The Story

• Beowulf is an Anglo-Saxon tale, set in Scandinavia. Beowulf, a heroic prince, takes shelter one night in a mead hall, where he encounters Grendel, a cannibalistic monster who has repeatedly attacked the hall, and slays him. Grendel's mother attacks in revenge. Beowulf pursues her to her home under a lake, engages her in fierce battle, and finally kills her. Later in life, Beowulf, now king of his people, is fatally wounded while killing a dragon.
  
  

The Manuscript

• We are fortunate to know the story of Beowulf at all. Written between the 8th and the 11th centuries AD, only a single manuscript survives, written in Old English and included in a volume of Anglo-Saxon writings known as the Nowell Codex, after Laurence Nowell, who owned it in the 16th century. It survived both King Henry VIII's destruction of monastic book collections during his forcible conversion of England to Protestantism, and a terrible fire in 1731. The manuscript, though scorched and worm-eaten, is still for the most part legible.
  
  

The Characters

• Beowulf is the archetypal epic hero: brave, strong, willing to go where other men fear to walk. Grendel, the monster, is everything hideous and despised in the writer's culture, an unnatural brute who feeds on better men. Grendel's mother gets no points for loyalty to her child; she is hunted down and killed. Wiglaf, a loyal friend to Beowulf who is the only one to go to his aid when he fights the dragon, is accorded high honor by the poem's author for sticking by his lord.
  
  

The Poem

• Although set in the land of Vikings, Beowulf is a Christian poem written in England. Grendel and his mother are called descendants of Cain, the original villain of the Bible. The battle scenes so beloved of the Hollywood movies are actually a small part of the narrative, which reflects the cultural themes of the age in which it was written: the responsibilities of kings and the need for strength, honor and bravery in those who sought to lead. The writer examines the qualities of heroes, and allows God to save Beowulf in battle only after he demonstrates a willingness to stay in the fight. The tale is not so much a thrilling bedtime story as it is an example for others to follow.
  
  

The Age of Beowulf

• Beowulf springs from a rich cultural history in which swords were honored in and of themselves and the men who wielded them well rose to the top ranks of society. It was a time when entire societies depended upon the strength and wisdom of their kings, so the poem examines both bad kings and good ones and may be in some part historical.