So.
Beowulf is the story of a warrior-turned king who remains a warrior throughout his long reign and dies as both a warrior (in status and acts) and a king (in status and merit).
His life story is this of a man looking for his identity, trying to live out of the shadows of his ancestors, seeing behind every lurking danger an opportunity to write his legacy, a man who will rule a land full of mighty warriors but, through circumstances, willingness or cowardice of peers, will face his greatest foes by himself.
As a matter of fact, Beowulf is essentially lonely for his entire life, as there are no recollections of a love relationship (don't trust the movie); he's trying to set himself apart from most, tries everything to separate his name from his lineage so as to have a name for himself in order not to be referred to as “Beowulf, son of-” for his entire life. And so he succeeds, but as he cuts the wire between Ecgtheow's name and his own, he also fails to unite with a woman, therefore fails to procreate and have an heir, thus extinguishing his lineage as soon as he gives his last breath.
Beowulf was alone in all aspects, as figuratively as literally; lived alone, wifeless and wanting to detach himself from his father and died alone, abandoned and without a son.

In the warrior culture of medieval Scandinavia, it seems material riches have a consequent value when it comes to defining a person's importance and/or statuses.
The funerals of a man of power are characterized by the surrounding of his body by gold, jewels, coins, and various weapons. But in Beowulf's case the sadly ironic part is that he will die fighting over a piece of treasure, or treasure altogether if we look at the bigger picture, but which, contrary to the funerary customs of the Danes, will in turn be mostly burnt or buried instead of disposed in Beowulf's floating grave.
Why Beowul's people decided to discard more than half of the so hardly-acquired jackpot might be explained by the