The supernatural but mortal Beowulf

In the epic poem Beowulf, Beowulf is portrayed as a man who is stronger than normal men, yet is still mortal.  He is portrayed as a man with supernatural strength, in a world of supernatural creatures.

  I think it is interesting that in Beowulf the protagonist is faced with supernatural opposition, and is able to come off conquer.  In the battle with Grendel, when Grendel seizes Beowulf he is surprised and fearful because of the strength of Beowulf, in lines 750 it reads “as soon as the shepherd of sins discovered that he had never met on middle earth, in any region of the world, another man with a greater handgrip, in his heart he was afraid for his life.”

 Grendel being a supernatural creature could eat and destroy pretty much anything it wanted to, until it battled with Beowulf.  I find it interesting in this story how one man could be so much stronger and powerful than any other man. 

This idea of one man having supernatural strength and yet still mortal reminds me of Gilgamesh, and his friend Enkidu.  It seemed that these two had supernatural strength, beyond most humans. 

I do not know much about ancient literature, but I think it would be interesting to learn more about it, and see if this was a common idea in works of literature that were written in the past, almost a theme that reflected the ideas and wishes of people at the time. 

It would seem to me that if one wrote about a mortal with super natural strength, maybe that was a desire for the ancient time.  With so much wars and everything centered around ones strength it  would not surprise me to find out that most ancient literature did indeed focus on this topic of mortal, supernatural strength.