ed so muchresponsibility and integrity. Of course, there is also the possibility that Beowulf was awarethat if he died his kingdom would crumble, so he did the valiant thing and ended thekingdom at the same time its king ended. This way, the kingdom would have a rather subtleend instead of a violent one in which many people fought over the rights to the kingdom. This also prevented corruption of the kingdom and the throne by the rulership of a bad orunjust king. There remains only one question now, which is Beowulfs reasoning for fighting thedragon alone. Surely he was aware of the dangers involved with fighting a ferocious creaturethat late in his life, especially when one considers that Beowulf was not only aging, but alsothat he was fighting on uncommon ground and all the odds were against him. Perhaps he didthis because he wanted to prove to his people that he was still a mighty and heroic leader,even though it put him in a compromising situation. If he did not go to battle, then he wouldbe viewed as a weakening and a fallen king by his people, but then again, if he did fight, butlost he would not be any better off than if he were to not fight at all. The most he couldhope for would either be victory or death if he chose to fight. And, withe being the heroicwarrior he was, and with wanting to protect his people from harm, he decided to fightagainst the dragon in his underwater hell-like lair. Maybe Beowulf wished to be extravictorious in his waning years by defeat the great dragon alone, or he may have realized thata good way to live on (in spirit) among his people would be to exit the world in a heroicbattle. Regardless of victory of defeat, Beowulf would be honored for being a victorious andheroic warrior and a good leader for his people. In a way, Beowulf ended his reign at a peak,even though he had already experienced many high points along the way. One can theorizeall they would like, but the only person to really ...
