greetings ladies and gentlemen and welcome to a new episode of great books in 10 minutes by the end of this episode you will know all that you need about the most famous poem of old english literature beowulf before we start i would like to introduce you to a cool new addition to this channel if you love books as much as i do i'm sure you enjoy trivia they are a fun way to test your knowledge and measure how much you have learned from each episode from now on after each video you can play a trivia quiz about the book discussing the episode by clicking on the link in the description box these are also available for previous episodes i hope you enjoy them and by the way let me know how many questions you got right in the comments section beowulf is considered the first poem in the canon of traditional english literature it was composed sometime between 975 to 1025 a.d by an unknown author often referred to as the beowulf poet ironically the only surviving manuscript of the poem does not have a title either and over centuries it has become famous as beowulf after his protagonist although beowulf was written in the west saxon dialect of old english still it contains many other dialect forms suggesting that like the iliad it could be much older than we estimate and that it was preserved orally and likely went through many iterations until the definitive version of it got written down however other historians believe beowulf is the work of one author and it was written only a few generations after the christianization of england in the 8th century the main themes of beowulf are bravery vengeance loyalty and generosity the story of beowulf starts when rothgar king of denmark and his great hall of merriment and joy herrett are attacked by monster named grando whenever there's a celebration inherit the sound of celebration agitates grendel so much that it attacks the hull and kills anyone he can get his hands on when his warriors cannot defeat the monster rothgar helplessly abandons his great hall and forbids all gatherings to avoid another attack by grendel a while later a young warrior from geetland named beowulf hears of rothgar's troubles and with his king's permission leaves his homeland to help the danish king upon arrival on danish shores beowulf insists to rothgar to open the doors of his abandoned hall and allow him and his warriors to spend the night at herrett before sleeping beowulf who considers himself a matchless warrior and as strong as the monster refuses to carry any weapons and decides to face grendel empty-handed a few hours later when grendel attacks the hall a fierce battle begins beowulf's companions draw their sword and rush to help him but their weapons fail to pierce the monster's skin beowulf uses the chaos and tears grendel's arm from his body which causes him to flee to his home in the swamps and die the next day beowulf proudly presents the hole of grendel's shoulder and arm to king rothgar at herot the king gives a handsome reward to beowulf and honors him and his men with new lodgings worthy of their service at night and after celebrating grendel's defeat rathgar and his people sleep inherit again in beowulf's absence grendel's mother attacks the great hall and takes revenge by killing everyone that she could get her hands on including rothgar's most loyal fighter ash hera beowulf accompanied by king rothgar and his men tracks grendel's mother to her lair under a lake rothgar tells beowulf that the water is cursed and many monsters and creatures live in it at this moment a warrior named umphirth who had challenged beowulf earlier apologizes for doubting him and presents the hero with his family sword runting mentioning that the sword has never failed against an enemy after putting king rothgar in charge of his will beowulf jumps into the lake to hunt down grendel's mother beowulf swims for hours towards the bottom of the lake when he gets close to the floor grendel's mother attacks and squeezes him in her strong grip luckily beowulf's armor saves him from getting crushed by the monster next as the monster drags beowulf to her court many sea monsters harass and attack him at her command at this moment beowulf draws ranting the sword that was given to him by unfirth before jumping into the lake but the legendary blade fails to penetrate the monster's skin beywolf then attacks the monster empty-handed but his heavy blows don't do much damage to the creature right at this moment he sees a huge sword hanging on the wall of the cavern awol seizes the massive weapon which was forged by giants and swings it at the monster the blade cuts off grendel's mother's head and she falls dead beowulf then inspects the cave further and finds grendel's corpse when he cuts the corpses had to take to king rothgar his sword melts from the monster's boiling blood leaving only the hilt when king rothgar and his men see blood rising to the surface of the water they leave believing that the monster has killed beowulf only a few companions of beowulf remain in the scene still believing in their hero's return not too long after and to his warriors joy beowulf emerges out of the lake holding the severed head of grendel in the hilt of the melted sword beowulf's men put grendel's giant head on a pike and go back to king rothkar's hall rothgar overjoyed by seeing beowulf bestows many thanks and treasures upon the hero and predicts a great future for him and his people beowulf then returns home to geetland and becomes the king of his people after almost 50 prosperous years since the time that he defeated grendel's mother news concerning a massive dragon living underneath the earth and guarding the great treasure spreads in the kingdom one day slave finds his way into the dragon's lair and steals a golden goblet beowulf's poet explains that centuries ago the last survivor of an ancient race buried the treasure while mourning for the tragic destiny of his people and lamenting his loneliness the dragon then stumbled upon the treasure and since then has been guarding it for 300 years when the fire-breathing dragon finds out that the goblet has been stolen for the first time in centuries it leaves the treasure to find the thief and on his way it burns villages destroys homes and kills many people a few nights later the dragon attacks beowulf's hall and burns his throne room to the ground beowulf who is now an old king bewildered by such calamity reflects on his own life and asks god if the dragon's fire is the punishment for a bad deed next beowulf orders his blacksmith to forge him a mighty shield from iron hoping that it would withstand the scorching heat of the dragon's breath at the same time his men find the thief and force him to show them the way to the dragon's lair before the battle beowulf has a foreboding feeling about his death he reminds his man of the proud bygone days and his time at the service of many kings and his love for his people as a king and vows to slay the dragon for them next the dragon comes out of its lair and attacks beowulf and his army beywolf charges the dragon and the fiery battle begins the hero hits the dragon with his sword niggling but his faded strength is no match for the monster's thick scales witnessing the dragon outmatching their king beowulf's army flee and only one warrior named wigloff stands by him baywolf strikes the dragon on its head but this time his sword breaks right at this moment the dragon lands a piercing bite on beowulf's neck and blood begins to flow at this moment wiglaf goes to beowulf's aid and stabs the dragon in the belly the dragon turns its attention to weak laugh and burns his hand beowulf who finds a moment to recompose himself pulls a knife from his belt and stabs it in the dragon's heart and kills it the wound and beowulf's neck starts to swell and the hero realizes that the dragon's bite was venomous in his last moments he orders wiglaf to go into the dragon's lair and bring him some of the treasure that he has liberated for his people beowulf then appoints riklav as his successor and orders him to after burning his body build a great burial mound in his memory and call it beowulf's barrel with his final breath feywold gives wiggleff the collar from his neck and dies very well ladies and gentlemen i hope you enjoyed my summary of beowulf please consider subscribing to my channel and see you in the next episode you