Beowulf: An Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem

About this book

For twelve years the monster Grendel has attacked Heorot, the great hall of the Danish king Hrothgar, carrying off warriors at night. Beowulf, a young hero of the Geats from southern Sweden, sails to Denmark with fourteen companions, waits for Grendel in the dark and tears off his arm with his bare hands. When Grendel's mother comes for revenge, Beowulf follows her to her lair beneath a haunted lake and kills her with an ancient sword. Fifty years later, now king of the Geats, he goes out to face a fire-breathing dragon whose treasure has been robbed, and only one young warrior, Wiglaf, stands by him.

Context and significance

The oldest long poem in English, composed sometime between the eighth and the early eleventh century, survives in a single manuscript that was damaged by fire in 1731 and is now in the British Library. This verse translation, of 1892, is by John Lesslie Hall, who tried to keep the poem's alliterative rhythm. Its cousins in Old Norse are the sagas, such as Grettir's Saga.

About the author