As he completes this section on Beowulf’s youth, the poet seems to want to assure us that Beowulf does follow the tenets of Hrothgar’s sermon (2177 ff.). Beowulf becomes renowned not only for his courage and strength but also for his good deeds and prudence. Never does he kill “comrades in drink” (2180), an important virtue in the comitatus. The brief reference to Beowulf’s clumsy youth probably is left over from folk origins; there are many folk examples of inept, awkward, apparently lazy, or cowardly adolescents who grow into impressive adults.
The poet is finished with Beowulf’s youth and turns to the waning years of the great man’s life. As he does, the reader will do well to remember the message of Hrothgar’s sermon and hope that Beowulf does, too.
