About Beowulf, the Epic

When the Angles and the Saxons came across Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany and
Belgium, they brought with them their oral traditions, their songs and stories about great deeds. From
the old stories and combinations of other stories, the well-known epic "Beowulf" was formed. The epic
had some historical basis since the characters in the epic (Beowulf, his uncle Hyegelac, and Heardred,
son of Heygelac) were actual names of the tribal leaders involved in a raid in the lower Rhine during the
512 A.D. When unknown writers started, they gave Beowulf super human feats which is the
characteristics of myth and legend.

The epic tells of Beowulf's arrival in Denmark from the land of the Greats somewhere in
Sweden. A time when the Spear Danes had no king, a ship came sailing into the harbor. The ship was
filled with treasures and war weapons, and among these weapons was a baby, sleeping. The child was
Scyld who grew and became a mighty warrior who led the Spear Danes for many years as their leader.
Scyld had a son named Beowulf, who became great warrior and king.

BEOWULF
(A Condensed Version)

King Hrothgar of Dane, a descendant of Scyld, had built a splendid hall called Heorot where his
thanes gathered every night to feast and listened to the songs of the minstrels. One night when
everybody was sleeping, a terrifying monster named Grendel, came into the hall. He killed the thanes
and carried away with him about thirty of them to devour in his lair in the sea. Every night this monster
came causing fear and death. The warriors tried to fight with him but no weapon could kill nor harm
him. The situation continued for almost twelve years and had caused distraught to the old king.

The fearful situation about the Grendel reached the young hero named Beowulf whose uncle,
king Hyegelac, frightful Grendel, he asked permission from King Hyegelac to allow him to help the
endangered kingdom of King Hrothgar. Beowulf who was a man of immense strength and courage,
decided to fight he monster and free the Danes who were his father's friends. He crossed the sea,
together with fourteen warriors, to liberate the Danes.

When Beowulf reached in Heorot, he was welcomed with great feast, songs and music. The
Danes had warned Beowulf of the fierce Grendel and his coming nightly. When night fell, the fear of
Grendel had come again upon the Danes but Beowulf and his men remained in the hall after King
Hrothgar forewarned them. Beowulf and his men had expressed their intention to remain and sleep in
the hall. Beowulf proudly told the king that if their weapons had no effect upon the Grendel, he would
fight the monster with their bare hands. Beowulf's men stayed with him to spend the night in Heorot.

At almost midnight, the Grendel came exploding the door inward. The monster rejoiced at the
thought of having feast of men-flesh before him. He seized one of the warriors, crushed his head, tore
him into pieces and swallowed him. Beowulf watched the Grendel, and when he approached the bench
where Beowulf lay and about to grab the young hero, Beowulf grasped the monster's hand intensely.
The terror-stricken monster tried to flee from Beowulf's arms. The two scuffled with each other as they
attempted to escape from their opponents. Tables and benches were overturned and ripped from wall
to wall; the whole building swayed as if in a cradle as the two struggled.
 Outside the building, the Danes shivered and quaked of terror. In the attempt of the monster to
get free from Beowulf, the joints of his arms were broken; a big wound opened on his side; and the
whole arm was wrenched off his shoulder. In mortified pain, the monster escaped to his home in the
sea, shrieking and howling, until his death. Beowulf, in great joy, hung the monster's arm on a beam on
the roof. The Danes came rejoicing the victory of Beowulf.

That night the Danes once again had a great feast to honor Beowulf for his victory. Once again
the Danes were able to sleep peacefully in Heorot, not knowing that mother of Grendel who was equally
horrible monster, had come to avenge the death of his son. She fiercely killed, devoured and carried off
Hrothgar's men. The old scenes of terror and sorrow were renewed among the Danes. Beowulf, onçe
more, was determined to fight with Grendel's mother.

He followed the tracks of the monster across the swamp to an inland where he dived into the
dull, murky waters. When the monster saw him, she rushed at him, crushing him down. She clawed him,
and tried to seize him with her teeth, but Beowulf's powerful strength and strong armor saved him. On
their struggle, Beowulf caught sight of a magic sword; he snatched it and swung it at the monster. He
killed the monster. As he saw the dying monster, he cut off the monster's head. Soon after this, the
magic sword melted in his hands.

The poem ended with Beowulf's last adventure. He ruled the Danes for fifty years, greatly
admired by his people. This time, he was already an old man, one of his subjects discovered a great
treasure guarded by a dragon. When this man saw the treasure, he found a beautiful vase with it. He
was attracted with the vase and took it away with him. That same night, the dragon came, belching fire
and smoke, upon the village. He killed all the inhabitants, so Beowulf went forth to defend his people. In
his fight with the dragon, Beowulf fought the fire-breathing dragon, and although he was able to slew
the dragon, he swallowed some of the fire. He met his death amidst the enormous treasures of the
dragon. He was buried in sorrow and honored by his men.
–Abridged translation from the Anglo-Saxon chronicle.
Old English Poetry

Beowulf is often referred to as the first important work of literature in English, even though it
was written in Old English, an ancient form of the language that slowly evolved into the English now
spoken. Compared to modern English, Old English is heavily Germanic, with little influence from Latin or
French. As English history developed, after the French Normans conquered the Anglo‐Saxons in 1066,
Old English was gradually broadened by offerings from those languages. Thus modern English is derived
from a number of sources. As a result, its vocabulary is rich with synonyms. The word “kingly,” for
instance, descends from the Anglo‐Saxon word cyning, meaning “king,” while the synonym “royal”
comes from a French word and the synonym “regal” from a Latin word.

Fortunately, most students encountering Beowulf read it in a form translated into modern
English. Still, a familiarity with the rudiments of Anglo‐Saxon poetry enables a deeper understanding of
the Beowulf text. Old English poetry is highly formal, but its form is quite unlike anything in modern
English. Each line of Old English poetry is divided into two halves, separated by a caesura, or pause, and
is often represented by a gap on the page, as the following example demonstrates:

Setton him to heafdon hilde‐randas. . . .

Because Anglo‐Saxon poetry existed in oral tradition long before it was written down, the verse
form contains complicated rules for alliteration designed to help scops, or poets, remember the many
thousands of lines they were required to know by heart. Each of the two halves of an Anglo‐Saxon line
contains two stressed syllables, and an alliterative pattern must be carried over across the caesura. Any
of the stressed syllables may alliterate except the last syllable; so the first and second syllables may
alliterate with the third together, or the first and third may alliterate alone, or the second and third may
alliterate alone. For instance:

Lade ne letton. Leoht eastan com.

Lade, letton, leoht, and eastan are the four stressed words.

In addition to these rules, Old English poetry often features a distinctive set of rhetorical
devices. The most common of these is the kenning, used throughout Beowulf. A kenning is a short
metaphorical description of a thing used in place of the thing’s name; thus a ship might be called a “sea‐
rider,” or a king a “ring‐giver.” Some translations employ kennings almost as frequently as they appear
in the original. Others moderate the use of kennings in deference to a modern sensibility. But the Old
English version of the epic is full of them, and they are perhaps the most important rhetorical device
present in Old English poetry.

Reference:
 Ornos, P.S., et al. (2007). English and American Literature (An Anthology of Poems, Short
Stories, Excerpts and other Literary Forms). Makati City: Grandwater Publications
 Retrieved from
http://www.cje.ids.czest.pl/biblioteka/British%20Literature%20and%20American%20Lit
erature.pdf