Before recorded literature existed, heroes dominated spoken tales of adventure. As the human race grew older and wiser the definition of a heroic individual evolved. Various qualities of a hero changed over time yet other details remain constant. Consequently, the main characters in works of literature set three centuries apart possess different as well as similar characteristics. An Anglo-Saxon epic, Beowulf, and a chivalric romance, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, contain men with parallel …showed first 75 words of 890 total…

…showed last 75 words of 890 total…full of braggadocio while the chivalric hero is nearly subservient. Both heroes are leaders – although their attitudes in this differ - and believe in God, yet their faith in him is dissimilar. The heroes’ endurances are rewarded and exalted but their challenges and reasons for praise are distinct. Time sculpted the variations of a hero. And heroic individuals will continue to undergo changes, but heroes will forever be immortalized in literature in many diverse forms.