What do we want out of our heroes? Unequaled prowess, check. Unachievable achievements, check. A conflicted soul that ultimately overcomes evil and demonstrates goodness, check and mate.
And what of the legends themselves? What of the stories? Don't the vehicles for these heroes require a certain glossy veneer, a level of direct forwardness by which to view the hero's deeds? Like a Michael Bay theatrical juggernaut, the stories we desire deliver their content with as much ease as possible, progressing ever forward and forward. No delays allowed, please. My popcorn will run out.
Which is why we exit such films admiring the effects and already forgetting the people involved in them by the time we reach our cars.
Consider Beowulf the story. It "lacks steady advance" as Klaeber states. This is true. The plot digresses. It stalls before moving again. To be clear, it lurches sideways and backwards like the story itself is sloshing on the whale-road. Which is what makes it awesome. Because every sideways step provides a layer, like winding fabric around the loom, one loop at a time. And the layers do not represent mere facts, subplots begetting subplots, as much as they stand for humanity. Beowulf the man does not truly exist until we see him arrive home and retell his story with his words, and endure Hygelac's gentle admonishments for leaving in the first place, and learn about the sordid family history--the pain and love endured by Hrethel and his offspring. And oh yeah, there's a dragon to be dealt with, too.
This is not some early artistic experiment of art imitating life. This is a skilled storyteller telling about a man worth knowing. Because he is a hero also, but only because he is an honorable man first. I argue that although it missteps the most, the final third of the poem is the best because it is this section that finally deserves the title Beowulf. We love watching him rip arms off of things and swim underwater all day with the fire-snakes and berate drunken idiots in their own homes. We love this action. But we finally get around to caring about Beowulf after enduring the imperfect, clunky family history that follows.
And I'm fine with that. I'm fine with clunky. Because that's what I am. And I like seeing a little of that in my heroes from time to time. And their stories.
