Wiglaf

To me, Wiglaf seems like the Beowulf of the next generation, even though he was not well known before this. He is very honorable and heroic just like Beowulf. While everyone who was there with Beowulf ran away, he was the only one to stay with his lord and help him. If it weren’t for him, the dragon may not have even been slain.
He was very loyal, and was the only one of Beowulf’s man to be a hero. When Beowulf died, Wiglaf became the new hero. Beowulf thinks about how he doesn’t even have a son to give his possession to. Wiglaf sits with him while he dies, and it is obvious that Wiglaf is going to take over Beowulf’s job as the protector. Wiglaf is much like the younger Beowulf from the beginning of the poem, like during his fight with Grendel. Beowulf’s last act is to give him his collar. Wiglaf is furious with all of the other soldiers that left their leader to die, and yells at them for it. They are both true heroes. However, Wiglaf has some values that Beowulf lacked. Beowulf was very confident and cocky the whole poem, and after his death Wiglaf talks about how Beowulf was too proud to bring a whole army against the dragon and to instead fight the monster practically by himself. He was thinking too much about when he was younger and defeated Grendel by himself. Wiglaf disapproves of his irresponsible reasoning and believes that it would have been better to think about the best strategy rather than just go in by yourself with only your pride.