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Beowulf. Beowulf exemplifies the traits of the perfect hero. The poem explores his heroism in two separate phases—youth and age—and through three separate and increasingly difficult conflicts—with Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon.
Many readers have seen Beowulf ’s monsters as embodiments of evil, representing the idea that evil is a mysterious, inhuman force. All three monsters emerge from darkness, inflicting fear and suffering on the poem’s human characters. Grendel, in particular, is closely allied with the forces of evil.
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At Heardred's death, Beowulf takes the throne of the Geats, and rules in great prosperity and fame for fifty years. In Beowulf's old age, a thief finds a passageway into an old barrow. Inside, a dragon guards a treasure trove left there long ago by the last survivor of an extinct people.
At the end of the poem, Beowulf goes to fight the dragon, anticipating that it will be his last battle. He succeeds in killing his opponent, but he is mortally wounded. His people give him a glorious funeral, but they have been left unprotected, and they foresee “enemies on the rampage, bodies in piles, / slavery and abasement” (ll. 3154-5).
Poem Summary. Beowulf is the longest and greatest surviving Anglo-Saxon poem. The setting of the epic is the sixth century in what is now known as Denmark and southwestern Sweden. The poem opens with a brief genealogy of the Scylding (Dane) royal dynasty, named after a mythic hero, Scyld Scefing, who reached the tribe's shores as a castaway ...
Jun 15, 2023 · Beowulf Summary. Beowulf is an Old English poem about a Geatish hero who comes to Denmark to kill a monster. Beowulf comes to the aid of Hrothgar, king of the Danes, to fight the monster Grendel ...
