Death_And_Honor

Death And Honor The following will show how the characters from "Beowulf" perceived their deeds in life as the build up to the way their bodies would be cared for after death and how their people would remember them. Unlike modern times burial ceremonies were based on what a person accomplished rather then who the person was. In essence if you were a great hero you got a wonderful send off, if you were a peasant farmer you were luck if you got a stone cairn over the hole your body was in. In the Norse world, both gods and humans know their inevitable destiny is death. The heroic goal is fame after death... great and glorious deeds that inspire poets and singers are the only measure of immortality that a mortal can achieve. The Norse hero's greatness is measure by the quality of his life and the courage and dignity with which he faces his inevitable death. The characters of Beowulf cannot determine when they die, but they can try to determine how they live and die. Life is a tragic experience, and the best one can hope for is to live and die with beowulf, death, honor, fame, life, battle, after, because, man, great, glory, die, deeds, win, wiglaf, unferth, sword, must, last, dragon, world, warrior, remembered, person, people, own, over, one, men, lord, long, lives, inevitable, hrunting, hand