Summary of Slaying Monsters

The summary of “Slaying Monsters”

In the nineteen- twenties J.R.R Tolkien translated “Beowulf “ even though he probably wasn’t the most qualified person to translate it. He had learned and translated it at an early age. He loved Beowulf and especially medieval ones, with lots of wayfaring and dragon-slaying- activities, which was prominent in his books “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings.” He finished the translation of Beowulf in 1926 but once he was finished it he put it in a draw and never published it. But 40 years after his death His son Christopher had brought it out. People think Beowulf was most likely written in Britain and by which we don’t know who wrote it in the eighth century.

The Plot is simple Beowulf is a prince of the Geats. He is peerlessly noble, brave, and strong. In each hand he has the strength of 30 men.

“Beowulf” is the story of the hero’s defeat of three successive monsters. The first one is Grendel. The Geats are allies of the Danes, and Beowulf , and by this time he seems to be around thirty, decides to go to Denmark and defeat the beast. It is hard for us to know what Grendel looks like. He is supposed about four times the size of a man. He has to enter Hearot by a door. When he is wounded he bleeds which Beowulf soon finds out after he tears off Grendel’s arm with his hands. Then he hangs the arm from the rafters in the mead hall. Grendel is a bit child like because he has a mother and when he goes home to die his mother goes on a rampage. So Beowulf has to suit up again. His mother lives in a chamber below a swap. Beowulf dives right in with his gear on but his men are to scared and wait at the ledge. Once he reached her she was waiting with a gang of sea monsters which tear at him to soften him up. Then Grendels mother takes over and Beowulf finds that his sward doesn’t affect her but he sees a sword forged by the giants- which no man can pick up-except for him. He waves it through the air and cuts through her neck and breaks her neck bone. Before he leaves the den Beowulf beheads Grendel’s corpse. Then swims to the surface with it and hands it to his men. When they get back to the mead hall, they pull it around by its hairs, as a game.  

Beowulf’s third fight, which is at home in Geatland is with a dragon. He is fifty feet long and breaths fire. He has wings- he can fly – and lives in a nice cave where he guards a treasure that has been there for three hundred years. But now someone has come and stolen a jeweled cup. This enrages him and begins incinerating the Geatish countryside.

It has been many years since Beowulf had killed Grendel and his mother. It has been fifty years that he has been ruling the Geats and he is eighty years old now and tired. Still to protect his people he must fight the dragon. He reviews his great deeds. He bids them farewell. As always he insists on going into the contest alone. The knights snick off into the forest. The dragon comes out of the cave Beowulf brings his huge sword down on the monsters body but as with Grendel’s mother it doesn’t make a dent. The Dragon sinks his teeth into the Hero’s neck. His blood was gushing out.

Not all of his men ran into the forest. One young knight Wiglaf stayed and unbeknownst to the King followed him close behind. Seeing Beowulf hurt he rushes forth and stabs the dragon which Wiglaf took better aim than Beowulf did, which weakened the dragon to the point where the old man could go for the kill. Beowulf ripped up the serpent. The Geatish knights unceremoniously dump the body over the cliff. Wiglaf takes Beowulf helmet and bathes his wounds to no avail. In the end of the poem you see the knights in tear riding their horses in a circle around Beowulfs tomb.