The epic "Beowulf" and the ballad "Mu-lan" are centuries old narrative poems written by anonymous or unknown poets and are believed to have originally been transmitted orally through music or storytelling. Between the two poems, there are slight similarities in content, but mostly, the poems differ in theme and diction; however, despite these differences, similarities can be found between their forms.

Both "Mu-lan" and the excerpt from "Beowulf" begin with a central character preparing to embark on a quest. Mu-lan joins the army in place of her father because he "has no grown-up son" and would have been drafted into the army. In an equally noble gesture, Beowulf, upon hearing about the Grendel, "this threat.../ this danger abroad in the dark nights, / this corpse-maker mongering death / in the Shieldings' country," decides to set sail for Denmark, along with "fourteen others," to slay this beast and save Denmark and...