first have become a dragon: otherwise he will lack his proper enemy” (Nietzsche 180). The “proper enemy” of “a hero” is not “the serpent” because it's not sufficiently dangerous. Instead “to become” great the opponent defeated must be greater than a snake: “a dragon.” Writing in metaphors, Nietzsche tells us that mythologies are built around characters who've overcome dragons—whether they be great enemies on the battlefield or great monsters. Both Achilles and Beowulf meet the challenge of defeating a great enemy.
Achilles proves his status as a hero when he defeats the great Trojan warrior Hector. The climax of Homer's epic about the Trojan War comes when the son of Peleus defeats Priam's greatest son on the battle field. Homer writes, “Achilles drove his spear and the point went stabbing clean through the tender neck [...] / he [Hector] crashed in the dust—“ (Homer 22. 385-389). Hector is the greatest warrior among the Trojans, having killed many excellent Achaeans in defense of Troy. Achilles' opponent was no mere “serpent.” By defeating Hector, Achilles has slain the great “dragon” of the Achaeans. This was a superhuman feat by a superhuman: Achilles. Beowulf proves himself to be equally superhuman by killing Grendel and his mother.
Though not Achilles, Beowulf is equally tall in heroic stature as his Greek predecessor and takes on an enemy that perhaps even rivals the dangerous Hector. After Grendel's fight with Beowulf, the terrible monster “escaped, / But wounded as he was could flee to his den […] / Only to die, to wait for the end / Of all his days” (Raffle 818-822). Beowulf wounds Grendel so badly that the monster barely “escape[s] [to] flee to his den,” where only death awaits him. No Dane or mere man could do this. Otherwise, Hrothgar would have had Unferth or one of his other men kill Grendel. Instead, the king had to outsource the task to the mighty Geat Beowulf, who heroically defeated the Dane's “dragon.” So that we are sufficiently convinced of his heroic stature, Beowulf goes on to slaughter the even greater “dragon” of Grendel's mother: he “struck [her] with all the strength he had left […] / Her body fell to the floor, lifeless” (Raffle 1565-1568). The Anglo-Saxon mythic hero kills not just one Hector but two.
Overall, Beowulf’s heroic journey matches Achilles’. Like Achilles, Beowulf is unique and exceptional among men; not a man of many words, he is a man of action, and both epic heroes have incredible adventures before they meet their great foe. Finally, in describing the necessary travels of the hero, Joseph Campbell writes, “From the umbilical spot the hero departs to realize his destiny.” Both Achilles and Beowulf had to leave home “to realize his destiny.” In the homeland of Peleus, his son Achilles would not find Hector—only at Troy, and the land of the Danes was where Beowulf became a hero. Exile from home for both was rewarded with glory. Yet both will always be at home in the epic songs that justly sing their praise.