Beowulf

Beowulf is one of the most known legends and heroic epics of the Scandinavian countries. It can be compared with The Song of Nibelungs, The Song of Roland, and The Lay of the Igor’s Host, though all these works were created later, than Beowulf.

The epic was written in Old English, though the events take place in Scandinavia, and the plot deals mainly with Scandinavian matters. Nevertheless, the work has become England’s national epic.

The plot is the following:

King Hrothgar built a great hall Heorot for his people. There he, his wife and warriors spent their time; but a giant monster Grendel, angered by the noise, attacked the hall and killed many warriors. Hrothgar and his warriors were powerless before Grendel, and were forced to leave Heorot.

But a young warrior Beowulf heard of Hrothgar’s trouble and left his homeland with twelve warriors, in order to help the king. During their first night in Heorot, Grendel attacked and devoured one of Beowulf’s men, but was unable to touch the king’s throne, as it was under God’s protection.

Beowulf fought the monster, grabbing his arm; the warriors could not help, as their swords were unable to harm Grendel’s skin. But Beowulf managed to tear Grendel’s arm, and the monster ran to his home to die in the marshes.

The story does not end here. The next night Heorot was attacked by Grendel’s mother, who killed most trusted warrior of Hrothgar in revenge for her son. The king, Beowulf and their men tracked Grendel’s mother to her lair under a lake.

Beowulf prepared for battle, armed himself with the sword Hrunting (given by a warrior Unfer), gave various instructions in case of his death and dove into the lake. Grendel’s mother, unable to break through his armor, dragged him to the bottom. There was a cavern with Grendel’s body and the remains of men, killed by the monsters. There they started the combat.

Hrunting showed itself useless against Grendel’s mother; so Beowulf grabbed a sword from Grendel’s mother armoury (which cannot be carried by any other man), and managed to behead his opponent.

Then he returned to the surface, after severing the head of dead Grendel.

After returning home Beowulf took part in a historic raid against the Franks with his king Hygelac. The king died during the raid, and Beowulf swam home. The throne was proposed to him, but Beowulf declined it in favour of the young prince Heardred. But Heardred gave refuge to two Swedish princes (Eadgils and Eanmund), who told that their uncle Onela had usurped the throne. This led to a Swedish invasion, and Heardred was killed. Beowulf was proclaimed king and decided to help Eadgils and take revenge for Heardred. He succeed in both tasks.

Fifty years passed, and the final battle has come. A slave stole a golden cup from a dragon’s lair at Earnaness. The dragon became furious, and left his cave, burning everything. Beowulf and his warriors came to fight, but almost everybody was struck with fear and unable to struggle. Only Beowulf and young Wiglaf entered the battle. Together they killed the dragon, but Beowulf died because of wounds.

He was cremated and buried on a cliff overlooking the sea. The dragon’s treasure is buried with him, because of fear before the curse, assosiated with it.

Here we have seven lines from “Beowulf”:

Fyrst forð ჳewāt: flota wǽs on ỳðum,

bāt under beorჳe. Beornas ჳearwe

on stefn stiჳon: strēamas wundon,

sund wið sande; secჳas bǽron

on bearm nacan beorhte frǽtwe.

ჳūðsearo ჳeatolic; ჳuman ūt scufon,

weras on wilsīþ wudu bundenne.