The Plot of the Story
The epic consists of two parts. The first part tells us how Beowulf freed the Danes from two monsters.
Hrothgar, king of the Danes, in his old age had built near the sea a hall called Heorot. He and his men gathered there for feasts. One night as they were all sleeping a frightful monster called Grandel broke into the hall, killed thirty of the sleeping warriors, and carried off their bodies to devour them to his lair under the sea. The men defended themselves bravely, but their swords could not even hurt the monster.
The horrible half-human creature came night after night. Grendel looked like a man but was much bigger, and his whole body was covered with long hair, so thick and tough that no weapon could harm him. Fear and death reigned in the great hall. From that time no one dared to come to Heorot. For twelve winters Grendel’s horrible raids continued. For twelve years the palace stood deserted. At last the rumour of Grendel and his horrible deeds crossed over the sea and reached Beowulf who was a man of immense strength and courage. Hrothgar had heard of Beowulf’s strength and heroic deeds, so he gladly welcomed the famous warrior and gave a banquet in Heorot to honour him. With fourteen companions Beowulf crossed the sea. When he heard the story, Beowulf decided to fight the monster and free the Danes.
This is how his voyage is described in the poem:
The foamy-necked floater fanned by the breeze
Likest a bird glided the waters
Till twenty and four hours hereafter
The twist-stemmed vessel had travelled such distance,
That the sailing-men saw the sloping embankments,
The sea-cliffs gleaming, precipitous mountains.
The Danes receive Beowulf and his companions with great hospitality, they make a feast in Heorot at which the queen passes the mead cup to the warriors with her own hand. But as night approaches the fear of Grendel is again upon the Danes. They all withdraw after the king has warned Beowulf of the frightful danger of sleeping in the hall. Beowulf stays in the hall with his warriors, saying proudly that since weapons cannot harm the monster, he will wrestle with him barehanded.
Here is the description of Grendel’s approach to Heorot:
Forth from the fens, from the misty moorlands,
Grendel came gliding – God’s wrath be bore -
Came under clouds, until he saw clearly,
Glittering with gold plates, the mead hall of men.
Down fell the door, though fastened with fire bands;
Open it sprang at the stroke of his paw.
Swollen with rage burst in the bale-bringer;
Flamed in his eyes a fierce light, likest fire.
Breaking into tne hall, Grendel seizes one of the sleepers and devours him. Then he approaches Beowulf and stretches out a claw, only to find it clutched in a grip of steel. A sudden terror strikes the monster's heart. He roars, struggles, tries to free his arm; but Beowulf leaps to his feet and grapples his enemy barehanded. After a desperate struggle Beowulf manages to tear off the monster’s arm; Grendel escapes shrieking across the moor, and plunges into the sea to die.
Beowulf hangs the huge arm with its terrible claws over the king’s seat; the Danes rejoice in Beowull’s victory. The hand of the monster was so large (it almost filled the room) that the Danes all wondered how he could had torn it off.
When night falls, a great feast is spread in Heorot, Beowulf receives rich presents, everybody is happy. The Danes once more go to sleep in the great hall. At midnight .another monster comes, it was a water-witch, mother of Grendel, who wants to avenge her son.
She seizes the king’s best friend and councillor and rushes away with him over the fens. The old king is broken-hearted, but Beowulf tries to console him:
Sorrow not, wise man. It is better for each
That his friend he avenge than that he mourn much.
Each of us shall the end await
Of worldly life: let he who may gain
Honour ere death.
Then Beowulf prepares for a new fight, lie plunges into the horrible place, while his companions wait for him on the shore. After a terrible fight at the bottom of the sea in the cave where the monsters live, Beowiill kills the she-monster with a magic sword which he finds in tlie cave. The hero returns to Heorot, where tlie Danes are already mourning for him, thinking him dead. Triumphantly Heowiill returns to his native land.
In the last part of the poem there is another great fight. Beowulf is now an old man; he has reigned for fifty years, beloved by all his people. For fifty years he ruled his country and people wisely and well unless one day a great disaster befell the happy land; every night there appeared a fire-breathing dragon who came and destroyed the villages and the crops of the kingdom. Beowulf has overcome every enemy but one, a fire dragon keeping watch over an enormous treasure hidden among the mountains. Again Beowulf goes to fight for his people. But he is old and his end is near. In a fierce battle the dragon is killed, but the fire has entered Beowulf’s lungs. He sends Wiglaf, the only of his warriors who had the courage to stand by him in his last fight, to the dragon’s cave for the treasures. Beowulf dies, leaving the treasures to his people,
The poem is the relic of those far-off days when people believed in gods, witches, monsters. Grendel, the water-witch, and the fire-dragon personify the evil forces of nature, too strong for the people to conquer. The desire of man to do away with them and to become master of his own destiny is expressed in the poem.
Beowulf’s victory over them symbolizes the triumph of man over the power of darkness, evil and death.
The merit of the poem lies in the vivid description of the life of that period, in the heroic deeds of men and in the beauty of the language.