Romantic Elements in Beowulf & The Hobbit

Both books are full of the sense of adventure and risk-taking which mark romantic literature. However, one great difference exists between the works with respect to the relationship of the romantic hero to his adventures, risk-taking, and romantic pursuits in the name of good against evil.

Bilbo Baggins, the eventual hero of Tolkien's book, is far from the eager hero that we see in the character of Beowulf. The hero Beowulf, in comparison to Bilbo, is a one-dimensional character with little complexity. The author of Beowulf presents his protagonist as a man who is fully a part of his society and has no thought for challenging the standards for heroic behavior which mark that society. Bilbo, on the other hand, shows nothing but reluctance and complacency in the face of the romantic challenge. Whereas Beowulf is a romantic hero, in a sense, from the moment of his birth, Bilbo is an easy-going hobbit with no taste or inclination for the heroic or the romantic. Beowulf lives a life of romantic adventure from beginning to end. Bilbo must be dragged kicking and screaming into the romantic adventures which fate has prepared for him.

As we immediately learn from Tolkien, the life of Bilbo the hobbit is a life far from that of the

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e modern romantic hero, for the reader identifies with him, with his love of comfort, his timidity, he conformity, and his eventual overcoming of all these obstacles to the life of adventure and bravery. How much can we honor a two-dimensional character like Beowulf who was born and raised to be a fearless hero. At every step of his induction into the life of the romantic hero, Bilbo is reluctant and decidedly unheroic. The hobbits must find out their position in the forest in which they are frightened and lost, and so Bilbo is chosen to climb to the top of a tree to see what he might see. He is chosen only because he is light enough to climb, and as he does he is racked with fears of spiders and doubts about how he is ever going to get down again. Beowulf, on the other hand, throws himself eagerly and fearlessly into battle with Grendel at the first opportunity: A breach in the giant/ flesh-frame [of the monster] showed then, shoulder-muscles/ sprang apart, there was a snapping of tendons,/ bone-locks burst. To Beowulf the glory/ of this fight was granted; Grendel's lot/ to flee the slopes fen-ward with flagging heart. . . . / [Beowulf], deep-minded, strong-hearted, had saved the hall/ from persecution (Beowulf 77). Beowu
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Approximate Word count = 1648
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)