Modern Day Heros and Beowulf
Over a thousand years later, many of today’s heroes are modeled after Beowulf’s archetypical hero. Batman, an important and well known fictional hero in today’s time, is exceptionally similar to Beowulf. Batman and Beowulf have the same motives for fighting or provoking battle. Although Beowulf was seeking fame and fortune in his epic battle, his primary motive was the safety and prosperity of his people. Likewise, Batman originally starts to fight crime in hopes of saving Gotham City and protecting the citizens from evil. Another important similarity is the heroes’ strengths and weaknesses. Beowulf is stronger than all of his peers, but he is still simply a human, nothing compared to Grendel’s supernatural strengths and powers. Similarly, Batman is just an ordinary man, despite his money, who has no previous training or natural skills in combat. As a result, it always comes as a surprise when he defeats such skilled enemies, just like Grendel for Beowulf. However, Beowulf and Batman each seem to have one advantage – their weapons. Although he does not use it to fight Grendel, Beowulf is known for always carrying his sword Hrunting. Beowulf trusted his sword to protect him from dangers that his own physical strength could not handle. Furthermore, when Hrunting failed him in the battle against Grendel’s mother, Beowulf came upon a magical sword, or a more advanced weapon, which helped him win the fight. Batman has a similar reliance upon his weapons. Since Batman was not blessed with such super-human strength, he purchases and creates countless gadgets to aid him in his fights against crime. Batman and Beowulf’s dependence on their weapons unite their fighting techniques. These similarities and many more prove that Beowulf’s archetypical epic hero can be found in heroes today, such as Batman.
