"(3140–3170). ""Beowulf"" begins with the story of Hrothgar, who constructed the great hall Heorot for himself and his warriors. In it, he, his wife Wealhtheow, and his warriors spend their time singing and celebrating. Grendel, a troll-like monster said to be descended from the biblical Cain, is pained by the sounds of joy. Grendel attacks the hall and kills and devours many of Hrothgar's warriors while they sleep. Hrothgar and his people, helpless against Grendel, abandon Heorot. Beowulf, a young warrior from Geatland, hears of Hrothgar's troubles and with his king's permission leaves his homeland to assist Hrothgar. Beowulf and"
"Beowulf (hero) Beowulf (; Old English: ""Bēoƿulf"" ) is a legendary Geatish hero in the epic poem named after him, one of the oldest surviving pieces of literature in the English language. A number of origins have been proposed for the name ""Beowulf"". Henry Sweet, a philologist and early linguist specializing in Germanic languages, proposed that the name ""Bēowulf"" literally means in Old English ""bee-wolf"" or ""bee-hunter"" and that it is a kenning for ""bear"". This etymology is mirrored in recorded instances of similar names. ""Biuuuwulf"" is recorded as a name in the AD 1031 ""Liber Vitae"". The name is"
"finds the dying Grendel and decapitates him. Beowulf returns home to become king of the Geats. After some 50 years, a dragon whose treasure had been stolen from his hoard in a burial mound begins to terrorize Geatland. Beowulf, now in his eighties, tries to fight the dragon but cannot succeed. He follows the dragon to his lair where Beowulf's young relative Wiglaf joins him in the fight. Eventually, Beowulf slays the dragon but is mortally wounded. In the end, his followers bury their king in a mound by the sea. Tolkien's translation of ""Beowulf"" has been compared to Seamus"
"kills a beast that has been ravaging the Danish court for two years. The monster in ""Hrólf Kraki""'s saga, however, is quite unlike the Grendel of ""Beowulf""; but it does have characteristics of a more typical dragon, a creature which appears later in ""Beowulf"". Just as Beowulf and Wiglaf slay a dragon at the end of ""Beowulf"", Bödvar Bjarki and Hjalti help each other slay the creature in Denmark. Proponents of this theory, like J. R. R. Tolkien, argue that both the names ""Beowulf"" (lit. ""bee-wolf"", a kenning for ""bear"") and ""Bjarki"" are associated with bears. Bodvar Bjarki is constantly"
"who travels to Denmark to defeat a monster known as Grendel, who is terrorising the kingdom of Hrothgar, and later, Grendel's Mother as well. Following this, he later becomes the king of Geatland before finally dying in battle with a dragon. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it was commonly believed that ""Beowulf"" was not an Anglo-Saxon pagan tale, but a Scandinavian Christian one; it was not until the influential critical essay """" by J. R. R. Tolkien, delivered in 1936, that ""Beowulf"" was established as a quintessentially English poem that, while Christian, looked back on a living memory"
"Weohstan Weohstan, ""Wēohstān"" or ""Wīhstān"" (Proto-Norse *""Wīhastainaz"", meaning ""sacred stone"", Old Norse ""Vésteinn"" and ""Wǣstēn"") is a legendary character who appears in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem ""Beowulf"" and scholars have pointed out that he also appears to be present in the Norse ""Kálfsvísa"". In both ""Beowulf"" and ""Kálfsvísa"", Weohstan (""Vésteinn"") fought for his king Onela (""Áli"") against Eadgils (""Aðils""). According to ""Beowulf"", Weohstan is the father of Wiglaf, and he belongs to a clan called the ""Wægmundings"". Ecgþeow, the father of Beowulf, also belonged to this clan, so Weohstan is in some degree related to Beowulf. Thus he counts Weohstan's"
"Grendel Grendel is a character in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem ""Beowulf"" (AD 700–1000). He is one of the poem's three antagonists (along with Grendel's mother and the dragon), all aligned in opposition against the protagonist Beowulf. Grendel is feared by all but Beowulf. Grendel is described as descended from the lineage of the Biblical figure Cain, from Genesis 4 of the Bible. He is usually depicted as a monster or a giant, although his status as a monster, giant, or other form of supernatural being is not clearly described in the poem and thus remains the subject of scholarly debate."
"won the battle. Weohstan Weohstan, ""Wēohstān"" or ""Wīhstān"" (Proto-Norse *""Wīhastainaz"", meaning ""sacred stone"", Old Norse ""Vésteinn"" and ""Wǣstēn"") is a legendary character who appears in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem ""Beowulf"" and scholars have pointed out that he also appears to be present in the Norse ""Kálfsvísa"". In both ""Beowulf"" and ""Kálfsvísa"", Weohstan (""Vésteinn"") fought for his king Onela (""Áli"") against Eadgils (""Aðils""). According to ""Beowulf"", Weohstan is the father of Wiglaf, and he belongs to a clan called the ""Wægmundings"". Ecgþeow, the father of Beowulf, also belonged to this clan, so Weohstan is in some degree related to Beowulf. Thus"
"realm of Midgard. Other dragon-slaying myths are also found in the Germanic tradition. In the ""Völsunga saga"", Sigurd slays the dragon Fafnir and, in ""Beowulf"", the eponymous hero slays a different dragon. Reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European dragon-slaying myth are found throughout other branches of the language family as well. In Zoroastrianism and Persian mythology, Fereydun, and later Garshasp, slays Zahhak. In Slavic mythology, Perun, the god of storms, slays Veles and Dobrynya Nikitich slays the three-headed dragon Zmey. In Armenian mythology, the god Vahagn slays the dragon Vishap. In Romanian folklore, Făt-Frumos slays the fire-spitting monster Zmeu. In Celtic mythology,"
"by Heardred. This makes Onela attack the Geats to neutralize his nephews, and to avenge his father Ongentheow, who had been killed by the Geats. During the battle Heardred is killed. Eanmund is slain by his kinsman Weohstan. Heardred is succeeded by his cousin Beowulf, who avenges Eanmund by helping Eadgils kill Onela, an event which also appears in Scandinavian sources. Heardred Heardred (Proto-Norse *""Harðurāðaz"" ), died c. 530, is the son of Hygelac, king of the Geats, and his queen Hygd, in ""Beowulf"". After Hygelac's death, in Frisia, Hygd wants to make Hygelac's nephew Beowulf, king of Geatland, as"
"Sigurd Sigurd (Old Norse: ) or Siegfried (Middle High German: Sîvrit) is a legendary hero of Germanic mythology, who killed a dragon and was later murdered. It is possible he was inspired by one or more figures from the Frankish Merovingian dynasty, with Sigebert I being the most popular contender. Older scholarship sometimes connected him with Arminius, victor of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. He may also have a purely mythological origin. Sigurd's story is first attested on a series of carvings, including runestones from Sweden and stone crosses from the British Isles, dating from the eleventh century. In"
"was ""gren-dael[ed]"" or ""grin-divid[ed]"", after having his arm torn off at the shoulder by Beowulf, whose name means ""bee-wolf"" or ""bear"". Grendel appears in many other cultural works. Grendel Grendel is a character in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem ""Beowulf"" (AD 700–1000). He is one of the poem's three antagonists (along with Grendel's mother and the dragon), all aligned in opposition against the protagonist Beowulf. Grendel is feared by all but Beowulf. Grendel is described as descended from the lineage of the Biblical figure Cain, from Genesis 4 of the Bible. He is usually depicted as a monster or a giant,"
"recounting the Sigurd/Fafnir tale. Nonetheless, comparative contemporary narratives did not have the complexity and distinctive elements written into ""Beowulf""'s dragon scene. Beowulf is a hero who previously killed two monsters. The scene includes extended flashbacks to the Geatish-Swedish wars, a detailed description of the dragon and the dragon-hoard, and ends with intricate funerary imagery. ""Beowulf"" scholar J. R. R. Tolkien considered the dragon in ""Beowulf"" to be one of only two real dragons in northern European literature, writing of it, ""dragons, real dragons, essential both to the machinery and the ideas of a poem or tale, are actually rare. In"
"Hreðric and Hroðmund Hreðric and Hroðmund were the sons of the Danish king Hroðgar and his queen, Wealhþeow, in the Old English epic ""Beowulf"". They are only mentioned in passing, and there seems to be some foreshadowing in ""Beowulf"" that their cousin, Halga's son Hroðulf, i.e. Hrólfr Kraki, would usurp the throne from them. It has been suggested that Hreðric corresponds to Hrörekr/Rørik in Scandinavian tradition. However, the traditions vary and so Hrörekr is either killed by Hrólfr Kraki or his successor as the ruler of Zealand (the Danish heartland). In Saxo Grammaticus's ""Gesta Danorum"" (Book 2), Hrólfr Kraki kills"
"then also defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland in Sweden and later becomes king of the Geats. After fifty years have passed, Beowulf defeats a dragon, but is fatally wounded in the battle. After his death, his attendants bury him in a tumulus, a burial mound, in Geatland. The translation is followed by a commentary on the poem that became the base for Tolkien's acclaimed 1936 lecture """". Furthermore, the book includes the previously unpublished ""Sellic Spell"" and two versions of ""The Lay of ""Beowulf"""". The former is a fantasy piece on Beowulf's biographical background while the latter is"
"Zumak fruit in the labyrinth of King Minos where Beowulf fights a Minotaur which is being controlled by Satan. Because Satan has made Dracula his heir over Grendel, Grendel kills Satan by plunging a stalactite into his back. The Minotaur dies, and Beowulf eats some Zumak fruit; the fruit grants him supernatural strength on par with Grendel. Beowulf and Nan-Zee then make their way back to Daneland in order to slay Grendel who has taken Satan's place as king of the underworld. Beowulf's first appearance in over thirty years occurs in ""Wonder Woman"" #20 (July 2008), where Wonder Woman and"
"his story was written by Icelandic authors who were mostly of Norwegian descent. However, his brother was the king of Gautland (Geatland) and, like Beowulf, it was from Geatland that Bödvar arrived in Denmark. Moreover, upon arriving at the court of Denmark, he kills a monstrous beast that has been terrorizing the court at Yule for two years (comparable to Grendel's role in Beowulf). The famous poem ""Bjarkamál"" (of which only a few stanzas are preserved but which Saxo Grammaticus presents in the form of a florid Latin paraphrase) is understood as a dialogue between Bödvar Bjarki and his younger"
"Æschere In the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, Æschere is Hrothgar's most trusted advisor who is killed by Grendel's mother in her attack on Heorot after Grendel's death. His name is composed of the Germanic elements Æsc, meaning 'ash', and here, meaning 'army'. King Hrothgar describes Æschere as 'min runwita ond min rædbora' (1325), which implies that he knows mysteries or enigmas and also has a duty to explain those mysteries aloud to a community. But by killing and decapitating Æschere, Grendel's mother highlights an anxiety within the poem about things that defy human interpretation. Beowulf and his Geatish warriors find Æschere's"
"relative Wiglaf, whose name means ""remnant of valour"", dares to join him. Beowulf finally slays the dragon, but is mortally wounded in the struggle. He is cremated and a burial mound by the sea is erected in his honour. ""Beowulf"" is considered an epic poem in that the main character is a hero who travels great distances to prove his strength at impossible odds against supernatural demons and beasts. The poem also begins ""in medias res"" or simply, ""in the middle of things,"" which is a characteristic of the epics of antiquity. Although the poem begins with Beowulf's arrival, Grendel's"
"and was also Wigstan's godfather. In revenge, Beorhtfrith murdered Wigstan, who was subsequently venerated as a saint. The story, though of late origin, is regarded as plausible by modern historians. Primary sources Secondary sources Beorhtwulf of Mercia Beorhtwulf (, meaning ""bright wolf""; also spelled ""Berhtwulf""; died 852) was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 839 or 840 to 852. His ancestry is unknown, though he may have been connected to Beornwulf, who ruled Mercia in the 820s. Almost no coins were issued by Beorhtwulf's predecessor, Wiglaf, but a Mercian coinage was restarted by Beorhtwulf early in his"
"appears in the Old English heroic poem ""Beowulf"", which tells a story of events of the early 6th century. In it, the Geatish king Hygelac is killed while raiding Frisia. It has been noted that Gregory of Tours (c. 538–594) mentioned a Danish king Chlochilaichus who was killed while invading Frankish territory in the early 6th century, suggesting that, in this instance, Beowulf might have a basis in historical facts. However, Gregory was writing little more than fifty years after the events and may have based his story on eyewitness accounts, yet he makes no mention of Frisia or the"
"editors of Bosworth's monumental dictionary of Anglo-Saxon propose that Beowulf is a variant of beado-wulf meaning ""war wolf"" and that it is cognate with the Icelandic Bodulfr which also means ""war wolf"". Scholars have long debated the origins of the character Beowulf. Some have argued that Beowulf existed in heroic-legendary tradition prior to the composition of ""Beowulf,"" while others have believed that the ""Beowulf"" poet invented his Geatish protagonist. Leonard Neidorf has argued that Beowulf was present in (now lost) heroic-legendary cycles before ""Beowulf"" was composed. Neidorf argued that the seventh-century usage of the name ‘Biuuulf’ (Beowulf), which involves an"
"aglæcwif"" is the subject of scholarly debate. The poem, ""Beowulf,"" is contained in the Nowell Codex. As noted in lines 106–114 and lines 1260–1267 of ""Beowulf,"" monsters (which include Grendel's mother and Grendel) are descendants of Cain. After Grendel is killed, Grendel's mother attacks Heorot in revenge. Beowulf then ventures into her cave under a lake, and engages in fierce combat with Grendel's mother. She nearly kills him until he sees an ancient sword, which he kills her with, and beheads the dead Grendel. Beowulf then returns to the surface and to his men at the ""ninth hour"" (l. 1600,"
"""thegns"", Beowulf decided to pursue the monster into its lair at Earnanæs, but only his young Swedish relative Wiglaf dared join him. Beowulf's sword broke; but he dealt the dragon its death-blow with his dagger. He had been mortally wounded by the dragon's poisonous bite. Dying, he was carried out by Wiglaf, and with his last breaths named Wiglaf his rightful heir. His body was burned on a funeral pyre, and his ashes buried in a barrow by the sea. The last three lines of the poem are, in Seamus Heaney's translation: <poem>:They [the Geats] said that of all the"
"Finn (Frisian) Finn, son of Folcwald, was a legendary Frisian king. He is mentioned in ""Widsith"", in ""Beowulf"", and in the Finnsburg Fragment. He is named in the ""Historia Brittonum"", while a Finn, given a different father but perhaps intending the same hero, appears in Anglo-Saxon royal pedigrees. He was married to Hildeburh, a sister of the Danish lord Hnæf, and was killed in a fight with Hnæf's lieutenant Hengest after Hnæf was himself killed by Frisians. A passage from ""Beowulf"" as translated by Seamus Heaney (lines 1089–1090) reads: A possible reference to a lost tradition on Finn appears in"
"also in the myths of the slaying of the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra by Heracles and the slaying of Python by Apollo. The story of Heracles's theft of the cattle of Geryon is probably also related. Although Heracles is not usually thought of as a storm deity in the conventional sense, he bears many attributes held by other Indo-European storm deities, including physical strength and a knack for violence and gluttony. The original Proto-Indo-European myth is also reflected in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, Thor, the god of thunder, slays the giant serpent Jörmungandr, which lived in the waters surrounding the"
"19th-century archaeological evidence may confirm elements of the ""Beowulf"" story. Eadgils was buried at Uppsala according to Snorri Sturluson. When the western mound (to the left in the photo) was excavated in 1874, the finds showed that a powerful man was buried in a large barrow, c. 575, on a bear skin with two dogs and rich grave offerings. The eastern mound was excavated in 1854, and contained the remains of a woman, or a woman and a young man. The middle barrow has not been excavated. The protagonist Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of"
"that have come down to us it is Loki who is Baldr's real slayer, with Höðr/Hother being only a tool in Loki's plot. Heremod Heremod (Proto-Norse: *""Harimōdaz"" , Latin form: Heremodius) is a legendary Danish king and a legendary king of the Angles who would have lived in the 2nd century and known through a short account of his exile in the Old English poem ""Beowulf"" and from appearances in some genealogies as the father of Scyld. He may be the same as one of the personages named Hermóðr in Old Norse sources. Heremod may also be identical to Lother"
"Wiglaf Wiglaf (Old English Wīġlāf pronunciation: ) is a character in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem ""Beowulf"". He is the son of Weohstan, a Swede of the Wægmunding clan who had entered the service of Beowulf, king of the Geats. Wiglaf is called ""Scylfing"" as a metonym for Swede, as the Scylfings were the ruling Swedish clan. While in the service of the Scylfing Onela, king of the Swedes, Weohstan killed the rebel prince Eanmund and took his sword as a trophy; Wiglaf later inherited it. Weohstan belonged to the clan of the Wægmundings, the same clan Beowulf's father Ecgþeow belonged"
"and Wiglaf, who had been sleeping outside the hall during the attack, that it was the work of Grendel's mother. She is the last of the Water Demons, who were thought to have left the land. Beowulf and Wiglaf travel to the demon's cave to slay her. Beowulf enters the cave alone and encounters the demon, who takes the form of a beautiful woman. She seduces him with promises to make him king in exchange for the drinking horn and a son to replace Grendel. Beowulf returns to Heorot and announces he has killed the demon. Only Hrothgar is not"
"Knucker Knucker is a dialect word for a kind of water dragon, living in ""knuckerholes"" in Sussex, England. The word comes from the Old English ""nicor"" which means ""water monster"" and is used in the poem ""Beowulf"". The most famous Knucker lived, according to legend, at Lyminster. The Knucker apparently caused a lot of trouble, consuming local livestock and even villagers, and so it was decided to slay the monster. A number of different legends recount how this was done. One version has the dragon slain by a knight-errant after the king of Sussex offered his daughter's hand in marriage"
"severed head at the entrance to Grendel's mother's lair. Æschere In the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, Æschere is Hrothgar's most trusted advisor who is killed by Grendel's mother in her attack on Heorot after Grendel's death. His name is composed of the Germanic elements Æsc, meaning 'ash', and here, meaning 'army'. King Hrothgar describes Æschere as 'min runwita ond min rædbora' (1325), which implies that he knows mysteries or enigmas and also has a duty to explain those mysteries aloud to a community. But by killing and decapitating Æschere, Grendel's mother highlights an anxiety within the poem about things that defy"
"Heardred Heardred (Proto-Norse *""Harðurāðaz"" ), died c. 530, is the son of Hygelac, king of the Geats, and his queen Hygd, in ""Beowulf"". After Hygelac's death, in Frisia, Hygd wants to make Hygelac's nephew Beowulf, king of Geatland, as she fears that the young Heardred won't be able to defend his people. Beowulf, however, declares his trust in the young man and Heardred is proclaimed king. However, further north in Sweden (then restricted to Svealand), the Swedish king Ohthere dies and is succeeded by his younger brother Onela. Ohthere's sons Eadgils and Eanmund flee to the Geats and are received"