1) Beowulf is an extremely exciting and fascinating story about a character who lived in medieval Europe. The shocking thing for me about this work was to find out that it is the earliest poem in a modern European language. Beowulf is to the English what Homer and the Odyssey were to the Greeks. Although this is the earliest poem, it is still fun and exciting to read. I didn't believe that a poem which has been around for more than twelve centuries, could keep my interest. I was wrong. The book is filled with more blood and guts then the average summer horror flick. After the battle with Grendel, the monster which has been ravaging the Danish countryside and killing countless men, Beowulf makes sure that all people know that he had injured the great monster. It is translated that, "...no Dane doubted the victory, for the proof, hanging high from the rafters where Beowulf had hung it, was the monster's arm, claw and shoulder and all" (Raffel, 49). It was the shocking use of detail and exciting battles that was left with me when I finished the book. I guess all books, regardless of their age can still be fun and entertaining to read.

Because Beowulf meets all of my criteria of "good" literature, I believe that this work is in fact a worthy read.

3) The climax in a work is the point of highest tension followed by a resolution. In Beowulf, the climax occurs during Beowulf's battle against the fire-breathing dragon, which has been killing Beowulf's people, the Geats. One of the most climactic lines in the work is when Raffel translates,

6) I would not change the ending of the work. Beowulf ends with Beowulf killing the dreaded dragon and then dying himself. He is then built a shrine by the Geats that generations to come can see. This way Beowulf the greatest of all warriors would never be forgotten. I think that this is a perfect ending to the work. This warrior and great leader who fought so many battle and so many monsters, dies in the most fitting way, in battle. It was the last good versus evil battle in the work and Beowulf makes sure that all evil is gone from is land before he dies. He is truly the soldier of God and thus the ending is a fitting memorial to this great warrior.

I always ask myself, when I am done reading a book, did the book have memorable characters. In Beowulf, the characters were memorable. A minor character in the book, the king of the Danes, named Hrothgar, is a character who sticks out greatly in my mind. Hrothgar was a king of the Danes and built for them a huge mead hall in which men were able to eat drink and be merry. It was then that the great monster, Grendel, came and destroyed the utopia which was Herot by eating and feasting on the Danish warriors. Hrothgar sticks out in my mind because I could envision him, in the time before Beowulf came to the Danes, in anger and despair over this monster that wouldn't stop killing his soldiers and friends. This minor character is memorable in my mind, as are all the characters in this work.

I have never read a book about medieval Europe. I am not a big fantasy book reader, so in my reading, I hardly, if ever, experience monsters and dragons and sword fights. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I enjoyed reading about these fantastic adventures of Beowulf and his clan. This book allowed me to experience a time, place and adventures that I have never experienced

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Approximate Word count = 1503
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)