Francis B.Gummere” Beowulf “

Francis B.Gummere” Beowulf “

” Tis better to die than to live in shame.” The oldest existing story written in Old English, “Beowulf” is the classic tale of courage and honor. In the Great Hall of Hrothgar, King of the Danes, the warrior Beowulf, son of a Swedish King, wages battle with the monster Grendel.

Beowulf is an Old English heroic elegy, of anonymous authorship, assigned to the period 700-750, or to the time of composition of the only manuscript, circa 1010. At 3,183 lines, the poem is notable for its length. The poem is untitled in the manuscript, but has been known as Beowulf since the early 19th century. As the single major surviving work of Anglo-Saxon heroic poetry, the work — in spite of dealing primarily with Scandinavian matters — has risen to such prominence that it has become “England’s national epos.”

In the poem, Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, battles three antagonists: Grendel, who is destroying Heorot and its inhabitants in Denmark, Grendel’s mother, and later in life (after he is King) a dragon.

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