If you haven’t, it’s okay, I just recently read this epic tale myself. Also to note, Epics are long literary poems that tell tales of heroes and legends. It’s literally an Epic.
This was an interesting read. A long one, but it still eventually caught my attention. I wouldn’t have read this story on my own though. I read this for a class assignment and for it to be a learning experience for my test. This story was kind of wild.
For some context, Beowulf is a 3,182-line Old English poem about a Scandinavian warrior who helps this king defeat this monster. Then he goes to defeat some more monsters. The warrior of course is Beowulf, and he’s described to have the traits of loyalty, courageousness, and wiseness. He is super strong and can even hold his breath for hours. So, you know, what you would expect a classic hero to be like. The monster he went to get rid of is named Grendel. He’s described to be a giant monster with clawed hands and feet and jagged fangs. But his appearance has been depicted in different ways, but this is what is in the poem.
Beowulf did end up finding Grendel and the battle ended with Beowulf cutting off Grendel’s limbs. This is where the journey starts
After killing Grendel, Beowulf was awarded with land and some titles. He became a notorious hero, and since his fame grew big, more people requested his heroic help.
So, the next person he ended up battling was Grendel’s mother. Yup, she was like, “I’m about to avenge my son and no one is going to stop me”.
Beowulf’s battle with her though was kind of tougher to beat. To point out, she was a sea-creature monster that lived in a black lake that was boiling and filled with monsters.
She was biting his shoulder, trying to gash out his eyes, and some more stuff. From what I remember reading, at some point it seemed as if the monster defeated Beowulf. Which was a bad thing that led to a bigger bad thing. The first bad thing was it leading to some of Beowulf’s army betraying him by abandoning him without checking if he was actually gone first. Which led to him getting revenge, but back to the battle. Beowulf did defeat the sea monster. He killed her by slicing her head off. The poem itself got really descriptive about it.
Like I said, Beowulf was out here doing some things. Heroic things as they call it, but for it to be a poem it was some real serious actions and descriptions.
Before the next battle Beowulf had to teach his people a little lesson about loyalty. So, he did what most heroes in epics would do and threw the severed head of the monster he defeated onto the dinner table while everyone was eating. Yep. Just tossed it while they were enjoying their mead.
It doesn’t stop their y’all. But at this point I had gotten kind of tired while reading and missed a big plot which I’ll eventually get back to, but I did read the last battle.
It was against a dragon. Yes! You heard it folks, he battled the huge reptile that steals everyone’s jewels and things like that. Now, this battle was huge, and usually I would tell you how it ended.
But! I’m not going to do that this time.
Use this as your motivation to read this Epic and experience the journey along with me.
On a new note, I’ve found out that the battles had some symbolism in them.
I love Beowulf, there’s a really cool quote I love
“Fate saves the living when they drive away death by themselves”
I have always adored modern retellings of historical folk tales and mythology; it gives such a well-deserved comedic tone and creates an environment in which a lot of these stories that have been deemed too advanced can now thrive and become something more widely understood and enjoyed.