1. Beowulf
A hero for all times …

4. Who?
-created around 500 A.D.
Beowulf wasn’t actually written down until between the 8th and 9th centuries A.D.
The Beowulf-poet, scholars believe, was an English monk (therefore, a Christian) who probably lived in one of the Anglo-Saxon settlements in Western England. That person made changes which reflected Christian values.

5. Who was it about?
It is the story of several Scandinavian peoples, mainly the Geats and the Danes, but also the Swedes. Beowulf was a Geat. He went to the aid of the Danes, whose king was Hrothgar. They lived in this region . . .

6. Map of Baltic Region of Scandinavia and the Viking Invasions (700-800)

7. It is written by an English (Anglo-Saxon) monk who is looking back in time to the days when his ancestors still lived in Scandinavia and had different values. The original audiences would have heard the poem, and they would probably have been distant relatives of those tribes who play major roles in the poem.

8. Who are the main characters?
Beowulf (Geat) Hrothgar (Dane) Unferth (Dane) Wiglaf (Geat) Grendel (Monster) Grendel’s mother (Monster) The dragon (Monster)

9. More Character Info
Many people divide the poem into thirds. It is about Beowulf’s three epic battles with three evil creatures:
Grendel
Grendel’s Mother
The Dragon

10. It is considered an epic because:
What?
It is considered an epic because:
It is a long narrative poem
It tells about a larger-than-life hero
This hero represents the values of his society

11. There really was a raid against the Franks by Hygelac, Beowulf’s lord.
When?
When did the events in it take place? In the fifth century A.D. in the Baltic region. Some events in the poem did happen:
There really was a raid against the Franks by Hygelac, Beowulf’s lord.
Most important thing to remember is that it is a poem that reminisces about a previous, “dead” world.

12. The Scary, Horror Movie “Where”
In the introduction of one version of Beowulf it is suggested that the story taps into “three of our basic sites of fear”:
The barricaded house at night
The infested dark, underwater current
Reptile-haunted rocks of a wilderness

13. What are our basic fears?
Today’s scary places:
Our beds on a stormy night when we are alone in the house (where we should feel safe)
A murky lake, or the beach where Jaws takes place (Ever been waterskiing and wondered what was nibbling on your toes?). Or, how about a deserted place by yourself?
The dark recesses of the earth: a cave, or even better, your own, dark basement