Beowulf Summary: Lines 1-990

Good news for your students, Beowulf is a pretty short text.  My book is a little over 100 pages, so it doesn't look too daunting for students when they first pick it up.  Although the book is short, my posts might be long because I'm packing in the summary of the entire text in three days.  Be prepared.   

The beginning of the story tells us that in the past, there was a clan called the Spear-Danes who had very heroic kings.  The first of these kings was Shield Sheafson.  He was a great warrior who was top-notch at pillaging villages.  He was an orphan who eventually became king.  He makes other tribes pay tribute to his clan.  His son, Beow, is wise, valiant, works hard, everything you would want in a heroic prince.  Unfortunately,  his dad, Shield, dies at an early age.  He is buried at sea in a ship that is loaded with treasures, as is customary for kings.  Beow becomes king and rules well.  He is succeeded by Halfdane, who had three sons:  Heorogar, Hrothgar, and Halga.  He also had one daughter (interesting trivia fact:  she is never named throughout the text.  Sexist, huh?). 

Hrothgar is a successful warrior who eventually amasses the most wealth and followers, so he obviously becomes king when his dad dies.  To consolidate, Hrothgar builds a giant mead-hall, Heorot Hall, which is a throne room and mancave for his friends to hangout with him.  When the hall is one being built, Hrothgar gives everyone some of his treasure to celebrate.  The narrator gives us some foreshadowing, saying that the hall will be burnt down in a gory battle.  YAY! 

Well, Grendel, a demon, is upset that Hrothgar built the hall.  He hates hearing those men be men in the mancave.  You can imagine that they're loud and usually drunk and probably listening to some old school (emphasize old) music.  Grendel is actually a descendant of Cain, remember him?  In the Bible?  Killed Able.  Not cool, bro.  Back to Grendel, he's been chilling in the marshes around Heorot Hall for a long time.  Being the demon he is, Grendel attacks the hall in the middle of the night while everyone is passed out (probably because of the copious amounts of alcohol they drank).  Grendel kills 30 men and takes the bodies back to his lair.  In the morning, everyone is shocked to see the destruction caused by Grendel.  Hrothgar is humiliated.  For 12 whole years, Grendel haunts the hall.  He has killed many men.  They wised up and moved out of that place as soon as they realized Grendel meant business. 

Hrothgar is at a loss, so he spreads the story of Grendel.  People write songs and stories about how sad it is.  Grendel will not be appeased.  He won't negotiate, accept a ransom, or anything.  He's pretty stubborn.  He will kill anyone:  young, old, tall, short, skinny, fat (at least he's about equality, right?  Also, in Medieval Ages, it was customary to be able to end wars and fights by paying money, so what Grendel was doing was shocking to a contemporary audience).  Grendel terrorizes the hall, but God stops him from coming to Hrothgar's throne. 

Many people come and tell Hrothgar how to take care of Grendel.  Some tell him some military strategies, others turn to idolatry and makes sacrifices to pagan gods.  The narrator then chastises the pagan worshipers and spends a moment rejoicing in the fact that he lives in a time when Christianity is present so he can praise the Lord (sounds confusing, but I'll discuss religion at the end of the week).  Although everyone has some ideas about how to vanquish Grendel, Hrothgar can't and Grendel keeps killing Danes in the night.

Across the water from the Danes are the Geats who have the strongest warrior on earth, a part of King Hygelac's tribe, decides that he'll go help the Danes with their demon problem.  No, he doesn't perform an exorcism.  He orders boats to be ready and he's so beloved that people hop right to it.  After having the ship loaded down with weapons, the warrior and 14 other men set sail to help Hrothgar.  The Danish lookout, after seeing the ship arrive in their land, asks who these men are and if they mean peace or harm (immediately I thought of an alien saying, "We come in peace").  The warrior explains that he belongs to King Hygelac's tribe and he's come to help defeat Grendel.  The lookout believes the warrior and lets him and his men go ahead. 

The warrior and his men, lead by the lookout, head to Heorot Hall.  When they arrive, they are amazed by the apparent wealth of Hrothgar because of the magnificence of the hall.  When they arrive to the hall, Hrothgar's herald fires a bunch of questions at the Geats.  The warrior finally introduces himself as Beowulf (don't you love it when the title shows up in the book; it's like AHA).  He is beyond polite and formal and asks to see King Hrothgar.  Wulfgar, a Dane, agrees to send Beowulf's message to Hrothgar and explain why the Geats are there.  Wulfgar tells Hrothgar that he should talk with the Geats since they look very respectable. 

Hrothgar and realizes that he knew Beowulf's dad, Ecgtheow, and had actually met Beowulf when he was young, so he grants them a meeting.  This meeting is very formal, with only Beowulf and a few VIP guys going to meet with Hrothgar.  Everyone else has to stay outside to watch over the weapons.  Beowulf explains why he has come and brags about his awesome strength.  Beowulf announces that he will fight Grendel in single combat, one-on-one, folks.  He asks Hrothgar for the privilege of purifying the hall.  To add a cherry on top of it all, Beowulf says he's going to fight Grendel without weapons.  Yeah, he's going to just use his hands.  The battle is to the death, too.  He even talks about what it will be like if he loses:  Grendel will carry his body back to his lair and munch on it.  Yummy snack.  Hrothgar responds by telling a story about how he met Beowulf's dad, essentially saying that Ecgtheow pledged allegiance to Hrothgar and that Beowulf owes Hrothgar because Hrothgar helped Ecgtheow.  Hrothgar also talks about how distraught he is over Grendel's killing.  He's seen many warriors attempt to defeat Grendel, but all die in the process. 

Now that the formal business is out of the way, it's time to party.  Hrothgar throws a medieval feast for his visitor.  One of Hrothgar's men, Unferth, is envious of Beowulf and the attention he is getting and asks Beowulf if he is the same Beowulf who lost a swimming contest against a man named Breca.  If he's the same guy, there's no way he can beat Grendel.  Beowulf says that Unferth has heard the wrong story.  He and Breca were equally matched, swimming right next to each other, even though they had weapons and armor.  Beowulf was caught by a sea monster, but slayed him.  He says that before the match was over he killed nine different monsters.  Then Beowulf burns Unferth by saying that he must not be such a great warrior or else Grendel would already be dead and they wouldn't be in the predicament they're in.

Hrothgar enjoys Beowulf boasting and he's glad he has Beowulf.  Then comes Hrothgar's wife, Queen Wealhtheow.  She salutes the warrior and offers them a drink from her goblet.  She thanks Beowulf for coming.  Beowulf brags a little more about how he's going to save the Danes from Grendel.  Wealhtheow is pleased and goes to sit by Hrothgar.  The feast goes on and everyone has a grand time. 

At sunset, Hrothgar leaves the hall to go to sleep and leaves it in Beowulf's hands.  This is the first time he's let someone else be in charge of his magnificent hall.  Hrothgar and Wealtheow leave.  Beowulf puts his trust in God, takes of his armor, and puts his weapons away.  Beowulf then takes a cat nap, waiting for Grendel's inevitable attack.  All the Geats expect to die but the narrator tells us that God is going to grant them a victory.

As if psychic, Grendel tears the door off of the hall, revealing the Geats who are sleeping.  He is overjoyed as he imagines killing them.  Grendel grabs one of the Geats, kills him, drinks his blood, and tears parts off of the warrior with his teeth.  Grendel then sets his sights on Beowulf. He swings at Beowulf, but Beowulf stops him in the strongest grip Grendel has ever felt.  Grendel has a small panic attack because he's never fought against someone stronger than he is.  Beowulf then begins to wrestle Grendel, crashing into things, and tearing up the hall.  Beowulf's men try to help him by stabbing Grendel with swords, but they don't realize that Grendel can't be hurt by any blade on earth.  Grendel and Beowulf still wrestle until Beowulf rips off Grendel's arm.  Yeah, it's pretty gory.  Reminds you of some previous epics we've read, doesn't it?  Grendel flees the scene, mortally wounded.  Beowulf has won.  He, again, boasts.  He has saved the Danes from the demon.  He even has Grendel's arm to prove it. 

In the morning, they celebrate Grendel's death.  They track Grendel down by his trail of blood to see if he is actually dead.  You wouldn't want to celebrate prematurely.  Guess what?  He's really dead.  He jumped into his marshy home and drowned.  The narrator says that his soul went to hell.  Everyone gives Beowulf a big pat on the back.  In Beowulf's honor, Hrothgar's minstrel sings an old song, free-versing part of it to include Beowulf's heroic deeds.  Everyone keeps celebrating the death of Grendel.  Hrothgar and his wife return to the hall.  Hrothgar gives a speech thanking Beowulf and says that Beowulf is now part of his family.  The narrator ends this section reminding us that although the men are celebrating, we will all face death like Grendel did.

Wasn't that action-packed?!  I thought so too.  Next post coming soon.  I'm on a roll today.

Cassy