the earliest European vernacular epic.

It deals with events of the early 6th century and is

believed to have been composed between 700 and 750. Although originally untitled, it
was later named after the Scandinavian hero Beowulf, whose exploits and character
provide its connecting theme. There is no evidence of a historical Beowulf, but some
characters, sites, and events in the poem can be historically verified. The poem did not
appear in print until 1815. It is preserved in a single manuscript that dates to circa 1000
and is known as the Beowulf manuscript (Cotton MS Vitellius A XV) .

Beowulf

Beowulf preparing to cut off the head of the monster Grendel, illustration
from Hero-Myths & Legends of the British Race, 1910.

Stapleton Historical Collection—Heritage-Images/Imagestate

 TOP QUESTIONS

What is Beowulf?

Where does Beowulf take place?

Who was Beowulf written by?

What does Beowulf present to Hrothgar?

Was Beowulf real?

Beowulf falls into two parts. It opens in Denmark, where King Hrothgar’s splendid
mead hall, Heorot, has been ravaged for 12 years by nightly visits from an evil
monster, Grendel, who carries off Hrothgar’s warriors and devours them. Unexpectedly,
young Beowulf, a prince of the Geats of southern Sweden, arrives with a small band of
retainers and offers to cleanse Heorot of its monster. Hrothgar is astonished at the little-
known hero’s daring but welcomes him, and, after an evening of feasting, much
courtesy, and some discourtesy, the king retires, leaving Beowulf in charge. During the
night Grendel comes from the moors, tears open the heavy doors, and devours one of
the sleeping Geats. He then grapples with Beowulf, whose powerful grip he cannot
escape. He wrenches himself free, tearing off his arm, and leaves, mortally wounded.

The next day is one of rejoicing in Heorot. But at night as the warriors sleep, Grendel’s
mother comes to avenge her son, killing one of Hrothgar’s men. In the morning Beowulf
seeks her out in her cave at the bottom of a mere and kills her. He cuts the head from
Grendel’s corpse and returns to Heorot. The Danes rejoice once more. Hrothgar makes a
farewell speech about the character of the true hero, as Beowulf, enriched with honours
and princely gifts, returns home to King Hygelac of the Geats.

The second part passes rapidly over King Hygelac’s subsequent death in a battle (of
historical record), the death of his son, and Beowulf’s succession to the kingship and his
peaceful rule of 50 years. But now a fire-breathing dragon ravages his land and the
doughty but aging Beowulf engages it. The fight is long and terrible and a painful
contrast to the battles of his youth. Painful, too, is the desertion of his retainers except
for his young kinsman Wiglaf. Beowulf kills the dragon but is mortally wounded. The
poem ends with his funeral rites and a lament.

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Beowulf belongs metrically, stylistically, and thematically to a heroic tradition grounded

in Germanic religion and mythology. It is also part of the broader tradition of heroic
poetry. Many incidents, such as Beowulf’s tearing off the monster’s arm and his descent
into the mere, are familiar motifs from folklore. The ethical values are manifestly the
Germanic code of loyalty to chief and tribe and vengeance to enemies. Yet the poem is so
infused with a Christian spirit that it lacks the grim fatality of many of the Eddaic lays or
the sagas of Icelandic literature. Beowulf himself seems more altruistic than other
Germanic heroes or the ancient Greek heroes of the Iliad. It is significant that his three
battles are not against men, which would entail the retaliation of the blood feud, but
against evil monsters, enemies of the whole community and of civilization itself. Many
critics have seen the poem as a Christian allegory, with Beowulf the champion of
goodness and light against the forces of evil and darkness. His sacrificial death is not
seen as tragic but as the fitting end of a good (some would say “too good”) hero’s life.

That is not to say that Beowulf is an optimistic poem. The English critic J.R.R.

Tolkien suggests that its total effect is more like a long, lyrical elegy than an epic. Even
the earlier, happier section in Denmark is filled with ominous allusions that were well
understood by contemporary audiences. Thus, after Grendel’s death, King Hrothgar
speaks sanguinely of the future, which the audience knows will end with the destruction
of his line and the burning of Heorot. In the second part the movement is slow and
funereal: scenes from Beowulf’s youth are replayed in a minor key as a counterpoint to
his last battle, and the mood becomes increasingly sombre as the wyrd (fate) that comes
to all men closes in on him.

Beowulf has often been translated into modern English; renderings by Seamus

Heaney (1999) and Tolkien (completed 1926; published 2014) became best sellers. It
has also been the source for retellings in text—John Gardner’s Grendel (1971), for
example, which takes the point of view of the monster—and as movies.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by  Adam
Augustyn , Managing Editor, Reference Content.

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