Lord of the Rings vs. Beowulf

So, I'm kind of combining two of the main ideas that we did freewrites about in class today: "community and social groups" and "loyalty and honor". I think that it's interesting that Lord of the Rings seems to have more of an emphasis on loyalty whereas beowulf has it's emphasis on honor. I also think that this goes hand in hand with the theme of community in the stories. Lord of the Rings also emphasizes community more in my opinion. This would make sense that when emphasizing community, there is also emphasis on loyalty. When in a community, people need to be loyal and trust each other to get a job done. I think this is shown especially in the fellowship. They were a community with a single purpose. They were loyal to each other and trusted each other, and even though Frodo was the ring-bearer, the others in the fellowship played a huge part in helping him. However, in Beowulf, it seems that the individual is stressed more than the community. It also makes sense that when there is emphasis on honor, individualism is stressed. Even though Beowulf had his 15 men with him to help him, they didn't do anything but watch, until the very end when Wiglaf helped him with the dragon. The focus was really on the individual and what he could do rather than on the group.