Beowulf Vs. The Thirteenth Warrior Setting, Characters, Plot, P.O.V., Theme(s)

Setting: the time and place in which a story occurs Beowulf (Time) · The main action of the story is set around 500 A.D.; the narrative also recounts historical events that happened much earlier. (Place) · Denmark and Geatland (a region in what is now southern Sweden)

Characters: people or things portrayed as people in a story Beowulf Beowulf - The protagonist of the epic poem King Hrothgar - The king of the Danes. Grendel - A demon descended from Cain, Grendel preys on Hrothgar’s warriors in the king’s mead-hall, Herot. Grendel’s mother - An unnamed swamp-hag, Grendel’s mother seems to possess fewer human qualities than Grendel, The dragon - An ancient, powerful serpent, the dragon guards a horde of treasure in a hidden mound Unferth - A Danish warrior who is jealous of Beowulf Wiglaf - A young kinsman and retainer of Beowulf who helps him in the fight against the dragon while all of the other warriors run away

Plot: the sequence of related events that make up the action in a story (what happens) Beowulf KING HROTHGAR OF DENMARK, builds a great mead-hall, called Heorot which angers Grendel, a horrible demon who terrorizes the Danes every night; they suffer 12 years of fear, danger, and death at the demon’s hands. Eventually, a young Geatish warrior named Beowulf sails to Denmark determined to defeat Grendel. Hrothgar, accepts Beowulf’s offer and holds a feast. During the feast, a jealous Dane named Unferth accuses Beowulf of being unworthy of his reputation. Beowulf responds with a boastful description of some of his past accomplishments. That night, Grendel arrives. Beowulf fights him unarmed, proving himself stronger than the demon, who is terrified. As Grendel struggles to escape, Beowulf tears the monster’s arm off. Mortally wounded, Grendel slinks back into the swamp to die. Grendel’s mother, a swamp-hag who lives in a desolate lake, comes to Heorot seeking revenge. She murders Aeschere, one of Hrothgar’s advisers. To avenge Aeschere’s death, the company travels to the murky swamp, where Beowulf fights Grendel’s mother in her underwater lair. He kills her with a sword forged for a giant, then, finding Grendel’s corpse, decapitates it and brings the head as a prize to Hrothgar. In time, Beowulf ascends to the throne of the Geats. He rules wisely for fifty years. When Beowulf is an old man, a thief disturbs a mound, where a great dragon lies guarding a treasure. Enraged, the dragon unleashes fiery destruction upon the Geats. Beowulf goes to fight the dragon. With the aid of Wiglaf, he succeeds in killing the beast, but the dragon bites Beowulf in the neck and its fiery venom kills him soon after their encounter. According to Beowulf’s wishes, they Geats burn their departed king’s body on a huge funeral pyre and bury him with treasure in a barrow overlooking the sea.

Point of View: through whose eyes a story is told Beowulf Beowulf is narrated in the third-person omniscient (all-knowing) point-of-view. The narrator is an outsider who reports the innermost thoughts and feelings of the characters in the story.

Theme: the main idea or insight of a story Beowulf Remember, a theme is not the same as the subject of a work which can usually be expressed in a word or two – but rather the idea the writer wishes to convey about that subject. Some possible themes presented in Beowulf might involve good vs. evil; sacrifice; loyalty; courage; fate; etc.