Importance Of Reputation In Beowulf

To begin with, the reader first notices the importance of reputation in the poem when Beowulf and his twelve warriors land on the Danish shores. As they are getting down from the ship, a Danish watcher sees them and goes up to them to see who they are. The lieutenant asks Beowulf who he is, and why he is coming to his coast. Beowulf replies by saying, “We… follow Higlac, my father was a famous soldier…men all over the earth…remember him.” (156-163) Then, the lieutenant figures out that Beowulf has a good reputation. Therefore, he allows Beowulf and his men to enter the Danish shores, and he leads them to Hrothgar. This incident shows the reader that reputation is very important, and if a character has a bad reputation, he would not be welcomed into other kingdoms.

In Beowulf’s time period, boasting was viewed very differently than the way boasting is viewed in society today. In present day, boasting and bragging is considered rude, intolerable, disrespectful, and selfish. In the time setting of Beowulf, boasting was not as negatively looked upon as it is today. Boasting was how a warrior was able to

The poem of Beowulf is an epic poem written by an unknown author. Beowulf is about a strong, mighty man who fought monstrous monsters to protect the people of Geats and later he succeed the throne. The three things that are important to Beowulf’s culture are Lof, Comitatus, and Wyrd, these three important value show Beowulf’s appearance as a great warrior.

Peoples reputation is the most value thing they possess and there's many different ways people maintain it. In the Crucible reputation was extremely important in a town where social standing is tied to someone's ability to follow religious rules. Your good name or reputation is mainly the only thing they had for people to judge them on. In Good Night and Good Luck Ed Murrow strongly believed in having a good reputation and kept solidly planting his ideas of “truth with diligence” through the whole thing. Both of these show great examples of how people try to maintain their reputation.

The scene with Unferth in Beowulf is to show Beowulf’s ability to overcome troubling challenges. As Beowulf explains however, “Other monsters crowded around me, continually attacking. I treated them politely offering the edge of my razor sharp sword.” (Beowulf 292-294) This shows that Beowulf can survive great odds, proving that he is the hero of this story.

Many say that Beowulf is not truthful and that he lies about his achievements. He may lie here and there but who doesn’t? When Unferth confronted him about losing the swimming race to his friend he corrects unferth and tells what happens. He was the “strongest swimmer of all” and they “struggled on for five nights” until they got they got separated because of the “long flow and the pitch of the waves, the pershing cold, night falling, and the winds from the north.” Those factors drove Beowulf

Your reputation is the way someone or people look at you or perceive you. Whether or not someone is going to like you, or is someone is going to dislike you. The characters in Beowulf believe their reputation is important. They show us this by the acts they have committed, the challenges they have overcome, or even how they help others. Or in Grendel’s case, how he tears through town and destroys it.

In 800-850 A.D. they believed that heritage and bloodline were important to your social standing. Where you came from and who you followed was also important. “We are Geats, /Men who follow Higlac. My father/ Was a famous soldier, known far and wide/As a leader of men. His name was Edgetho. /His life has lasted many winters;/Wise men all over the earth surely/Remember him.” (l.173-179). Here Beowulf is telling one of king Hrothgar’s men his king and who his father was. Also the people of those times held in high value the good deeds and obstacles that a man had completed. His name would be well known by the tasks he had overcome. “In his far-off home Beowulf, Higlac’s/Follower and the strongest of the Geats-greater/And stronger than anyone anywhere in this

Beowulf, a medieval geatish warrior, was portrayed as a strong and invisible hero in the Epic. He had the strength of a god and could destroy any evil with his bare hands. Beowulf displayed his strength through boasting or physical actions. It was all to establish his identity because talk and action was just as important as deeds. For example, Beowulf aggrandized how he was the superior swimmer during his competition with Brecca, “Well, friend Unferth, you have had your say about Breca and me. But it was mostly beer that was doing the talking. The truth is this: when the going was heavy in those high waves, I was the strongest swimmer of all.” (Heaney), while modern day Beowulf was humble and mostly showed his strength through his

Ultimately, no matter how talented you might be as a performer, manager, technician or composer, the values you employ in your daily activities will either make people view you as a trusted resource or as someone who is unreliable, or worse, dishonest.

Honor means that a man is not exceptional; fame, that he is. Fame is something which must be won. Honor, only something which must not be lost. This line represent to Beowulf in his army was so brave to the journey of great battles with horrific beasts and they teach about pride and honor.

In the beginning of the epic, Beowulf believes he is the best person in the Geat society and that “there was no one else like him alive” (Beowulf 15). While he may have high societal status, by thinking so highly of himself, it makes the people around Beowulf view him as less valuable. Unferth’s initial opinion of Beowulf is an example of this because Unferth calls Beowulf out on his conceited view of himself. However, since Beowulf views his place in society to be essential, he tells his version of the sea-monster’s in a way that places himself as a crucial person in the safety of not only the Geat society but in any sailor's life because his “sword had killed nine sea-monsters” (Beowulf 39).

My view on how much reputation matter is that it is a huge part of someone's identity. A reputation is such a huge thing for a few reasons. One reason is that it is the first thing some people think of when they meet a person or talk about them. A reputation could make you seem like the best human in the world, or the worst. Also, it is very easy to lose and hard to gain or build up. This makes it very rare to come across a fantastic

Beowulf, a medieval geatish warrior, was portrayed as a strong and invisible hero in the Epic. He had the strength of a god and could destroy any evil with his bare hands. Beowulf displayed his strength through boasting or physical actions. It was all to establish his identity because talk and action were just as important as deeds. For example, Beowulf aggrandized how he was the superior swimmer during his competition with Breca, “Well, friend Unferth, you have had your say about Breca and me. But it was mostly beer that was doing the talking. The truth is this: when the going was heavy in those high waves, I was the strongest swimmer of all.” (Heaney), while modern day Beowulf was humble and mostly showed his strength through his

Perhaps the biggest and most concrete way in which society is impacted by this text today is through the notion of what it is to be famous and what celebrity actually involves. Beowulf, as befitting his status as an epic hero, presents readers of all ages with a model of what it takes to be considered a mighty individual worthy of fame. In many ways, Beowulf is a hero who sacrifices everything to maintain his reputation and heroic status. Note, for example what he says before facing his final