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Epic Of Beowulf

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The Story of Beowulf is the first epic to be written in English language. Originally it had only been told and recited orally. Until a few hundred years a monk decided to write down the epic. The story of Beowulf becomes more involved with christian beliefs after it gets written down. The story starts off with the halls of Herot being filled with the joyous laughs and singing of men. The king, Hrothgar, is an honorable king and cares deeply for his subordinates. The celebration gets cut short by the monster Grendel, descendent of Cain, who devours 30 men in their sleep in the halls. Grendel continues this onslaught for years. News spread to distant lands and ends up with Beowulf heading for the kingdom. Beowulf is the hero in the epic. Known …show more content…

Some just by a little and others majorly. For example Hrothgar is a drunken selfish ruler in the Hollywood version but is a honorable, admirable ruler in the original. The halls do indeed fill with the joyous melodies of singing and merrymaking but it is not the song of creation they celebrate but their king instead. Grendel does attack the warriors but not because of the creation song but because of his sensitive ears. Grendel does not attack them during their slumber, but instead in the midst of their celebration. Beowulf is accompanied by Wiglaf the entire journey as opposed to the end. Beowulf does end up killing the beast in the same way. However Grendel’s mother does not just kill one person, she causes a massacre in the halls while Beowulf slumbers. Hrothgar learns of this and decides to pass the the crown down to Beowulf and decides to kill himself. Beowulf then decides he must kill another beast. He arrives at the cave from which the creatures emerged but does not swim through the bottom of lake, instead he walks right in and eventually finds Grendel's mother. Grendel turns out to be not a monster but instead a beautiful shape-shifting creature. Beowulf does not slay her but instead make love. Beowulf does indeed battle a dragon at the end of the story but the dragon turns out to actually be his own son birthed from Grendel’s mother. Beowulf does indeed kill the dragon,his son, but Grendel's mother remains intact the rest

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