Buffy the Vampire Slayer resembles the folk-epic hero Beowulf, demonstrating not only the richness of Joss Whedon's text, but also the continuing relevance of the Anglo-Saxon epic.

We naturally assume the hero status of Buffy, a fact referenced regularly by the show itself.  But few have explored the degree to which Buffy fits within heroic tradition—epic, mythic, or folkloric.  Indeed, when C.W. Marshall relates Buffy to the Aeneid, he compares Giles to Aeneas, not Buffy.  But Laurel Bowman shows that Buffy's story through the first six seasons follows closely the hero's journey described by Joseph Campbell.  Like Bowman, Frances Early addresses Buffy as a warrior.  Though both emphasize the subversive nature of the female hero, they acknowledge a connection to the traditional male hero.

The episodic narrative structure of Beowulf and Buffy are coincidentally similar.  In addition, the language of Buffy, characterized by Michael Adams as “slang,” resembles the inventiveness of the Anglo-Saxon scop.  As a hero, Buffy compares to Beowulf in fundamental ways.  She is the “warrior of the people,” fighting with weapons that would feel comfortable in Beowulf's hands: swords, a troll’s hammer.  Like Beowulf, the Slayer can be seen as a Christian archetypal hero (e.g. see Playdon 129).  Finally, Buffy’s remarkable verbal dexterity recalls Beowulf’s skillful speech, suggesting the social dimension of their heroism.  Overbey and Preston-Matto identify Buffy’s language play as “tied to Slayage” and so “not a role that that just anyone can fill” (75).

One apparent difference between the two heroes, their motivation, resolves into another clear connection.  Beowulf seeks out the hopeless battle in a desire for fame.  Buffy, a more reluctant hero, battles evil cloaked in “secret identity.”  However, the last lines of Beowulf and the words on Buffy’s tombstone at the end of Season 5 reflect, with similar understated simplicity, the fame of each.

 Works Cited

Adams, Michael.  Slayer Slang.  New York:  Oxford UP, 2003.

Bowman, Laurel.  “Buffy the Vampire Slayer:  The Greek Hero Revisited.”  30 September 2003  <http://web.uvic.ca/~lbowman/buffy/buffythehero.html>.

Early, Frances.  “Staking Her Claim:  Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Transgressive Woman Warrior.”  Slayage: The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies 6 (September 2002) <http://www.slayage.tv/essays/slayage6/Early.htm>.

Marshall, C. W.  “Aeneas the Vampire Slayer:  A Roman Model for Why Giles Kills Ben.”  Slayage: The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies 9 (August 2003) <http://www.slayage.tv/essays/slayage9/Marshall.htm>.

Overbey, Karen Eileen and Lahney Preston-Matto.  “Staking in Tongues:  Speech Act as Weapon in Buffy.”  Fighting the Forces:  What’s at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.   Eds.  Rhonda V. Wilcox and David Lavery.  New York:  Rowman,  2002.  73-84.

Playdon, Zoe Jane.   “What You Are, What’s to Come:  Feminisms, Citizenship, and the Divine.”  Reading the Vampire Slayer:  An Unofficial Critical Companion to Buffy and Angel.  Ed.  Roz Kaveney.  New York:  Tauris Parke, 2003.  120-147.