Beowulf's Dragon | Anthony Esolen

Why does Beowulf say that only he can fight the dragon? Is he just being prideful or does he have a better reason?
Here is a video from Dr. Esolen tackling these questions.
About Anthony Esolen:
Anthony M. Esolen is a writer, social commentator, translator of classical poetry, and professor of English Renaissance and classical literature. He has taught at Furman University and Providence College, and joined the faculty of Thomas More College of Liberal Arts as a professor in 2017.
Esolen has translated into English Dante’s Divine Comedy, Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things, and Torquato Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered. In addition to multiple books, he is the author of over five hundred articles in such publications as The Modern Age, The Catholic World Report, Chronicles, The Claremont Review of Books, The Public Discourse, First Things, Crisis Magazine, The Catholic Thing, and Touchstone, for which he serves as a senior editor. He is a regular contributor to Magnificat, and has written frequently for a host of other online journals.
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[@ni200v]

Excellent post, and I'd love to see more of Dr. Esolen! More insights from the professor on Beowulf would be greatly appreciated!