Beowulf 1

Unferth responded in the way he did because he felt inferior to Beowulf. He was like a wolf trying to defend his alpha male status. Unferth is the local hero of the Danes, so naturally he would feel threatened by Beowulf- the great hero from the land Geats. He wanted to belittle Beowulf's greatness to make himself seem better. Unferth recalled Beowulf's race with Breca across the sea and how Beowulf lost. His intentions fail when Beowulf responds. Beowulf admits that Unferth's accusations were true. He then goes on about how his finish and journey was much greater than Breca's. Along the way, Beowulf had to stop multiple times to slaughter the sea monsters who wished to drag their bodies to bottom of the sea. Beowulf may have finished second but none would have been able to do what he did and still finish. This boast of his race with Breca glorified him even more as a hero. The fact that Beowulf was able to swim across the sea and fight monsters all in one piece was more heroic than actually winning. At first it was just a race, then race turned fowl and became a battle. In this battle, Beowulf rose as the victor.