UNFERTH.

Unferth who tries to make Beowulf not a winner, tells the story of Beowulf and Breca’s swimming match. He starts to explain how Breca had out swum Beowulf, which made Breca the “stronger contender”. Unferth wanted to bring down Beowulf of his duty to fight Grendel. Unferth tells the story of the losing Beowulf because he is jealous of Beowulf for something Unferth could not handle. Unferth thought it would be a good idea to bring down Beowulf so Unferth could be more recognized. Then, Beowulf starts to talk about his side of the story and puts down Unferth. Beowulf started with “Well, friend Unferth, you have had your say about Breca and me. But it was mostly beer that was doing the talking. The truth is this: when the going was heavy in those high waves, I was the strongest swimmer of all.” Beowulf put down Unferth by saying he was to drunk to know what he was talking about. Beowulf begins with defending himself and tells his side of the story. He tells everyone that he had done so much more than Breca even though he was the first one to finish as if he had succeeded the match. Beowulf went on to tell about all that he had accomplished in those nights he was constantly fighting the sea monsters. Even thought Unferth had put Beowulf down, Beowulf believed he had overcome this swimming match and had achieved something that Breca did not. Beowulf is a hero for standing up for himself when he was up against Unferth and also finishing the swimming match even thought Breca had finished before him but without everything that Beowulf had to overcome.