Beowulf is a long manuscript telling about the Anglo-Saxon civilisation as an epic poem.

The extract I've analyzed tells about Beowulf who will help his king.

First of all the narrator describes the protagonist with strong, important adjectives and superlatives to underline his behaviour. The narrator said "there was no one else like him alive". The phrase underlines the importance of his chief in Anglo-Saxon society. One cannot forget the bonds warriors had towards their chief were based on fidelity and a sense of honour, so the protagonist is immediately ready to help his king. To abandon the king was a terrible transgression for the Anglo-Saxons.

The narrator does not use physical adjectives to describe Beowulf. It may mean that for Anglo-Saxons appearance was not as important as it is today.

In the extract the reader can also understand the importance of warriors at that time. Most Anglo-Saxons were warriors.

The feat of  the protagonist  is very difficult. This underlines one of the values of Anglo-Saxons was courage.

In the second last line the warriors thank God. From this phrase the reader understands the  Anglo-Saxons were religious people.

A contemporary reader understands how the Anglo-Saxons lived and he/she can compare his/her society with Anglo-Saxons society. To tell the truth, while the Anglo-Saxons were centred on a military life, nowadays people can choose if to start the military service or not.

Iy follows that, at present, there is not a strong bond of fidelity and sense of honour with our leaders and for lots of people religion is not as important as it used to be. 

On the contrary people consider appearancereally important .