'Beowulf' and 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' Classical literature is replete with the age-old but timeless concept of warrior heroes. There are a number of epics, plays and novels composed of characters with heroic qualities and thus fitting into the literary archetype of a warrior hero. There are of course slight variations in the type of heroes that can be found in such stories, mainly due to the cultural differences that exist between different civilizations. Take for example Beowulf, which was originally written in the Anglo-Saxon language and is essentially the story of how brave people of Germanic and Scandinavian origins managed to take over the Roman Empire. The plot revolves around the warrior hero Beowulf and how he defeated the horrible monsters that terrorized people at the time, which immediately brought him respect and fame. It should be noted that Beowulf was not a traditional warrior hero, that is, he was initially extremely hated by his people because they did not think he was brave enough to do anything. either (Niles & Bjork, p. 45). However, this all changed once he defeated the monsters and so his status was immediately elevated to hero. It's also worth mentioning at this point that Beowulf was not a mild-mannered chivalrous knight who could turn fierce if the need arose (much like conventional English heroes). In fact, he was violent to the core and it is this trait that is actually responsible for making him heroic. This is mainly because, in Germanic tradition, military prowess was the primary means of gaining respect and control over a society. He is therefore not a warrior hero, nor simply a hero, for that matter, because he was "philosophical" ...... middle of paper ...... I also talk about it (Brewer & Gibson, p. At no point in the poem is Gawain forced to display his military skills; it is simply assumed that he possesses all of these qualities (and is a warrior hero) simply by virtue of the extreme politeness he extends to the people around him. Once again, we are a far cry from the violent, angry but surprisingly witty Beowulf we discussed earlier in this essay. Thus, the above analysis shows that although there are a number of warrior heroes in epics and other works of classical literature, there are several differences due to the cultural and social differences that exist between civilizations. References Bjork, Robert E. & Niles, John D. (Eds.) A Beowulf Handbook, London: Cambridge University Press, 1997 Brewer, Derek & Gibson, Jonathan (Eds.) A Companion to the Gawain-Poet, New York: Random Home, 1997