“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, the horrible shrieks of pain and defeat, the tears torn out of Grendel’s taut throat, hell’s captive caught in the arms of him who of all the men on earth was the strongest.” (Lines 783-790)
In this excerpt from the story, it is the first time the Danish people see that Beowulf is for real when he grabs hold of Grendel with his bare hands. He shows hero qualities by standing up to the enemy in a time of mass chaos while all other people run and hide from the intruder. When the people finally see that Beowulf has tamed the monster with his bare hands they being to believe that he truly is their hero because he has finally begun to prove himself. Lastly, the people witness him taming this monster not with weaponry but with his bare hands, which was doubted by many people and probably even some of his followers. This also shows his heroic strength, which is his main attribute, which separates him from other ordinary people. This is the first sign in his path to heroism and it began to make people believe.
“The victory, for the proof, hanging high from the rafters where Beowulf had hung it, was the monster’s arm, claw and shoulder and all.” (Line 833-836)
This quote from the story provides proof for two of Beowulf’s heroics. First, by ripping his arm off it shows his incredible strength, his one main quality of which all heroes possess. Secondly, it is proof that he came away from the fight victorious, like he claimed he would, and not only made Grendel turn away and not cause any harm but he took his arm which shows domination over the monster. Also this proves him to be a hero to the people because he not only defeated the monster but he did it with his bare hands. Even though at this point the people aren’t assured the monster is dead, they still claim Beowulf to be a hero because of his actions in this passage.
“Not even the sharpest of swords could have cut it through, broken it off the monster’s arm and ended its life, as Beowulf had done armed with only his bare hands.” (Lines 987-990)
In this extract of the story, the bard brags of Beowulf’s one special heroic “power”, his strength. The bard tells the people that “not even the sharpest of swords…” could have not done the damage that Beowulf did with his bare hands. The object of this excerpt is to ensure people that Beowulf is a true hero and that he has performed unnatural tasks that were thought impossible for a human to do, which further proves why he is regarded to as a hero. Basically the bard tells us this because he wanted to show how extraordinary of a person Beowulf was and that he deserved the title of hero. It embellished the tale a tiny bit to make Beowulf seem as if he were god-like.
