In this poem sailors, mariners, noble warriors and above all Beowulf, are the protagonists.
Prince Beowulf had heard that in Heorot a monster used to kill the noblest and greatest soldiers of the king's court. Not caring about the danger, he decided to go and defend fiercely Hrothgar's reign.
In the following days, he collected some warriors and got ready to sail.
Nobody intented to convince him to renounce and this explains the thought of the people at that period. In his society, the main values considered courage and force the distinctive merits of noblemen, if someone was in danger, in every moment the duty of a prince was to point at the rescuing of the weak. In the culture of the insular people important elements were the sea, great friend but sometimes great enemy. Here essential things like ships dominate, and are specified with many different names. The main semantic fields are the sea and the war tracing the basic themes of the culture in that people.

Like  men of our time, we can indicate how different in esperience we are for example the values of today concern peace and not war.
In our society, important qualities are interior strength rather than fisical.