The poem Beowulf is an excellent example of an epic; “it is a long verse narrative on a serious subject, told in a formal and elevated style, and centred on a heroic or quasi-divine figure on whose actions depends the fate of a tribe, a nation, or the human race” (Abrams 76). When Beowulf is introduced in the story, he is not yet king as are Hrothgar and Hygelac. He is nephew to Hygelac and his most beloved warrior. Long after Hrothgar’s decease and shortly after Hygelac’s death, Beowulf becomes King of the Geats. The two kings of old and later the old King Beowulf have qualities in common. The three kings are all good, generous and kind. However, there are also dissimilarities among the three renowned kings. Hrothgar’s descent is different than that of Hygelac and Beowulf, which makes Beowulf a valiant man for aiding Hrothgar. Beowulf is the ultimate hero in the poem; he is unbeatable in the strength of his youth. The manners in which the three kings expire are diverse and even in death Beowulf serves a purpose. Therefore, there are pivotal differences that distinguish Beowulf from Hygelac and Hrothgar.
Regardless of the difference of ancestry between Beowulf and Hrothgar, Beowulf shows audacity when helping Hrothgar in his hour of need. Hrothgar descends from the Danes while both Hygelac and Beowulf are from the line of the Geats. When Beowulf hears of the horrors of Heorot, he does not hesitate to leave Geatland and rid the Danes of the alleged terror that haunts it. He willingly risks his own life for another race of people:
When he heard about Grendel, Hygelac’s thane
was on home ground, over in Geatland.
There was no one else like him alive.
In his day, he was the mightiest man on earth,
highborn and powerful. He ordered a boat
that would ply the waves. He announced his plan:
to sail the swan’s road and seek out that king,
the famous prince who needed defenders. (194-201)
It is not his own fate for which he fights, though he is rewarded greatly by the generous King Hrothgar. He combats to free the Danes from Grendel.
What definitely distinguishes Beowulf from the two other kings is his supernaturalness, though even the hero’s strength diminishes as he ages. The following excerpt from the poem illustrates clearly that Beowulf is a superhuman and has extraordinary stamina when Breca and Beowulf engage in a swimming contest:
But Breca could never
move out farther or faster from me
than I could manage to move from him.
Shoulder to shoulder, we struggled on
for five nights, until the long flow
and pitch of the waves, the perishing cold,
night falling and winds from the north
drove us apart. (541-48)
He has unmatched strength; he defeats the monster Grendel with his bare hands without wearing armour. The second important combat against Grendel’s mother is more strenuous. However, Beowulf was victorious as he killed her by decapitation. Beowulf’s greatness and reputation allows him to reign peacefully over Geatland for fifty years as the following excerpt confirms:
For fifty years
I ruled this nation. No king
of any neighbouring clan would dare
face me with troops, none had the power
to intimidate me. (2732-36)
Beowulf’s faithful thane and heir to the throne of Geatland sustains this in the following lines:
So this bad blood between us and the Swedes,
this vicious feud, I am convinced,
is bound to revive; they will cross our borders
and attack in force when they find out
that Beowulf is dead. In days gone by
when our warriors fell and we were undefended,
he kept our coffers and our kingdom safe.
He worked for the people, but as well as that
he behaved like a hero. (2999-3007)
As is evident from the latter, Beowulf is able to rule for fifty years without fighting neighbouring people due to his reputation. None dare to defy the mighty Beowulf.
The three generous kings meet their Maker in various ways and Beowulf finds a way to serve his people even in death. Good King Hrothgar dies of old age: “He was a peerless king / until old age sapped his strength and did him / mortal harm, as it has done so many” (1885-87). King Hygelac perishes in battle against the Frisians alongside many of his faithful warriors:
Hygelac the Geat, grandson of Swerting,
wore this neck-ring on his last raid;
at bay under his banner, he defended the booty,
treasure he had won. Fate swept him away
because of his proud need to provoke
a feud with the Frisians. (1202-07)
King Beowulf finally finds his match in a dragon. The grey-haired king is reluctant to fight the dragon. However, he must since the dragon is rampaging through his country. He manages to stab the beast to death. Unfortunately, not before the dragon has dealt him a fatal poisonous bite to the neck. One of his last wishes concerns his burial:
Order my troop to construct a barrow
on a headland on the coast, after my pyre has cooled.
It will loom on the horizon at Hronesness
and be a reminder among my people–
so that in coming times crews under sail
will call it Beowulf’s Barrow, as they steer
ships across the wide and shrouded waters. (2802-8)
So even in death, Beowulf finds a way to serve his people.
To conclude, Beowulf fights for a cause that is not initially his own; he comes to the aid of the foreign King Hrothgar. Secondly, Beowulf is a supernatural being with phenomenal abilities unlike the other two kings. Thirdly, the kings’ deaths differ greatly and Beowulf manages to serve his people even after death has taken him. Therefore, there are significant differences that distinguish Beowulf from the two other kings.

Works Cited

Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. 7th ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College
Publishers, 1999.
Beowulf. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams and
Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2000. 33-99.

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