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Who Is The Nobler Man: Beowulf Or Sir Gawain

The definition of a legendary hero is a larger-than-life character whose accomplishments are celebrated in traditional tales. In Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, both written by unknown authors, the self-titled main characters are heroes who fight for honor and to defend the people. However, they are driven by different causes. Beowulf and Sir Gawain are both noble. Different motives drive them. Beowulf’s actions and motives make him nobler than Sir Gawain.

Beowulf is a legendary hero who fights to protect innocent people from the harm of evil. “A prince of the Geats, had killed Grendel, ended the grief, the sorrow, the suffering forced on Hrothgar’s helpless people” (Raffel 48). In this quote, it is told of how Beowulf fought the horrible monster Grendel and killed him to end the Danes’ suffering. Beowulf kills Grendel to protect the Danes’ from further harm. He risks his own life and the life of his men to protect the people. In my opinion, this is Beowulf’s noblest action. “I sold my life for this treasure, and I sold it well. Take what I leave, Wiglaf, lead my people, help them…” (Raffel 58). After defeating the dragon, with the help of Wiglaf, Beowulf is slowly dying. He tells Wiglaf to take over for him and to take the treasure back to the Geats and to lead them through. This is another of Beowulf’s noblest acts. He is dying and he doesn’t want to leave his people vulnerable to harm. He leaves the Geats, but he leaves them with a great new leader and many treasures. The noble actions exercised by Beowulf during his lifetime earned him the respect of his people. What makes Sir Gawain different from Beowulf?


Sir Gawain, like Beowulf, does many noble actions. These actions differ from Beowulf’s, however. “I am the weakest, well I know, and of wit feeblest; and the loss of my life would be least of any…” (Borruff 166). In this quote, Sir Gawain steps up to confront the Green Knight. He stands up to defend the honor of Arthur and his...