Beowulf pg. 31-60 Collaboration Notes

Reading Notes Pg 31-60

Collaboration between: Hikaru Kasai, Michael
Hall, and Taylor Wall

From Tristia Book 10

• been here for 3 winters, looking out across the Euxine sea
• describes the people as hairy barbarians who you would hate when you see them but control most the land.
• the land is chaos and war, the man are believed to be descendants of Greeks but he questions why they wear Persian clothes.
• he is angry how he has to uses signs to talk and they mock his latin words.  
• he thinks back to his time in Rome and talks about the pain he is in, being taken from his homeland
• at the end he says,” Perhaps i did not deserve to be punished in such a place… I’m a madman. I deserve to lose even my life.. when I did injury to the power of Caesar the god”.

From Beowulf

Background: At the time of this story England was changing from pagan to christianity. Both religious ideas can be seen in the story. Stories of people facing monsters was very common.

Beowulf pages 39-40

The Wrath of Grendel:

• Grendel is born of Cain who was banished by god for killing his brother Abel
• He torments Hrothgar’s hall in Herot by going in at night and taking the sleeping men back to his cave and eating them
• Many tried to defeat him but he was immune to all mortal weapons
• Grendel ruled over Herot by instilling fear into the hearts of all men, and Hrothgar was left alone in his hall

The Coming of Beowulf:

• Beowulf, who serves Higlac the king of the Geats, hears of Hrothgar’s misfortune and decides he will take 14 men with him to defeat the beast
• He arrives in the Danes and decides they will sleep in the hall to bait Grendel
• Grendel comes in while they pretend to sleep and Beowulf uses his hands to rip off his arm and defeat him

The Monster’s Lair:

• peasants had seen Grendel and his mother wandering out in the marshes
• they believe they live in a lake that burns like a torch
• animals won’t go near it to save their own lives
• they ask Beowulf to pursue Grendels mother to her home and kill her

Battle with Grendel’s Mother

• The mother ruled the like for 50 years
• Beowulf dives underwater to kill her in a cave, but he gets caught and wrestles to beat her
• He attempted to stab her with his sword which didn’t work, and his armour protects him from mother’s attacks
• He finds a large giant’s sword in the cave and use it to kill the mother
• the sword is called a hilt, which is amazing according to Beowulf, the blood of mother melted the hilt
• He beheads mother after cutting her and carries her head and the hilt to shore to show his men
• before he leaves, he finds that the Mother kept treasure in her cave, which he leaves
• he returns to Herot and then to his homeland and becomes the King of Geatland for 50 years

The Last Battle

• after decades of his rule, a dragon threatens his kingdom since it tried to find the culprit who stole the treasure the dragon guarded
• he insists that he will fight it alone, and he confronts the dragon with a sword and shield
• the dragon breathes fire at him and he strikes him with his sword
• the men run away into the woods except for Wiglaf (Wexton’s son), who stays to fight with Beowulf

The Spoils

• Beowulf is injured by the dragon, and Wiglaf manages to deal damage and the dragon limps back
• Wiglaf’s hand is burned

The Farewells

• knowing that his wound is fatal, Beowulf orders Wiglaf to bring back some treasure that the dragon is holding to see what he has won for him land
• Beowulf tells Wiglaf that he should replace his role and build a tower named after Beowulf for the brave symbolism
• Beowulf dies in glory as a hero