Unferth and Beowulf

At the opening of this excerpt, Unferth tries to tarnish Beowulf’s reputation by discussing his swimming match with Breca. Why would Unferth do this? How does Beowulf respond? How does his response contribute to his persona as a hero?


At the beginning of this excerpt Unferth tries to make Beowulf's reputation seem bad. Unferth does this by bringing up the swimming match between Beowulf and Breca. In this event it was Breca who won and who beat Beowulf to the shore. Unferth wants Beowulf to seem like a bad hero who really isn't the best out there and this is the main reason why he retold this story. After hearing all this though, Beowulf stayed calm and didn't take it personal. He instead laid out the facts and the real reason why he lost the battle against Breca. The only reason Breca won was because he swam straight to the shore while Beowulf fought all the sea monsters in order to make the waters safe. Breca only really cared about winning the swimming match but he didn't think like a hero, Beowulf did instead. This is what makes Beowulf the person that he is and why he is well respected. He doesn't care about winning everything he cares about helping others and making their environment safer. This makes him a trustworthy hero and it proved to Unferth that it was pointless of him to have brought this up because all it did was make him look better and Unferth more stupid!