The Geat's Heroic Code

The Heroic Code in Beowulf and My Life

            The power of stories during the Anglo-Saxon times impacted society greatly.  In the era of the Geats and Danes, the tale of Beowulf introduced themes in the Heroic Code such as loyalty, reputation, and courage.  I rank loyalty and courage higher than reputation because they are linked to the pure concept of humanity.  Furthermore, I believe courage the most important value of the Heroic Code because I have seen its power within my own life.  I rank reputation as last because of the negative effects it can wield without people being consciously aware of it.

            The pure concept of humanity is what I believe to be a perfect connection between the world and environment. Buddha’s teachings   examine one’s soul’s connection to everyone else’s.  This prompts empathy for human suffering and creates a subconscious bond, making us biologically social creatures.  For example, when humans trust and support each other, upholding the values of loyalty and courage as in the Heroic Code.

            Loyalty is crucial to one’s psyche and significant to the Heroic Code.  In Beowulf the main protagonist relied on his throng of soldiers to support him in battle, as did the mighty Julius Caesar in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.   When Julius Caesar, the emperor of Rome had an ego the size of the empire and the loyalty of his soldiers fed it.  The balance of this loyalty seemed to turn against Caesar, but Marc Antony and other senators who remained loyal declared war on the conspirators to avenge their emperor.  This reflects the benefits of having loyal people close to you.  In my own life, friends who are loyal give me energy to do well and inspire me to inspire others.  The pure concept of humanity requires bonds as strong as those loyal to Caesar.

However, I am placing courage over loyalty. It is something simply spoken of, but very difficult to apply.  In To Kill A Mockingbird, the theme of courage was strongly represented by Atticus who defended John Robinson until his conviction.  He had the courage to stand out as an individual, denying the norm of society to stand up for what he believed.

 “It takes 30 seconds of courage to make a change’’(Mr. Rick Bisset).  I try to apply this to my life everyday.  30 seconds to be courageous, to do something I might not normally have done.  It takes 30 seconds for a conscious thought to be processed, however it takes only one of them to act on it.  This one-second can feel like the longest second ever.  But, to choose to be courageous can be a life defining moment.  In my life, the most defining moment of courage was when I walked in to audition for ISTA (an international drama organization for middle-high schoolers).  Out of a middle school of 300 students, five girls and five boys chosen would take a life-changing trip to Berlin to improve their acting and discover who they were as an actor.  After a few days of nervous callbacks, I got in.  From that experience I found what I was strong at on stage and what I could learn for the future.  In this life-changing 30 seconds before I walked into that drama studio, I gathered up my courage.  This power of courage is why I place it higher than loyalty.

Finally, reputation can make a person great, or kill them, as we see through out Beowulf and in Brad Meltzer’s book, Book of Fate.  That is why I categories reputation as last, the double edge-sword of the Heroic Code.

            In Beowulf’s time, warriors were expected not to connect emotionally, only to reflect a masculine machine of war and power.  However, in some of Beowulf’s moments, he let his emotions break though his reputation of being emotionless or a heartless warrior.  One example of this was in his parting with King Hrothgar when he “broke down in sudden tears” and showed “his affection” and “his fondness of [King Hrothgar] was so deep-founded” (Beowulf, lines 1872 – 1878).  This overwhelming emotion release had the underlying fear from Beowulf that this might effect his reputation negatively.  Not wanting to appear weak is something that links to how poisonous reputations can become.  This fear of men being deemed weak or womanish originated in these times were Beowulf grew up, leading to the creation of a battle-hardened warrior who feared others presuming you weak, thus creating a negative reputation.  For a warrior in the time of the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, that bad reputation meant life or death.  Beowulf bragged redundantly throughout the epic to try to improve his hardened reputation before fighting Grendel and then his Mother.

Book of Fate is a thriller about an ex-President and his secretary who re-opened the failed assassination case, which took the title of the President. The bullet meant for him took an innocent life as well as the secretary’s right facial muscles.  The whole novel morphed titles and status into a representation of the character’s reputation.  When the President lost his title The Lion, it changed to The Cowardly Lion to represent his empire collapsing.  Then his attendant was faced with the challenge of trying to redeem both of them.

However, reputation serves as a double edged-sword and it helped my Father move our family to Switzerland and Singapore.  His name is well known internationally in his field and because of it; we were given the opportunity for our lives to change forever.

In conclusion, I rank courage as the most important because without it, one cannot take their own step forward.  I then rank loyalty over reputation because it cannot backfire on an individual, but strengthen bonds made through courage.  Lastly I rank reputation because it can be your Hail Mary or your executioner. In my life, I hope to fully weave courage and loyalty into my personality, perhaps benefiting my reputation along side it.