Beowulf begins with the death of Shield, a great king in the eyes of the Geats, and also ends with the death of Beowulf. These funerals are similar in many ways. These funerals may be a reflection of the life these kings lived because each king had his own way of being remembered. These funerals both involve huge amounts of treasure being loaded onto ships or thrown underground and the way the Geat people mourned the loss of the kings. Treasures were used to gain the loyalty of other men in Geat "faithful companions will stand by him" (Beowulf 23). These “loyal companions” (Beowulf 23) help the king survive and help conquer lands and allow the king to stay in power. At the end of this poem even those gifts will not get the support Beowulf needs. The treasure that was placed on the boat for Shield was “Far-fetched treasures / were heaped upon him and precious tools” (Beowulf 36-37). An "unlikely treasure" (Beowulf 36) would be among the rarest in the world. the world. Shield told his men to “Shoulder him to the flood of the sea” (Beowulf 30). The boat they put him on was "A spiral prow riding in the harbour, / Ice-clad, departing, a vessel for a prince" ( Beowulf 32-33). I think the description of the boat shows the honor the Geats wanted to show their kings and how much they elaborated on things. At Beowulf's funeral, at the end of the poem, they build a great pyre "The Geat people built a pyre for Beowulf, / stacked it and decked it till it was square." (Beowulf 3137-38). The pyre is like the boat in the first funeral: the boat is richly built and to stand the test of time. The pyre is built to be tall and strong, much like the boat. "hung with helmets, heavy war shields / and shining armour, just as he had... half the paper... going or where" the wind and the tide, cried upon him" (Beowulf 49) . They built a memorial on heights to let all who could see know that a great king lay there. All the treasure that had been found in the cave where the dragon had stayed was put back underground where the memorial is located. "They let the ground hold that ancestral treasure / gold under the gravel" (Beowulf 3166-67). These treasures have existed for centuries and centuries, the gold being taken from the earth and eventually put back into the earth. These kings thought about how they wanted to be remembered by the people of the time. Their funerals reflected their lives, through the gold that was deposited on the Shield ship and that was placed in the memorial on the coast for Beowulf. Works Cited Greenblatt, Stephen. The Norton Anthology of English Literature 8th Norton & Co Inc, 2006.