Beowulf Revenge Paper Revised

               One of the central themes in Beowulf is revenge. Revenge is the driving force behind every battle, feud, and raid in this story, so I believe it deserves the most attention. I will now give examples of revenge in Beowulf and how it drives the story. The people of this time were expected to live by an honor code, where they must seek retribution for things others inflict on their family of social grouping.

            Long before Beowulf fights Grendel, there were two brothers named Cain and Abel they both gave an offering to God hoping to please him. But when God favored Abel’s gift over Cain’s, Cain became jealous and vengeful then murdered his own brother. As punishment God put a curse on Cain making it so no mortal could kill him and he was banished.

            Cain fathered a large monster named Grendel, already born with hatred inside him, despised the joyous singing and laughter that came from Hrothgar’s mead hall So he would go every night and kill whoever was in the hall. Hrothgar gets revenge by having Beowulf fight and ultimately kill Grendel by ripping his arm off. Because of this Grendel’s mother goes to the mead hall and kills one of Hrothgar’s friends and takes her son’s arm back. Beowulf then followed her back to her underwater lair, after a struggling battle he manages to cut her head off.

            Many years later after Beowulf returned to Geatland and became king, an unknown man stole a golden cup from a dragons treasure hoard. This causes the dragon to go out in search for the cup and while doing so wreaked havoc on the Geats. Beowulf and Wiglaf killed the dragon and collected its treasure, but Beowulf died in the process.

            What I have noticed from this story is that revenge is not about getting even, it’s about getting back someone no matter what they have done regardless of what either side might have done. The two sides will continue to fight until one side is wiped out. Because of the nobility system during this time no wrong deed went unpunished, even if it made things even. They continue to bunt heads until one comes out ahead. For example Grendel killed many people in the mead hall, so when Grendel died all the people he had killed were avenged. But because his mother came to the mead hall and killed again it was unbalanced, and if they left it at that she would have come out ahead. Beowulf couldn’t let that happen so he killed Grendel’s mother thus ending the feud. 
            The Swedes and the Geats had a long lasting feud from before Beowulf was king. The Swedes never attacked because they were afraid of Beowulf and what he was capable of. After he died the swedes will most likely take over Geatland because it didn't have a leader which made them weak.

            Throughout the story, revenge can be seen, every deed is met with an equal or greater deed until one side is destroyed.