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Theme: Balance Between Pride & Honor



As most know, there is a fine line between everything in life. Love and hate, insanity and genius, method and madness, etc. Between Beowulf and Odysseus, there is enough ego and pride to outweigh any honor they may each have respectively. Though this, as usual, all depends on the perspective one views it from.

So to be objective about the topic let's look at the negative 'side' first:

  • "But Breca could never move farther or faster than me... Through my own hands, the fury of battle had finished off the sea-beast... my sword had killed nine sea-monsters. Such night-dangers and hard ordeals I have neer heard of nor of a man more desolate in surging waves. But worn out as I was, I survived, came through with my life... neither you nor Breca were ever much celebrated for swordsmanship or for facing danger on the field of battle." (Beowulf 41)


    • This quote alone could quite imbalance the scale of pride and honor, were there not a pro side:
  • "It was noble courtesy." (Beowulf 123)
  • "If there is any favour on earth I can perform beyond deeds of arms I have done already, anything that would merit your affections more, I shall act, my lord, with alacrity. If ever I hear from across the ocean that people on your borders are threatening battle as attackers have done from time to time, I shall land with a thousand thanes at my back to help your cause... when honour dictates that I raise a hedge of spears around you. (Beowulf 125)


    • So it would appear that at first Beowulf seems quite a bit on the side of arrogance, with further study and understanding of tradition, it is merely "noble courtesy." In other words, it's an expected pride, so therefore a perfect balance of pride and honor.

    In The Odyssey, there is a more vivid distinction. "Bright Odysseus," is a phrase frequently used to describe Odysseus, and one can with certainty assume Odysseus knows his status. Which typically leads to egotism. Yet again there is something to negate this usually astute observation: He could behave with far less tact and far more arrogance. In contrast, Antinous' actions speak with boast (though he indeed has far less to boast of)and maintains a more superior air and rude air than Odysseus ever acts or speaks with.

    Does The Odyssey and Beowulf appear more similar the more you read?

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