"Beowulf" - Poem Summary
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ย. 2024
- Visit us at www.gradesaver... to read the full video transcript and our study guide for this classic poem, which includes a full list of characters, themes, and much more.
Beowulf is the first surviving epic written in the English language, though its author remains mysterious. The circumstances of the poem’s creation are hotly debated by scholars. Many also believe the story was conveyed orally before it took the form of a manuscript, since the only existing copy dates back to the late tenth century.
Originally composed in Old English, the epic draws from early Germanic legend and is set in pagan Scandinavia. It recounts the saga of Beowulf, a Geat warrior who defends the Danish kingdom, and then his own, from various bloodthirsty monsters.
The poem opens on Hrothgar, the King of the Danes, who plans to celebrate his reign by building a grand hall called Heorot. When the hall is finished, Hrothgar holds a large feast that attracts the attention of Grendel, a monster descended from the biblical Cain. Grendel attacks during the night, leaving Hrothgar and his thanes to discover the bloodshed the next morning. This marks the beginning of Grendel’s reign of terror.
Twelve years pass, and news of Grendel’s campaign against the Danes spreads to another tribe, the Geats. Beowulf, a Geat thane, decides to help the Danes, sailing to Denmark with his best warriors. King Hrothgar gladly accepts Beowulf’s help.
To honor Beowulf’s arrival, Hrothgar holds another feast at Heorot. During the celebration, a thane named Unferth engages Beowulf in a boasting match, accusing him of losing a swimming contest. But Beowulf corrects him with a story of his heroic victory in the contest, prompting the Danish queen, Wealhtheow, to award him the ceremonial mead cup. Beowulf tells the queen he will either kill Grendel or be killed. Hrothgar is moved and promises Beowulf all of his gold if Beowulf should defeat the monster.
Beowulf and his warriors spend the night in Heorot. Sure enough, Grendel arrives, gobbling up one of Beowulf’s men. Beowulf fights Grendel unarmed, managing to catch the monster’s arm in a death grip. Writhing in pain, the monster tears away, leaving his arm in Beowulf’s grasp. Grendel slinks off to his lair, where he dies.
Overjoyed at the defeat of Grendel, the Danes nail the creature’s arm to the walls of Heorot as a trophy, bathing Beowulf and his men in riches. They hold another feast for Beowulf, where Hrothgar’s minstrel composes songs honoring Beowulf as the greatest hero in Danish history. However, once the revelers are asleep, Grendel’s mother arrives, seeking revenge. She manages to snatch one of Hrothgar’s counselors and retreats to her lair.
Hrothgar points Beowulf in the direction of the monsters’ lair, and Beowulf persuades the king to accompany him there. Upon arriving, Beowulf takes a sword from Unferth and dives into a deep lake. When he reaches the bottom, Beowulf finds Grendel’s mother, waiting to attack. He uses Unferth’s sword but finds it useless against the creature and wrestles with the monster until he spots another sword, which he uses to slice off Grendel’s mother’s head. Before leaving, he notices Grendel’s dead body and cuts off his head too.
Meanwhile, the Danes have given up all hope of Beowulf’s safe return. But to their shock, Beowulf surfaces carrying Grendel’s head and the hilt of his sword, which melted in the heat of Grendel’s blood. The men bring Beowulf back to Heorot, where yet another celebration takes place. Before returning home to Geatland, Beowulf promises an alliance with Hrothgar forever, which the king gratefully reciprocates.
Beowulf and his men return home, regaling the Geat king and queen, Hygelac and Hygd, with tales of their victory. Impressed with Beowulf’s bravery, Hygelac gives him half the kingdom. When Hygelac is killed in battle, Beowulf becomes king of the Geats.
In the fiftieth year of Beowulf’s reign, a new monster begins to terrorize his kingdom: a fire-breathing dragon seeking revenge on a Geat servant who stole a golden cup from its lair, which houses an ancient treasure trove. Finding the cup missing, the dragon goes on a fiery rampage, destroying Beowulf’s great hall.
With a heavy heart, Beowulf decides to face the dragon alone, knowing this battle may be his last. The servant who stole the cup leads him to the dragon’s lair, where Beowulf attempts to defeat the beast but is outmatched. All of his warriors flee except one, Wiglaf, who vows to stay by Beowulf’s side. Together, they face the dragon. But just as Beowulf manages to behead the monster, the dragon bites him, sending a lethal poison through his body.
With his dying breath, Beowulf tells Wiglaf that he should inherit the dragon’s treasure. Wiglaf returns to the Geats with the news of their king’s death, declaring that no one should inherit the treasure and scolding the warriors who fled for their cowardice.
![Animated Epics: BEOWULF (1998) TV Movie [360p] HQ - Classic animation](/img/n.gif)
Thanks for the summer. You don't know how much pain it was to read it in Old English.
ONG I HAVE WORLD LIT QUIZ ON THIS TOMORROW
You're required to read it in old English?
thanks for this, my book report was due yesterday and i didn’t read it at all
And that is why we're here!
Same
Lmao same
happy you kids are carrying on the tradition, I didn't start it but i took the torch and passed it ahead
@@omgjack99
@@omgjack99 could you please send me your report :))
Gradesavers on full swing. Your voice stays in remembrance. Kindly keep these coming!!!!
im trying to study for my English midterm right now, and it made me laugh seeing Grendel's mother thick asf. thank you
Glad you got a laugh out of it 😏
That was a tough deal to pass on. Wax her fine demon azz and she'll make you king forever as long as she keeps the horn. I would have told that thief to just return the horn
time to make r34 out of it
if only i could draw
i cant unhear gyats
Gen Alpha slang has ruined this poem for me 😭
Geats, in Swedish Götar are historically the peoples of today's southern Sweden, with said part still being called Götaland (accompanied with Svealand and Norrland).
Prince of gyatt
Beowulf was an epic hero. Epic tale.
Indeed.
Grendel’s mother’s design rivals Grendel’s mother’s design in Beowulf (2007)
I wanna be part of the Gay Tots
And so you shall be….🥴
hear me out why is beowulfs mother kinda…..
nahhh ...
What da sigma
😂
hi omg you're a legend, tysm. I almost died reading the poem
Way better then the rubbish 2007 film 100% indeed very nice story GradeSaver you narrator very well sir
Slander
The film actually had a good message and moral. However it wasn’t shot and narrated as well.
@@Kr4zykr44 slander indeed
@@johnvishwas9117Agree.. The story had a good moral and a plot. Only it's execution needed some more oomph
The movie was subversive trash made by small hats.
I love this story and didn't much care for the subversive version Hollwood did.
I have a test today thank youuu
Right. I need to find that treasure
Your a life saver!!!!! Thank you
Anyone comparing Beowulf to the canturbury tales?
Cc??
CC for me
Top-tier content, indeed. A book of similar quality had a seismic influence on my thoughts. "The Art of Meaningful Relationships in the 21st Century" by Leo Flint
Beowulf from Geatland (Götaland) Sweden
perfect video thank you for your good job
Wonderful !! Wonderful summary !
(Disuss the Curse and its impact on Grendel. Give quotations from the epic to support your discussion.)
Can you please answer it 🙏🙏pleeeease
Amazing, but that image of his mom, really?
Thanks you sir ❤
Thanks for the summary @gradesaver
Thank you I can easily it to my students
Beowulf was that guy!
great vid. thanks dude, your voice suits for this really good
You're the best
Anytime, friend!
Greetings from Uganda.
3:54 yeah would
Love it 💕
He wasnt a dane he came from Sweden to the danes
Norway and Denmark
In fact, people from the Baltic Shield (or Fennoscandian shield) are all the same, they're mainly vikings who spread from that lands. So Swedish, Norwegians, Finnish and Danes are more or less all the same, I mean, from the same roots: Vikings. They invaded many places, as for example, The British Isles... where they mixed with the Anglo-saxons, the Celts, and other tribes.
@@rociorinaldi8312Vikings Was an act not an ethnicity. An Estonian going on a sea raid was a Viking as much as a Norwegian doing the same thing.
But yes almost all Scandinavians considered themselves to be a singular people - the Norse until roughly the time of Harald Bluetooth.
Also the Anglo-Saxons' language and the Norse language was mutually intelligible as the Angles too came from Jütland.
Mr. Bow Wolf
does your name mean
Nevermind Bloom
means end begin
Translates CREATOR
I think I’m him
He “wrestles” with the monster, well yeah have you seen her? who wouldn’t?
Or should I say
bay of elf
or Bay for Alpha
or Obay Wealth
Is it just me, or is Beowulf rocking Dragonborn garbs?
More like kratos from the 1st Norse game: the bandages on arms, the leather pouldron.
bros the first ever mary sue
I mean the old stories didn't exactly follow the "hero's journey" formula. Which I don't mind. But is he really a mary sue, if he dies in the battle with the dragon? If he was a mary sue, would he not have defeated the dragon without a scratch on him?
where is the behavioral pattern of king hrothgar
The J.R.R. Tolkien is Master of Tales.
the subtitles are so skibidi that some of the subtitles has gayats (gyatt) and gayot (gay)🔥🔥🔥
You’ve gyatt to be kidding me
we are watching beowulf in school and all are cheering for beowulf we are at the part where he kills grendals mother so now i know more im gonna tell only one person because why not
sounds like a story a 14yo would make, very convenient the body of the dragon was tossed to sea(no one can see it)
Maybe Beowulf was a descended from wuffa family
Gyatt
ребята я не хочу писать пять вопросов к следующей лекции
😅wait this is for my school work t
Tribe of the gyatts
Hola
This looks like Skyrim
Woah grendels mom is damn hot
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
j
Why is Grendel’s mom hot
damn this story sucks ass, great summary tho.
Fundamental assumption
I thought he meant beowulf like as in the gachatuber beowulf ._.
what?
Ye me to loo
😆
This story sucks. Everyone knows dragons are either fire or poison type NOT both. That draygon was way too OP. But I’m glad he killed idiot dumb Bail Wolf.
w
Gyatt