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The Heroism of the Lost Cause

Throughout the poem, Beowulf has been a man of action, confronting evil head-on, his exploits bordering on impetuosity, though always aware of the possible defeat. At the end of the poem, that possibility becomes a certainty in Beowulf’s mind, yet his commitment to right action hasn’t changed.
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The Heroism of the Lost Cause
Wiglaf finds Beowulf after killing the dragon. From "Siegfried the Hero of the North and Beowulf the Hero of the Anglo Saxons," 1900. Public Domain
Walker Larson
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Though composed between A.D. 700 and 800, the Anglo-Saxon poem “Beowulf” calls to us with a moving voice and spirit of heroism as applicable today as it was in the mist-enfolded ages that gave it birth.

The poem is set about A.D. 500 in Scandinavia, an uncertain time around the fall of the Roman Empire in a place already beyond the borders of the cracking Roman bulwark of order and civilization.

Walker Larson
Walker Larson
Author
Prior to becoming a freelance journalist and culture writer, Walker Larson taught literature and history at a private academy in Wisconsin, where he resides with his wife and daughter. He holds a master's in English literature and language, and his writing has appeared in The Hemingway Review, Intellectual Takeout, and his Substack, The Hazelnut. He is also the author of two novels, "Hologram" and "Song of Spheres."
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