Help! What lessons do you think Anglo-Saxon listeners of Beowulf were meant to
take away? Consider the real dangers the medieval population of Britain or Scandinavia faced, and the beliefs they turned to for courage and reassurance. What was the importance of a gripping tale of a contest between a hero and a monster?

They were meant to take away that the bear is not always a cub. Life without heroism is life without prosperity. There is no single implication that can describe it, or that feeling. All we can suggest as interpreters is that the shell only blossoms once or twice a day. We must never miss that opportunity.

yes, it can be both.