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Nate Gauvain
British Literature
Beowulf Essay
9/22/04
Beowulf: An Epic Hero

According to Abrams, the heroic poem is "a long verse narrative on a serious subject, told in an elevated style, and centered on a heroic or quasi-divine figure on whose actions depends the fate of a tribe, a nation, or the human race." Beowulf fits Abrams' description of an epic, exhibiting all of the characteristics listed throughout the book, thus defining Beowulf as a hero and making the book an epic through it's elevated style, the focus of a hero, and a quasi-divine hero which a tribe, nation or human race is dependent on.
Beowulf is a narrative which describes the adventures of the hero Beowulf as he travels from his homeland of Geatland to Hrothgar, in order to kill the monster Grendel and the mother of the beast. Beowulf then returns to Geatland, ascends to the throne some fifty years later, and slays a dragon in his final act. This tale spans over three-thousand lines, and deals with......

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Approximate Word Count: 963
Approximate Pages: 4 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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