Ed I'm glad you point out that Beowulf is a good guy and our 21st Century lense fails to take into account his culture's expectations of him. And I will be sure to examine those readings. He dies with his boots on. Again, we have the Hildebrandslied and Walhere as analogs, and the ritual nature of this speech-act is self evident. This is evident from a comparative study with the available analogues.
Gold is the cement that maintains retainers and keeps the successful and competent on top.
It is also a retirement fund and the ability to protect. It may also may be seen as tangible evidence of the favor of God or the gods. There are gamblers who gamble not for the money, but for the feeling of being favored by a higher force. In the Germanic tradition, gold is this objective correlative of the hero's success at restoring the order of a healthy society. Thus, the treasures in Beowulf represent the restoration of order after the chaos of the monsters' depredations.