The epic Beowulf showed many mythological elements in it. Beowulf is filled with references to Norse gods, mythical monsters, weapons with magical powers, and races of giants. A big give away that it contains mythological elements is it makes references to pagan elements that indicate myths and legends in early medieval times. The elements contain the basic concept of heroism. The main topic of monsters and magic in the epic also are evidence that this movie comes from an older, pagan tradition inclosing mythological elements. Beowulf reflects an ancient pagan, warrior society tradition.
There are multiple mythological elements. A big one would be boasting. Unferth, who is a Danish warrior, is jealous of Beowulf and brags about all the wars and fights he has been in. He brings up the one event of when Beowulf did not defeat a monster he attempted to. Unferth tries to fight Grendel and fails in doing so, thus proving himself inferior to Beowulf. Monsters are a major mythological element. First, we have the two demons, Grendel and his mother, and the other assorted monsters of the epic – the dragon that Beowulf must fight, the serpentine creatures in the lake, and the sea monsters that Beowulf fought in the past. But Beowulf is also deeply conflicted about religion. As a result, Beowulf fuses the supernatural together with a religious depiction of evil in a strange and interesting way.
The Nordic myths express the good fighting against evil, which is a huge mythological element. Like in Greek mythology there are also places where the dead go. Those in the epic Beowulf who die bravely go to Valhalla, the dishonored go to Niflheim. In Greek mythology all human souls went to the Hades, there they were judged and placed in one of three worlds; the Elysian Fields were for those who were good in life, Asphodel Meadows was a place where the neither good nor bad went and all bad souls went to Tartarus to be tortured. In Beowulf there were gods like in Greek mythology. For example, Odin was the chief god-god of war, death and also wisdom. In Beowulf, the whole epic was centered on fixing a problem. The problem was Grendel, who was causing disaster and ruckus to the city. Beowulf plots a plan to defeat Grendel and he succeeds up until a few days