Beowulf & Sir Gawain

Before recorded literature existed, heroes dominated spoken tales of adventure. As the human race grew older and wiser the definition of a heroic individual evolved. Various qualities of a hero changed over time yet other details remain constant. Consequently, the main characters in works of literature set three centuries apart possess different as well as similar characteristics. An Anglo-Saxon epic, Beowulf, and a chivalric romance, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, contain men with parallel …

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