Beowulf

Beowulf is a Swedish warrior whose tale is recounted in the eponymous epic poem.  He arrives in the holdings of Hrothgar, a famed king whose mead hall was beset by a monstrous creature known as Grendel.  Grendel is a horrifying creature that walks like a man, but is covered with hair that no blade can pierce.  On his first night at Hrothgar’s mead hall, Beowulf encounters Grendel.  In the flow of battle, Beowulf uses his tremendous strength to tear off Grendel’s arm.  Grendel then flees in terror to the swamp from which he came.  There he perishes.

Hrothgar and Beowulf hang the arm outside the mead hall as a trophy, but there woes are not over.  Grendel’s mother, a swamp-hag, comes seeking retribution for her slain son.  She kills Hrothgar’s advisor Aeschere.  As revenge for his death, Beowulf sets out for her lair.  Once he arrives there, he stumbles upon the corpse of Grendel.  Grendel’s mother then attacks Beowulf and drags him into her underwater lair.  During the fight, Beowulf’s sword is ineffective, but he happens upon the ancient blade of a giant.  With this newfound weapon, he strikes down Grendel’s mother and returns triumphant to Hrothgar’s hall.

Having freed these lands of their troubles, Beowulf returns to Geatland to become king.  He rules for fifty-one years, at which time someone disturbs the hoard of a wyrm.  Beowulf sets out to slay this wyrm that is now terrorizing his kingdom.  Only young Wiglaf dares enter the lair of the dragon beside his king.  There the wyrm and Beowulf enter mortal combat.  In the end, Beowulf kills the wyrm, but it has also stabbed him with a poisoned horn.  Wiglaf carries his king out of the dragon’s lair for Beowulf’s final breaths.

Readings:  Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf