Beowulf Wins! Then Dies...

First I want to address this dragon. When it was talking about how the dragon was setting fire to the town, it reminded me of the dragons in Game of Thrones only instead of protecting their mother, this dragon was protecting itself from thieves. I kind of feel bad for the dragon because he was just trying to protect his treasures but he kind of went off the deep end and started burning the town down which Beowulf could just not let happen. I'm really interested to know where all of these non-human/supernatural foes keep coming from? Is there a set amount in the world that they live in or do they spawn from some foreign world? If it's the latter, they will be fighting these monsters long after Beowulf's death.  

Beowulf really should have heeded that warning not to let all of his successes go to his head, because maybe he would still be alive. When he was preparing to fight the dragon, the narrator talked about how he was not afraid of this fight because he had already "...crushed Grendel and his kin in combat,..." (Line 2353). I know how facing your fears/enemies head on is seen as a good thing in this society (which in some cases I agree) but Beowulf's fight with Grendel was not easily won. He especially did not "crush" the fight with Grendel's mom where he almost died. In this instance, choosing to quit while he was ahead would have been a much better option. 

I'd also like to address Beowulf's terrible soldiers who just abandoned him when he needed them the most. I understand not wanting to fight against a huge dragon because you don't want to get eaten by it, but the job they signed up for of fighting with and for Beowulf literally could have been that same situation everyday. At least there was Wiglaf who stood by Beowulf's side even though he could only offer "...a little life-protection..." to him (Line 2877). I completely agree that the ten traitorous soldiers shouldn't receive any treasure and be stripped of land rights but I think it's a little extreme to punish everyone in their tribe. It kind of reminds me of the three generations of punishment that North Korea imposes on those who they feel have betrayed the government. The only ones who should be punished are the soldiers.