Beowulf (c. 750)

Beowulf is apparently a big favorite with the ETS people, but it's not necessary to read all of it - a synopsis of the plot will do. Recognize the names of characters and identify that it is alliterative verse with caesuras.

I did watch the movie with Angelina Jolie in it - it helps the plot stick to your head, so by all means...

Characters:

King Hrothgar
Beowulf
Grendel
Grendel's mother
Heorot (Hrothgar's hall)
Hrunting (Beowulf's sword)
Wiglaf

Very Basic Plot Summary

1. Grendel attacks Heorot, kills lots of Hrothgar's people.
2. Hrothgar abandons Heorot.
3. Beowulf, a young warrior, arrives to help Hrothgar.
4. Beowulf mortally wounds Grendel. Grendel runs home and dies.
5. Grendel's mother attacks Heorot the next night. She kills Hrothgar's favorite warrior as revenge.
6. Beowulf tracks Grendel's mother down to her lair under a lake. He gets a sword called Hrunting but it's useless against Grendel's mom, so he chucks it aside and grabs a sword from Grendel's mother's stash. Then he beheads Grendel's mom.
7. Beowulf finds Grendel's body in the lair, so he chops its head off as a present for Hrothgar.
8. Beowulf returns to his land and becomes king of his people.
9. One day when Beowulf is old, this man steals a cup from a dragon's gold stash. Beowulf fights the dragon with the help of a young warrior, Wiglaf.
10. Beowulf and Wiglaf kill the dragon, but Beowulf dies and is buried with the dragon's treasure.

The poem begins like this:

Hwæt! We Gardena         in geardagum,
þeodcyninga,         þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas         ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing         sceaþena þreatum, 

monegum mægþum,         meodosetla ofteah,
egsode eorlas.         Syððan ærest wearð
feasceaft funden,         he þæs frofre gebad,
weox under wolcnum,         weorðmyndum þah,
oðþæt him æghwylc         þara ymbsittendra 

ofer hronrade         hyran scolde,
gomban gyldan.         þæt wæs god cyning! 

LO, praise of the prowess of people-kings
of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,
we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!
Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes,
from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore,
awing the earls. Since erst he lay
friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him:
for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve,
till before him the folk, both far and near,
who house by the whale-path, heard his mandate,
gave him gifts: a good king he!

Full text available at http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=AnoBeow.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=1&division=div1 and http://www8.georgetown.edu/departments/medieval/labyrinth/library/oe/texts/a4.1.html.