Beowulf

Beowulf, an Anglo-Saxon epic poem, the most important work of Old English literature and the first major poem written in a European vernacular language. The only surviving manuscript is in the British Museum; it is written in the West Saxon dialect and is believed to date from the late 10th century. On the basis of this text, Beowulf is generally considered the work of an 8th-century Anglian poet who fused Scandinavian history and pagan mythology with Christian elements.

The poem consists of 3,182 lines, each line with four accents marked by alliteration and divided into two parts by a caesura (see Versification). The structure of the typical Beowulf line comes through in modern translation, for example:

The sombre story is told in vigorous, picturesque language, with much use of metaphor (see Figures of Speech); a famous example is “whale-road” for sea. It tells of two major events in the life of a hero, a Scandinavian prince named Beowulf, who rids the Danes of the monster Grendel, half-man and half-fiend, and Grendel's mother, who comes that evening to avenge Grendel's death. Fifty years later Beowulf, now king of his native land, fights a dragon who threatens his people. Both Beowulf and the dragon are mortally wounded in the fight. The poem ends with Beowulf's funeral as his mourners chant his epitaph.