Beowulf and Unferth

Unferth is the local hero of the Danes, who does not like Beowulf’s presence in his town because of jealousy. Unferth brings up the swimming race between Beowulf and Breca, which Beowulf lost. Unferth says to Beowulf how do you expect to win against Grendel if you have lost once before. No one has ever been able to defeat Grendel before, why do you believe you are going to be different. Beowulf being the better man, does not immediately come out and say no you are wrong. Instead he defends himself, saying that he lost because he other’s safety before his glory. He is a hero because he bought others before himself. As he was racing he came across sea monsters that he had to kill in order to protect the sailors. While Breca, simply swam on only thinking about himself to win the race. So Breca might have been the winner, but Beowulf was the better man. Then Beowulf throws in an insult hurting Unferth’s honor. He says that he should not have had to come, that Unferth being the local hero should have stepped up and taken care of Grendel, instead of being a coward and letting Grendel kill all these innocent people. Beowulf is a better man and a better hero than Unferth. Unferth let’s his jealousy take over and he tries to humiliate Beowulf, which ends up backfiring on him.