Beowulf: The Song of the Monster-Slayer
For twelve years, a monster terrorized a king's hall each night — until a stranger from across the sea arrived to end it.
In the mead-hall of Heorot, the Danish king Hrothgar's warriors feasted and sang, until the darkness brought Grendel, a monster who could not bear the noise of joy. For twelve winters, Grendel raided the hall, killing Hrothgar's men, and no one in Denmark could stop him. Word of this terror crossed the sea to the land of the Geats, where a warrior named Beowulf heard of Hrothgar's suffering and resolved to help.
Beowulf sailed to Denmark with his men and offered his strength to Hrothgar. That night, he waited in Heorot without weapons, and when Grendel came, Beowulf seized him with his bare hands. In the struggle, he tore the monster's arm from its body; Grendel fled into the night and died of his wound.
But Grendel's mother, grieving and vengeful, came to Heorot to avenge her son. Beowulf pursued her to her lair beneath a lake and killed her in a fierce underwater battle. Victorious, he returned to Geatland, and in time became king of his own people.
Fifty years passed. Beowulf, now an old king, faced a final threat: a dragon whose treasure hoard had been disturbed. In the battle that followed, Beowulf slew the dragon but was mortally wounded. His people cremated his body and raised a barrow on a headland to honor him forever.
The poem that tells this story survives in a single manuscript, the Nowell Codex. The only certain date is for that manuscript itself, produced sometime between AD 975 and 1025 — but when the poem was actually composed remains a matter of contention among scholars, and the tale itself may be far older, rooted in pagan Scandinavian legend later shaped by a Christian hand. Its 3,182 alliterative lines make it one of the most significant works of Old English literature, though its author remains anonymous, known only as the 'Beowulf poet.'
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