October Blog- The Power of Loyalty

~October 31st
        What does loyalty really mean? To me, loyalty is when a husband sticks by his wife when she is in a bad situation. Loyalty means not revealing secrets your friend has told you. Loyalty is always sticking by your family because they will always be the ones that love you. In my opinion, loyalty is one of the most important characteristics in a person. Any friendship or relationship is fully dependent on the loyalty displayed from both sides. Loyalty is a true measure of someone’s character.

  Question 6 of the Socratic Seminar for Beowulf is how does the character of Beowulf exemplify the pagan core values of loyalty, bravery, and generosity? Where else do you see these core values demonstrated? I want to focus my attention purely on the loyalty aspect of Beowulf’s core values. Beowulf displays his loyalty through his relationship with Hrothgar and Hrothgar’s family. After Hrothgar’s death, Beowulf could have easily taken the throne away from Hrothgar’s family. Instead, out of true respect and loyalty, he allowed Hrothgar’s son to become king. Beowulf also helped supervise and protect the realm out of loyalty to the family. It was not until Hrothgar’s son’s death that Beowulf became king. He was not willing to become king until the realm and the family was in dire straits. Even though it does not concern specifically Beowulf, another example of loyalty in the poem is in the actions of Wiglaf. Wiglaf is one of the soldiers Beowulf takes with him to attack the dragon. Beowulf tells these soldiers to stay away at a distance to let him take on the dragon alone. However, when the dragon attacks and begins mauling Beowulf, Wiglaf is the only one to come to defense of the king. He is able to help Beowulf kill the dragon. Even though Beowulf dies, Wiglaf is able to carry out his final wishes. Wiglaf shows true loyalty to the king.

        In my life, I have had to learn to true meaning of loyalty. By being in a relationship and having a girlfriend, I have had to learn to be trusting and loyal to her. In any relationship, there has to be trust and loyalty or else it will never succeed. That is why loyalty is so important. It is the true backbone of any relationship and it has to be relevant for any relationship to last a long time.