Beowulf begins with the death of Shield a great king in the eyes of the Geats, it also ends with the death of Beowulf. These funerals are similar in many ways. These funerals may be a reflection of the lives these kings lived, as each king had his own way of remembering. These funerals involve both the loading of huge quantities of treasure onto ships or their return to land and the way the Geat people mourned the loss of kings. Treasures were used to gain the loyalty of Geat's other men, "steadfast companions will support him" (Beowulf 23). These “steadfast companions” (Beowulf 23) help the king survive and help conquer lands and allow the king to remain in power. By the end of this poem, even these gifts will not get the support Beowulf needs. The treasure that was laid on the ship for Shield was “far-fetched treasures / were heaped upon him, together with valuable equipment” (Beowulf 36-37). A “far-fetched treasure” (Beowulf 36) would be one of the rarest in the world. the world. Shield told his men to “shoulder him to the tide of the sea” (Beowulf 30). The boat they put him in was “A ring-whorled prow rode in the harbor, / covered with ice, on the way, a ship for a prince” (Beowulf 32-33). I think the description of the boat shows the honor the Geat wanted to show their kings and how well they made things. At Beowulf's funeral, at the end of the poem, they build a large pyre: "The Geat people built a pyre for Beowulf, / piled it and adorned it until it was square." » (Beowulf 3137-38). The pyre is like the boat at the first funeral, the boat is ornately constructed and to stand the test of time. The pyre is built to be large and strong, very similar to the boat. "hung with helmets, heavy war shields / and gleaming armor, just as he had done... in the middle of a paper...... going or where the "wind and tide, the mourner » (Beowulf 49). They built a memorial on high ground, letting all who see know that a great king lay there. All the treasure that had been found in the cave where the dragon had stayed was returned to the ground where the memorial is located. “They let the ground keep this ancestral treasure/gold beneath the gravel” (Beowulf 3166-67). These treasures have existed for centuries, the gold is extracted from the ground and eventually put back into the ground. These kings thought about how they wanted to be remembered by the people of the time. Their funeral reflected their lives, through the gold that was placed on Shield's ship and which was placed in Beowulf's memorial on the coast. Works Cited Greenblatt, Stephen. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 8th. A. WW Norton & Co Inc., 2006.