BEOWULF

SUMMARY:
King Hrothgar, the ruler of the Danes, is troubled by the rampages of a
demon named Grendel. Every night, Grendel attacks King Hrothgar's wealthy
mead-hall, Heorot, killing Danish warriors and sometimes even eating them.
Hrothgar was a great warrior in his time, but now he's an old king and can't
seem to protect his people. Fortunately, a young Geat warrior named
Beowulf travels to Heorot Hall from his own lands overseas to lend a helping
handliterally.
After explaining that he owes Hrothgar a favor because Hrothgar helped out
his father, Beowulf offers to fight Grendel himself. King Hrothgar gratefully
accepts his offer. The next time Grendel attacks Heorot Hall, Beowulf is
waiting for him. Choosing to fight Grendel in hand-to-hand combat, Beowulf
wrestles the demon into submission and eventually tears off his arm at the
shoulder. Mortally wounded, Grendel flees into the wilderness and dies.
Beowulf, Hrothgar, and their followers throw a wild party to celebrate.
Hrothgar also gives Beowulf many presents and treasures to reward him for
his heroic defeat of the demon.
Unfortunately, Grendel has an overprotective mother who decides to avenge
her son. While all the warriors are sleeping off the party, she attacks Heorot
Hall. But when the warriors wake up, she panics and flees back to her lair, a
cave underneath a nearby lake.
Beowulf, his Geatish warriors, and some of Hrothgar's Danish warriors track
her there. Beowulf dives into the lake and finds the cave, where he takes on
Grendel's mother in another one-on-one battle. Seizing a nearby sword from
Grendel's mother's stash of treasure, he slays her, even though her
poisonous demon blood melts the blade. When Beowulf returns to the
surface, carrying the sword hilt and Grendel's severed head, the Danish
warriors have given him up for dead, but his own Geatish followers are still
waiting patiently. When everyone sees that Beowulf has survived this second
challenge, there's even more partying and gift-giving.
Finally, the Geats take their leave of the Danes; Beowulf says goodbye to

King Hrothgar and sails back to Geatland, where he is a lord in the court of
King Hygelac. Eventually, Hygelac and all his relatives are killed in different
blood-feuds, and Beowulf becomes the King of the Geats. Beowulf reigns as
king for fifty years, protecting the Geats from all the other tribes around
them, especially the Swedes. He is an honorable and heroic warrior-king,
rewarding his loyal thanes (warrior lords) and taking care of his people.
But one day, Beowulf finally meets his match: a dragon, woken by a thief
stealing a goblet, begins attacking the Geats, burning villages and
slaughtering people. Beowulf takes a group of eleven trusty warriors, plus
the thief who knows where the dragon's lair is, to the barrow for a final
showdown with the monster. When they see the dragon, all but one of the
warriors flee in terror. Only one man, Wiglaf, remains at Beowulf's side. With
Wiglaf's help and encouragement, Beowulf is able to defeat the dragon, but
he is mortally wounded in the process.
After Beowulf's death, the Geats build an enormous funeral pyre for him,
heaped with treasures. Once the pyre has burned down, they spend ten days
building an enormous barrow (a large mound of earth filled with treasure) as
a monument to their lost king.
BACKGROUND OF THE AUTHOR:

Biography of

John Green

An accomplished young adult author, John Green has won

numerous accolades for his six novels Looking for
Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Let It Snow: Three

Holiday Romances (with Maureen Johnson and Lauren

Myracle), Paper Towns, Will Grayson, Will
Grayson and The Fault in Our Stars and his short
stories.
His debut novel, Looking for Alaska, was awarded the
American Literary Associations annual Michael L. Printz
award; An Abundance of Katherines was a runner-up for
the same award and a finalist for Los Angeles Times Book
Prize. Greens third book, Paper Towns, debuted at
number five on the New York Times bestseller list in 2008
and was later awarded 2009 Edgar Award for Best Young
Adult Novel and the Corine Literature Prize in 2010.
Published in 2010, Will Grayson, Will Grayson is the result
of a collaboration with Greens friend and fellow young
adult author, David Levithan. The novel was a runner-up
both for Stonewell Book Award, for excellence in LGBT in
childrens and young adult fiction, and the Odyssey Award
for excellence in Audiobook Production. Greens most
recent publication, The Fault in Our Stars, was Number 1
on the New York Times Bestseller list in 2012 and was
released as a major motion film in June 2014.
Born in Indianapolis, Indiana on August 24th, 1977, John
Green spent his childhood in Orlando, Florida. He
attended Indian Springs School in Indian Springs Village,
Alabama, which served as the basis for Culver Creek
Preparatory School in Looking for Alaska. He graduated
from Kenyon College in 2000 with degrees English and
Religious Studies. Post-college, Green intended to
become an Episcopal priest. He spent several months
working with hospitalized children as a student chaplain
in Chicago. It was during this time that he decided to
become a writer; he later published The Fault in Our
Stars, which deals with adolescents with life-threatening
illnesses.

Besides writing, Green works on other projects, mainly

through online videos. In 2007, Green and his brother
Hank started Brotherhood 2.0, a yearlong project in which
the two brothers agreed to cease all forms of
communication except video blogs. Using a Youtube
channel, VlogBrothers, they posted videos to each
other on alternating days. Although intended to be a year
long and fairly private affair, the channel spawned a
following of people around their world calling themselves
"Nerdfighters." In 2013, the channel reached 1 million
subscribers. Through the years since 2007,
"Nerdfighteria" has followed the lead of John and Hank
Green to give to charity, create and follow educational
YouTube channels, and celebrate the VlogBrother motto
"DFTBA," or "Don't Forget To Be Awesome."
John Green currently lives in Indianapolis with his wife,
Sarah Urist Green, his children, Henry and Alice, and dog,
Willy

Studying Beowulf is important and beneficial for many reasons.

1) As one of the earliest known works in English (Old English specifically, but presumably
you would study a Modern English translation), Beowulf gives students an idea of the
starting point from which later English literature develops.
2) Beowulf provides valuable insight into the culture and values of the society in which it
was composed and retold, a society that probably seems pretty foreign to a modern reader at
first. Of course, modern Anglo-American culture is influenced by the culture of the ancient
Anglo-Saxon people, and reading Beowulf helps readers to discover those influences.
3) It is a good intro to basic poetic concepts like epic/heroic poetry, enjambment,
alliteration, accentual verse, metaphor, imagery.
4) It is interesting to discover how the poem treats and develops universal ideas (ideas that
are of interest and concern to humans regardless of time and place). Some of these include

heroes and heroism, the good life, virtue, honor, glory, sacrifice, good/bad kings.
5) Reading Beowulf will help you appreciate and understand Tolkien's work, which draws
heavily on Old English lit and culture.
I could go on.
Written Nov 30, 2014 View Upvotes