Beowulf and David

In David’s blog(http://thespacebetweenthespace.blogspot.com/2011/10/was-beowulf-crazy.html), David stated that Beowulf was either “the world’s bravest man or just plain crazy,” and he seemed to lean more toward the idea that Beowulf was crazy.  I agree that some of Beowulf’s feats may have been in fact “crazy,” but I think that is one of the things that made Beowulf such a great hero.  Beowulf refused to be an ordinary man.  Instead of sitting back like the other men in the story, he took the initiative and sought out the monsters and destroyed them.

Being a Christian, I can’t seem to go through these stories without drawing some comparison or contrast to biblical stories.  And the story of Beowulf reminds me of the story of David and Goliath.  Although Goliath wasn’t a “monster,” he was a giant, and he was defeated by David just as Beowulf defeated the monsters in his story.  David also took the initiative while other ordinary men looked on in fear.

I think in this act of taking the initiative and standing up to the forces of evil, David and Beowulf are very similar.  They both preformed “crazy” acts of bravery, and I believe this is what made them great.  This idea of “living on the edge” and taking on extreme challenges others are afraid to tackle seems to be the thing that differentiates between someone who is “ordinary” in these stories, and someone who is “heroic”.