The Characters

Beowulf

Beowulf is the epic hero of the story.

Grendel

This is Grendel; The first monster Beowulf slays.


Grendel's Mother

This is Grendel's mama. She looks much nastier in the story.

I... AM... BEOWULF!!!

Beowulf is the main character of the story and it isn't easy. He does all of the dirty work. Beowulf manages to defeat three evil monsters in the excerpts I read. First he defeats Grendel. This monster is a terrible beast that gets addicted to killing. Grendel is so massive and strong that he can kill and swipe up 30 men. Beowulf is not impressed though. Beowulf is so epic that he decides that if Grendel fights without sword and armor, then he too shall fight without these tools. Grendel and Beowulf toss around the great mead-hall Herot for a bit, but Beowulf overcomes Grendel. He manages to rip off Grendel's arm with his bare hands. The defeated monstrosity flees to his murky lair. He tells his mommy what Beowulf has done to him and his mommy decides that she needs to start killing people. So, Beowulf, after just beating one of the strongest terrors he has ever beat in his life, must now kill Grendel's uglier, meaner, stronger mother fuh... for glory. Beowulf goes to where Grendel's mother lives and takes a leisurely multi-hour, underwater swim to reach her. His weapons are useless but there is conveniently a sword there that will easily kill her; The only problem is that no mortal man could ever hope, to even have a dream, of themselves wondering if they could lift it. Would that stop Beowulf? Of course it wouldn't. Beowulf summons all of his strength to lift the sword and bring it down upon Grendel's ugly mama. The sword might have killed her but it melts and only the hilt remains. Even though the lair is full of gold and jewels, Beowulf is too much of a bad a...nglo to care about it. Instead he takes Grendel's head and the remainder of the sword. If butt ugly demons weren't dangerous enough Beowulf kills a fire-breathing dragon at the tender age of 67(approximately). He might have had a little help but considering all of the other great things he did, killing a dragon at 67 is a pretty good accomplishment. Sadly epic heroes die, eventually. When Beowulf was battling the dragon, he was mortally wounded in the neck. He passed away... but its cool; because he believed if people talked about him, that he would live forever. So he must be doing pretty good.

The epic poem...

Epic poems are simply about making everything well... epic. This is the job of the poem. In Old English times scops, bards that sung in great bars called mead-halls, would musically describe great tales to entertain their chemically hindered brethren. These tales were easily distinguishable by their simple themes. The main character must be the biggest and best hero around. He must be capable of defeating great and terrible foes. He must be able to defeat monsters, which is another common occurrence in epics. These monsters must be huge and/or have supernatural powers. The story must take place in a vast setting. The main characters of epics travel great distances between continents and these travels ussually become adventures by themselves. The character needs a reputation beyond the great deeds he comits in the epic. Ussually this reputation is obtained through royal birth or royal relationship. All of these themes are incorporated in the story of Beowulf and they make the story truly epic.