Beowulf: plot, characters and summary of the poem whose author we do not know and from which a film was made in 2007. The story of the mythical hero Beowulf.
Many epic poems have no known author name. Beowulf , an 8th-century text written in Old English, is no exception.
We know the work thanks to a manuscript that is currently preserved in the British Library, the Cotton Vitellius . The text was probably born on the basis of Nordic legends collected orally and collected in written form. Something very similar, in short, to two of the most famous Western poems known: the Iliad and the Odyssey .
Plot and characters
But what exactly is Beowulf about ?
The legend of Beowulf, we have said, has Nordic origins. This also explains why many of the characters and the imagery of the story take their cue from the Nordic myths of the hero and the monsters .
Beowulf is therefore, essentially, the hero who must fight against non-human life forms, from the moment he appears in the text for the first time until the moment of his death.
The story of Beowulf is divided into two parts; the fight between Beowulf and Grendel and the fight between Beowulf and the dragon.
The poem was also made into a film in 2007: Beowulf , directed by Robert Zemeckis.
The first monster that appears in the text is Grendel, who we see raiding the castle of the Danish king Hrothgar . After numerous incursions by the monster, the king asks for help from Beowulf , nephew of the king of the Geats , who comes from southern Sweden.
Beowulf has the strength of a giant and can do things that a man could not. Since Grendel cannot be killed by man-made weapons, Beowulf defeats him with his bare hands.
Peace seems to have returned to the castle, but the monster’s mother – a bloodthirsty and wicked woman – begins to persecute the king and his men. Once again Beowulf decides to challenge the monster, and prevails thanks to a sword forged by giants, which he finds in its lair.
Beowulf returns home and becomes King of the Geats. After fifty years of reign, a dragon will attack him. He will not be able to get the better of it, but will mortally wound the hero.
