Beowulf

A detailed Summary of Beowulf

Translated by Seamus Heaney Difficulty: 4

The poem begins and ends in Geatland, Beowulf's home country. Beowulf and his troops travel across the sea from Geatland to Denmark to assist King Hrothgar in fighting Grendel. The three major battle scenes in Beowulf take place in Heorot Hall, where Grendal is defeated, a haunted mere in Denmark where Grendel's mother meets her end, and a dragon's lair back in Geatland. Beowulf never specifically mentions a time but it must have happened sometime in the medieval ages.

Beowulf is like a Scandinavian superman but even this superman is not without problems. The son of Ecgtheow, Beowulf is stronger than any other man, but at the same time he is very much a mortal. When he fights the enemy he doesn't fear death because he believes it's dealt by God not the enemy and so instead prays to the lord for the upper hand in battle which I think leads him to doubt his own abilities or at least to give excess credit to God for his victories. Beowulf is also a very moral man and uses his powers for the good of the people, always treating them justly. When Unferth slanders Beowulf over a swimming contest he lost,

Beowulf is all about good triumphing over evil. Grendel goes out of his way to commit evil acts but is in the end punished by Beowulf. Grendel's mother and the dragon also met similar fates. The poem makes it seem as if good always and easily triumphs over evil as a general rule. This lesson is well played out with Beowulf being the universal good and Grendel the evil. If Beowulf had been defeated by Grendel everything would have changed. I think this lesson does hold true in the real world today. It seems like people have to go out of there way to commit evil acts and so for no other reason than good being easier, evil is usually defeated.

Unferth is not a very important character in the book but by him being such a jerk you get to see how forgiving, just, and wonderful Beowulf is. In the beginning, Unferth drunkenly taunts Beowulf over a swimming contest he lost but is quickly put in his place when Beowulf points out Unferth's own unwillingness to fight Grendel and the fact that he had killed one of his own kin. Later however, Unferth proves to be somewhat of a gentleman by giving Beowulf his sword, which proves to be useless, to help him fight Grendel's mother. Unferth offers Beowulf his sword once again as a parting gift when Beowulf sets sail to Geatland.

Grendel is a descendant of Cain and lives in the bottom of a mere. He is enormous and possesses as much strength as Beowulf. Grendel is never once made to seem like anything human or of even possessing some small human trait or hint of goodness for that matter. Technically, I shouldn't even address him as a he. His only motivation is to destroy good. He hates all mankind and takes exception to no one. Grendel decides to attack Heorot Hall after seeing content and presumably happy sleeping men inside and thus begins his reign of terror on the people of Denmark.

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Approximate Word count = 1865
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English