Beowulf C700-750 A.D.

Beowulf Composed in Old English Alliterative measure Oral epic handed down Archetypal tales of monsters, god-fashioned weapons, descents to the underworld, fights with dragons, and hero’s quest to save a community threatened by evil Beowulf is to England what Iliad and Odyssey are to ancient Greece

Beowulf Synopsis First Battle: Grendel Grendel is angered by singing and his being an outcast from society (son of Cain), so he kills and devours Hrothgar’s warriors while they sleep. Beowulf hears of their troubles and leaves his homeland to help Hrothgar. Beowulf and his men spend the night in Heorot. Grendel cannot touch the throne because it is protected by God. Beowulf feigns sleep, then wrestles Grendel and tears his arm off. Grendel runs home to die.

Beowulf Synopsis Second Battle: Grendel’s Mother Grendel’s mother attacks Heorot for revenge and kills Hrothgar’s most trusted warrior, Aeschere. Hrothgar, Beowulf, and men track Grendel’s mother to her lair. Unferth gives Beowulf a sword (Hrunting) and Beowulf dives into the lake. Grendel’s mother cannot penetrate his armor. She drags him to the bottom of the lake (where Grendel is) Hrunting will not harm Grendel’s mother, so Beowulf uses a sword from the monster’s armory to behead her. He then returns the the trophies of her and Grendel’s heads.

Beowulf Synopsis Third Battle: The Dragon Beowulf returns home and becomes king. Later in life he steals a golden cup from a dragon’s lair. The dragon then burns everything. Beowulf and his men go to slay the dragon, but everyone flees when they get there except for Beowulf and Wiglaf. Beowulf kills the dragon with Wiglaf’s help, but is mortally wounded in the battle. Beowulf’s remains are buried on a cliff overlooking the sea with the dragon’s treasure because of the curse associated with it. Wiglaf takes Beowulf’s place.

Anti-Hero A protagonist who possesses qualities antithetical to those of the traditional hero. The anti-hero is not only a failed hero, but a social misfit, graceless, sometimes weak or comic; the embodiment of ineptitude or bad luck in a world made for others. Ex. Sweeney Todd, Grendel, the wolf in The True Story of the Three Little Pigs

A figurative renaming common in Old English. Kenning A figurative renaming common in Old English. Examples from Beowulf: Bent-necked wood Ringed prow Sea-wood Sea-farer ship Swan road Whale road sea Leavings of the file sword Twilight spoiler dragon Storm of swords battle Peace-bringer among nations queen Word-hoard mouth

Old English The term Old English doesn’t just mean English that is old. Shakespeare, for example, did not write in old English, but in early modern English. Old English is an entirely different language:

Seamus Heaney’s Translation In 2000, Seamus Heaney, an Irish poet and scholar, published a new translation of Beowulf from the Old English, balancing the alliterative verse with accurate content.