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I think Beowulf felt a very heavy connection and responsibility over his men that led him to be wary of condoning them fighting such a formidable foe, so he opted to carried the weight of that task by himself. I also think he had ample confidence in himself, even though he was prepared for a vicious battle, he still felt capable enough to defeat the dragon. Beowulf also seems to accept his fate either way, "as the wyrd decrees" and "my mind is firm", when he is discussing going to the dragon in solitude.

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I think that Beowulf wants to fight the dragon alone for a couple reasons. One reason may be that he is a proud hero. He has a lot of confidence and might want all the credit for defeating the dragon. Another reason could be that he does so to protect others. The whole reason he came to fight is to save people from the tormenting. Perhaps he did not want to endanger more lives by taking people with him to help fight. He says that he "comes with a friendly heart" to be a "remedy for the evil of his afflictions." He has good intentions to help others out of their misery. He did not have to do this, so I think him trying to defeat the dragon alone is out of nicety.

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I think that Beowulf wants to fight the dragon alone for a couple reasons. One reason may be that he is a proud hero. He has a lot of confidence and might want all the credit for defeating the dragon. Another reason could be that he does so to protect others. The whole reason he came to fight is to save people from the tormenting. Perhaps he did not want to endanger more lives by taking people with him to help fight. He says that he "comes with a friendly heart" to be a "remedy for the evil of his afflictions." He has good intentions to help others out of their misery. He did not have to do this, so I think him trying to defeat the dragon alone is out of nicety.

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I think Beowulf fights the dragon alone not only to protect his people and keep them from having to fight and sacrifice themselves but also to further prove his own strength and leadership. To cast himself as a heroic being that'd go down in history and create a immortality for himself by completing this deed.

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I think he chooses to fight the battle alone because he has done it twice already with Grendel and his mother, and he also knows this will be different from the others. He says, "but I expect the heat of battle-flames, steam and venom," so he knows this will be a difficult battle, and I think he is afraid of leading any of his men into their likely deaths, as he also says shortly after that it is not "proper for any man expect me alone."

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He decides to fight the dragon alone because he felt responsibility for the previous loss of men. In the passage we annotated this week there was talk that "the spear-deaths of men—his spirit is grim—begins, sad-minded, to test the mettle". It must be a lot of pressure to have so many men pledge loyalty to you when there are so many things that could go wrong.

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Beowulf tells his men, "this is not your path," which suggests multiple things. He either knows that nobody else is capable of fighting the dragon and succeeding, as he was the only one capable of defeating Grendel, or, he is trying to preserve their lives and genuinely cares about keeping them alive, so even if they could contribute, he fears losing even one man in a battle that he could engage in himself.

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IMO, Beowulf decides to fight the dragon alone because I think he understands the consequences of fighting the dragon (life or death); therefore, he makes himself the heroic sacrifice instead of his men. In lines 257-258, Beowulf says he will "forego boasting" in order to fight the dragon meaning that this is a battle of pure strength, and as the strongest man around, Beowulf finds only himself fit for this dual. 

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IMO, Beowulf decides to fight the dragon alone because I think he understands the consequences of fighting the dragon (life or death); therefore, he makes himself the heroic sacrifice instead of his men. In lines 257-258, Beowulf says he will "forego boasting" in order to fight the dragon meaning that this is a battle of pure strength, and as the strongest man around, Beowulf finds only himself fit for this dual. 

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I think his success in previous feats, especially defeating Grendel, contributed to his overconfidence. He said he felt he was the only one strong enough to defeat the dragon: "It is not your path, nor proper for any man except me alone." It is also possible that Beowulf knew he could very likely die, but knew it would be a noble and honorable death. He would forever be able to distinguish himself postmortem.

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Beowulf fights the dragon alone because, as with Grendel and Grendel's mother, he has fought without the aid of others. Though Beowulf's pride in his skill is founded on past deeds, he puts too much faith in his own abilities in a moment where it would have been best to call upon the aid of others. Lines 2510-2515: Beowulf spoke, said boasting words for the very last time: "I have survived many battles in my youth; I will yet, and old folk-guardian, seek out a feud and do a glorious deed, if only that evildoer will come out to me from his earth-hall."

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I think that a large part of why Beowulf chooses to fight the dragon alone comes partly from the ofermode or the overconfidence he has from the many battles he survived. The story says that he "did not dread the attack... because he had survived many battles." Mostly though, I think that it comes from the idea of Wryd and his feeling that what happens will happen no matter what. In line 2420 it says that he felt that "doom was immeasurably near." This combination of ofermode and wyrd makes him feel like what happens will happen but he can't back down or accept help as a show of strength.