I just finished watching Blue Streak, the story of a criminal who is forced to become a police officer to recover a diamond that he had hidden before he was arrested for a heist. In the movie, Martin Lawrence is a the protagonist, and as a typical audience member, I hope that he will succeed in whatever his goal is, in this case, to safely recover his diamond, and not end up in jail for a second term. This remains to be true for me throughout the entire movie, even though my introduction to this character is seeing him get arrested for stealing a diamond, and then watching him get dumped for not even calling his girlfriend while he was in jail. Nowadays, it seems that the hero of any story can gain the sympathy and support of his audience, but in the Anglo-Saxen time period, heroes has to follow specific guidelines in order to be respected and accepted as a hero. In the poem entitled, "Beowulf," translated by a normal man named Beowulf is able to become one of the most memorable heroes of British literature through the story-teller's use of the Anglo-Saxen heroic ideal.
             One of the reasons that Beowulf is such a popular example of the heroic ideal is his willingness to risk anything of his own in order to help others. His courage is displayed early in the poem, while he explains his adventures of killing monsters in the ocean. He says "I drove five great giants into chains, chased all of that lace from the earth, swam in the blackness of night, hunting monsters out of the ocean, and killing them one by one." Beowulf's determination to kill the sea-monsters becomes part of his promise to save the Danes from Grendel, and also promises to the readers that this tale is sure to be as filled with action and adventure as his adventures in the sea. Later, Beowulf acknowledges the fact that Grendel "needs no weapons and fears none;" he then decides that he will not use weapons either. Beowulf's choice to fight a monster with enormous p...