Beowulf poem summary

What is a short summary of beowulf? Seeing his king in trouble, one thane, Wiglaf, goes to his assistance. The others flee to the woods. His confidence cheers the Danish warriors, and the feast lasts merrily into the night. At last, however, Grendel arrives.

The poem begins with a brief genealogy of the Danes.

Beowulf probably was composed in England. Hrothgar, like his ancestors before him, is a good king,. Grendel is a “mearc-stapa” (l.103), a “border-stepper,” and all three of the poem’s monsters lurk in the edge-wildernesses.

He cuts the head from Grendel’s corpse and returns to Heorot. The Danes rejoice once more. He assembles a raiding party to assault the dragon at his lair. Inside, a dragon guards a treasure trove left there long ago by the last survivor of an extinct people.

It also functions as a kind of history, blending past, present, and future in a unique, all-encompassing way.

Most people know that the poem documents the struggle of the title character in vanquishing a monster named Grendel. Download the free study guide and infographic for Beowul. Summary and Analysis Lines 1-193.

While most of the poem was discovered intact, some of it had been destroye likely burned in a fire. It is about three thousand lines long and the story revolves around three battles. Herot and the Emergence of Grendel.

Hrothgar believes that since he is the greatest king ever,. It is said that he still lies there with his gold. He saves a neighboring people from a monster, Grendel, eventually becomes the king of his own people, and dies defending them from a dragon. It is a great adventure story, and a deeply philosophical one.

Bookmark this page Manage My Reading List. In modern, written poetry, we often judge the excellence of the creator by the use of unusual but appropriate imagery. The more original the poem is, the better. Scyld Scefing and the Past. The setting is in the later part of the 5th century, CE.

This chapter uses simple and fun videos that are about five minutes long, plus includes lesson quizzes and a chapter exam to ensure you understand. Old English poetry uses alliterative meter, meaning that the stressed words in a line begin with the same sound.