The dragon (Beowulf) in 1953 that the dragon's "ultimate significance in the poem" remains a "mystery". Seamus Heaney suggests that Beowulf's attitude towards fighting the dragon reflects his "chthonic wisdom refined in the crucible of experience", that is there is already a "beyond-the-grave aspect" to his resoluteness. As Beowulf dies from his fight with the dragon, despite defeating it, James Parker of "The Atlantic" writes that "There is no transcendence in "Beowulf", and no redemption [...] kill the dragon—but the dragon will get you anyway". Joan Acocella states in "The New Yorker" that "unlike Grendel and his mother, [the dragon] is less a
The dragon (Beowulf) referred to in language which is meant to recall the powers of darkness which Christian men felt themselves to be encompassed. They are 'inmates of hell', 'adversaries of God', 'offspring of Cain', 'enemies of mankind'...And so Beowulf, for all that he moves in the world of the primitive Heroic Age of the Germans, nevertheless is almost a Christian knight". Peter Gainsford noted in the article "The Deaths of Beowulf and Odysseus: Narrative Time and Mythological Tale Types" that "In the twenty-first century "Beowulf" does not lack for commentators to defend the literary merit of the dragon episode". Adrien Bonjour opined