Prologue:
1 He started off as an abandoned infant and then rose to power. At his funeral, his baby was put in a boat with his treasure and armor and then cast off to sea.
Heorot is attacked
1. Hrothgar built the hall. Grendel attacked it in the night killing 30 men but returns every night for 12 years killing more. The Danes are horrified and avoid the hall.
Hero comes to Heorot (1-4)
1. Beowulf immediately created an army to go help Hrothgar defeat Grendel.
2. Geat first meets a nameless watcher in Denmark. He was guarding the shore and then interrogates Beowulf. Beowulf explains why he's there and he wanted rid of land of evil. Beowulf also wants to meet Grendel.
3. Hrothgar's Herald is the interrogator mentioned before. He goes to Hrothgar and explains the arrival of the Geats and also that Hrothgar should let them come visit him. He agrees and realizes he knows Beowulfs father, Ecgtheow.
4. Beowulf told Hrothgar that he plans to fight Grendel. Hrothgar took in Beowulfs father and protected him after he killed a man.
Feast at Heorot (1-2)
1. Unfirth accuses Beowulf of being a man who lost a swimming contest in the open sea against a man named Bruca. Beowulf says he has the story wrong and instead he got caught by sea monsters and killed nine of them before making it to shore. Beowulf shows lack of fear in the story. He accuses Unfirth of being weak because hasn't fought Grendel.
2. Queen Wealtheow salutes the warriors and offers them a goblet to drink and she thanks Beowulf for coming.
Fight with Grendel (1-2)
1. Beowulf takes off his armor for a fair fight with Grendel.
2. Grendel takes the door off and mauls a great warrior. Beowulf tares off Grendels arm and uses it as a weapon. Grendel leaves with an arm.
Celebration at Heorot (1-6)
1. Beowulf is like a sigemund because he was a Dragon Slayer and Beowulf just killed Grendel. Coward.
2. Hrothgar claimed Beowulf as his adopted son. Unfirth no longer has a say.
3. The story is about how Danes lost a bloody battle to Finn, King of Frisians. Realizing their defeat the Danes struck a truce with Frisians in which they lived seperately but under common rule. Using a woman to unite the tribes showed wisdom because it basically combined the tribes and strikee common ground.
4. Queen Wealtheow asks Hrothgar to not have Beowulf to be their heir to their throne and instead pick one of his sons.
5) The necklace will be worn by Beowulf’s king, Hygelac, and at his last battle the Franks will steal it from his corpse. The queen asks Beowulf to guide and protect her sons as she gives him the torque.
6) The men stay at the beer hall to sleep because Grendel is dead and they feel safe. (There was a big party in celebration of Grendel’s death where the men drank a lot) This was a mistake because Grendel’s mother came back for revenge.
Another Attack (1-3)
1) Grendel’s mother came to avenge her son’s death by killing men. Grendel’s motives aren’t really known, but they seemed to be driven by envy of happiness of the men in the hall.
2) Hrothgar’s is grief stricken by the loss of his retainer and sends out Beowulf and his men alongside his own men.
3) The mere is a lake where Grendel’s mother lives and the home of numerous other monsters.
Beowulf Fights Grendels Mother (1-8)
1) Beowulf tells Hrothgar that it’s better to avenge the death of the ones you love rather than sitting around mourning for them. He swears to track down Grendel’s mother and slay her like the monster she is.
2) Before Beowulf enters the mere, the warriors find Aeschere’s head and sea monsters show themselves. They sound a horn and the monsters scurry away, but not before Beowulf kills one.
3) Beowulf puts on his chain-mail armor, his golden helmet, and takes out his sword. His sword was called Hrunting and was given to him by Unferth.
4) Beowulf swims down the mere to find Grendel’s mother. The other monsters sense his presence and attack him. Grendel’s mom drags him to her hall where the water could do him no harm. This was interesting because Grendel attacked the Heorot hall and they also live in a sort of hall.
5) Beowulf’s sword melts away until it’s just the hilt.
6) Beowulf is protected by his chain-mail which saves him from stab wounds and then is able to wiggle his way free from the rubble on top of him.
7) Beowulf uses the sword to decapitate Grendel’s mother. The lair becomes brighter and he sees Grendel’s body and decapitates him as well. Beowulf takes the head with him to shore as his sword melts from Grendel’s blood (he keeps the hilt).
8) Beowulf was not expected to be alive so the Danes and Hrothgar left, but the Geat warriors stayed behind. When he comes to the surface the warriors are overjoyed to see him.
Further celebration at Heorot (1-3)
1) Beowulf gives the hilt of the sword to Hrothgar.
2) Hrothgar tells Beowulf of a bad king, Heremod, who was blood-thirsty. He tells him this so as to compare the dangers of wealth and power. He reminds Beowulf that everybody dies because God is in charge and that they should focus on the afterlife.
3) Beowulf gives the sword, Hrunting, back to Unferth
Beowulf Returns Home
1) Hrothgar predicts that Beowulf will come back and defend the Danes as their ruler.
2) Hygd is not like Queen Modthryth because the latter was evil. Anytime a person would look at her, she would have them imprisoned and eventually killed.
3) Hrothgar hopes that the marriage of his daughter Freawaru to Ingeld will end a blood-feud between the Danes and the Heathobards. Beowulf believes the feud will start all over again. Beowulf thinking the peace can be broken is a new side of him because he always acts on impulse rather than thinks through situations.
4) Beowulf reports his adventures by storytelling. He stretches the truth and focus on the parts of the stories where he succeeds rather than when he fails.
5) Beowulf formally presents the treasures that Hrothgar gave him to Hygelac. In return Hygelac gives him a jeweled sword, 7,000 hides, land, a hall, and a throne of his own.The Dragon Wakes
1) Part 2 takes place fifty years later. King Hygelac dies in battle, along with the following king, Heardred. A dragon was awakened at this time.
2) The dragon awoke because someone stole a goblet from his treasure. The man took it because he was poor and intended to give it to his master. The treasure was there because a rich man had many treasures but he didn’t have anyone to leave them to. One day the dragon arrived to guard it.
3) That night, the dragon attacked the people in Geat and destroyed their land.
4) Beowulf thought his home was burnt because he disobeyed the gods in some ways. He orders a new shield because he wants an iron one that cannot be burnt. The author adumbrates Beowulf’s death by having him fight the dragon.
5) Hygelac was killed in battle. Beowulf swam to safety with his loot, thirty battle-dresses. Hygd offered Beowulf the throne, but he denied it and became king of the Geats.
6) An group of Swedes that had been exiled killed Heardred. Beowulf avenged Heardred’s death with the killing of King Onela.
7) Twelve men went with Beowulf to the dragon.
8) Herebeald's brother Haethcyn killed him in a hunting accident. King Heathrel would neither forgive him, nor punish him. He fled the land and left the throne to his sons. The Swedes and the Geats continued to feud. Haethcyn was killed in battle against the Swedes. Beowulf avenged Hygelac’s death by killing a great Frankish warrior, Dayraven.
Beowulf Attacks the Dragon
1) Beowulf tells his companions to wait and not enter the area of the dragon. He’d rather they watch than actually fight.
2) Beowulf’s sword fails and he has to fall back. While he is retreating he is hit by the fire of the dragon. His companions flee, but Wiglaf remains and wants to help Beowulf. Beowulf yearns for help, and Wiglaf remains and encourages him by reminding him of his past.
3) Beowulf’s sword breaks and he is then bit by the dragon. Beowulf stabs the dragon in the side with his knife, killing it.
4) Beowulf wants Wiglaf to bring the treasure for him to see before he dies. Beowulf thanks God for having him die with wealth. He asks Wiglaf to build a barrow on the coast and for his body to be burned on a funeral pyre.
Beowulf's Funeral
1) The warriors come back to see Wiglaf attempt to save Beowulf. Wiglaf reprimands them for abandoning Beowulf when he needed them most. In the future, Wiglaf sees that the Geats will be attacked by neighboring lands and that their kingdom will be destroyed.
2) The messenger tells the city that Beowulf has died. Ongentheow and his men surrounded the Geats and laughed at them. His men threatened and taunted the Geats. In the morning, Hygelac came to the Geats aid with reinforcements. Ongentheow could not match the reinforcements and retreated. He was cornered by Hygelac and in the battle, Ongentheow was killed. The messenger warns that the treasure is cursed and anyone who attempts to take it will be cursed. Beowulf won’t be cursed because he never “looked at it with greedy eyes”. The messenger has a final image of the dragon.
3) Wiglaf tells the crowd that Beowulf was a great warrior. In a way, he reprimands Beowulf for not listening to the people. Beowulf would have lived if he had not gone to fight. He was a great warrior that will bear a king's funeral.
4) The dragon was pushed off the cliff into the ocean by Wiglaf’s men. The dragon was evil and wasn't worthy of a burial.
5) The Geats were mourning and singing because they were upset. The burial took about ten days, so everyone was upset and crying.
6) The Geats say Beowulf was a kind and beloved man who has left a mark on this earth. Being described as “kind” isn’t the usual description of a warrior. Beowulf killed Grendel and the dragon, with a great lack of mercy.
