Beowulf is an epic tale of a hero seeking fame and fortune. Beowulf is a young, strong, and proud man who wants to prove himself to be the greater person and, ultimately, achieve kingship in his own land. Thomas Foster's chapter, "Every Journey Is a Quest (Except When It's Not)" lays out the rules of a quest. For a journey to be a quest it must first contain: a seeker, a place to go, a stated reason for going there, the challenges and trials along the way, and then the real reason for going there. The real reason for a search is always self-knowledge (Foster 3). Beowulf, although at first glance appears to be a quest that satisfies the first four rules, is not a quest because it never achieves self-knowledge. From the beginning, Beowulf feels like a quest. There is the seeker, Beowulf, on a journey to achieve glory. He goes to Herot to help him clear the mead hall of Grendel. Although his real reason has nothing to do with defending himself from Grendel, he goes to kill Grendel to prove his strength, which is his stated reason, but another less clear reason is his pursuit of fame, not fame. knowledge. He doesn't want to know if he's really the greatest, he just wants to be perceived as the greatest. Then the first three rules are automatically taken into account. Foster says that the seeker can simply be a normal person, not even that heroic, in fact usually someone young and immature (Foster 3). Beowulf is already a famous hero, despite being young. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayWhen he arrives in Herot he begins to face his own challenges, the first of which is not in the form of a creature. Unferth, Hrothgar's son, does not like Beowulf's courage and begins to argue with him, calling him a presumptuous fool and saying that he will not win because he lost a swimming match with Brecca (Beowulf 27, 240-241 and 258-269) . For Beowulf, questioning his greatness is hardly a challenge as he explains his side of the story. In return, he retaliates by saying, "Proud son, if your hands were as hard, your heart as fierce as you think, no fool would dare storm into your hall, ruin Herot, and oppress his prince, as Grendel has done." (Beowulf 28, 324-327). This actually puts Unferth in trouble as Beowulf points out Unferth's own downfalls. At the end of this discussion, he has learned nothing, he even seems more confident as he talks almost sarcastically about his upcoming battle with Grendel. While fighting Grendel he loses one of his men, but since he never grieves, this doesn't seem like much of an obstacle. Beowulf defeats Grendel by removing his arm and displaying his arm for all to see. He learns nothing in his battle with Grendel. He still believes he is the greatest. Going into battle without weapons shows how confident he is in his abilities. His confidence rings true when he wins; since this trust is based primarily on self-confidence, and he never reaches the point where this spontaneous faith is questioned, he never comes to any awareness of himself. If anything the battle with Grendel shows that Beowulf doesn't need help in a fight and that he is nearly invincible. In his next challenge he fights Grendel's mother. The fact that he is called upon to help purge Herot of his new enemy only reaffirms to him that he is the greatest. He goes to fight Grendel's mother alone and the fact that he does not seek any outside help shows that he has learned nothing. After finishing, he searches for Grendel's already dead corpse and proceeds to cut off his head. The fact that he won yet another.