Two Different Heroes

        Beowulf’s battles are also more of a more physical nature than Gawain’s, whose struggle is more on the internal level. Over the course of his epic poem, Beowulf fights three main battles – with Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon. “In he came then, the thane’s commander, / the arch-warrior, to address Hrothgar: / his courage was proven, his glory was secure. / Grendel’s head was hauled by the hair, / dragged across the floor where the people were drinking, / a horror for both queen and company to behold” (Heaney, 113). Beowulf has just killed Grendel’s mother, and is bringing back Grendel’s head as proof of his victory. Gawain’s battle, on the other hand, is more often of a more spiritual nature, such as when he is forced to resist the temptations offered to him by the Green Knight’s wife. “And so she tested him, pushed and probed, / Trying to tempt him, pretending love, / And Gawain was so gracefully evasive that he seemed / Always polite, and nothing happened / But happiness. / They laughed and fenced, / And at the end, / Offering a courtly kiss / off she went” (Raffel, pg. 96). The word choice in this passage clearly indicates that Gawain is fighting a battle, but it is an entirely different one from Beowulf’s. Words such as “pushed” and “fenced” imply that this is a duel when in fact it is a flirting game. Unlike Beowulf’s heroism, which calls for bravery in the face of staggering physical odds, Gawain must prove himself the master of his own mind and heart against temptation. Once again, the difference between Gawain’s and Beowulf’s respective societies comes into play. Beowulf’s time was mainly battle-oriented, whereas Gawain’s, while certainly still retaining some element of a warrior society, had already gained features of an intellect-oriented society. The difference in the time of occurrence once again accounts for the differences between the two heroes.  

        Encompassing the lives of these heroes are the codes that they are determined to follow. These codes are drastically different. Beowulf voices his thus: “For evey one of us, living in this world / means waiting for our end. Let whoever can / win glory before death. When a warrior is gone, / that will be his best and only bulwark” (lines 1386-1389). Beowulf is determined to win glory and fame through his conquests, so that after he dies his name will be immortal. Gawain, on the other hand, serves a different cause. “And the fifth of his fives was love and friendship / For other men, and freedom from sin, / And courtesy that never failed, and pity, / Greatest of knightly virtues” (lines 651-654). For him, these five listed things serve as his guidelines. This is almost completely opposite from Beowulf’s code, which is relatively self-centered when compared to Gawain’s. Again, this is because the lifestyle of a warrior of Beowulf’s time was very different from that of Gawain’s. In Beowulf’s time, “win[ning]” glory was important in spreading one’s fame as a strong and brave leader in battle. By Gawain’s era, however, the “Greatest of knightly virtues” defined a set of rules that corresponded to how the importance of morality had evolved since the Dark Ages.  

        These two heroes are of a completely different scope, but the differences between them correspond to the differences in their time periods. While their respective societies both value bravery in one form or another, the criteria they set for how bravery is defined are very different. Beowulf defines bravery as a means of achieving fame through battles, whereas Gawain sees it as a more abstract concept, enveloping honor and other “knightly virtues.”  These differences are a direct cause of the difference in era of the events of these poems. In Beowulf’s time, warfare was the only known way of life, which led to achievements in battle being more valued than anything else. By Gawain’s era, feudalism had brought around the chivalric way of thinking, which involved doing good for the sake of good, as opposed to doing good for the sake of fame. These differences in thought directly caused the different sets of values that defined a hero.