all heroes slay dragons
... Grendel. Beowulf went to the Danes and took care of the problem but not before a huge epic battle between him and Grendel. He didn’t actually kill Grendel but he tore his arms off so that he would never be able to bother the Danes ever again. That was just one of the battles that Beowulf had to fight. After he stopped Grendel from terrorizing the town of the Danes, Grendels mother would just let Beowulf get away with harming her one and only son. She challenged Beowulf, and of course him being the epic hero of the whole episode he defeats her also. That was another dragon that he slayed. Later on in the story years had past and Beowulf was then in his late seventies when he called to fight a real dragon, this time it was not just a metaphor, he had to go against an actual dragon. He could of turned away from the battle and stayed at home because of his age but he felt that it was his duty as a hero to protect people from dangerous situations. He went and tried to beat the dragon but his weapons aged along with his life and they failed him. His sword broke when he hit the dragons tough skin. Beowulf was fatally wounded by the dragon and he later died. Tha...