Beowulf
 

I remember reading it, but forget what it's about.

Can someone give me the jist of the story? Movie looks good.

I clicked it, but only got a search engine :Oh crap

no one knows beowulf, it's like a poem, BoyAlley, you're good with poems, do you know beowulf?

man goes into cave and kills monster, the end

it is a quite a boring read. Basically Beowulf kills Grendell and his mother.

err that is it.

you forgot about him also killing monsters son in the pub.

I remember somethign about a village, he has to sneak out, leaves his brother???? Is this the same story?

Oh geeze. Read this in the 9th or 10th grade. All I remember is that it was SO freaking boring that our teacher brought us in mead to taste to spark our interest. It didn't work ;)

Nowadays, she'd be tarred, feathered and fired for giving high school kids a small sip of weak wine (we had stronger every week during communion) to try to make them interested in a boring ass book.

I haven't dared pick it up again for fear of being bored stiff as an adult and having to admit I'm uncultured!

Not many people will disagree with that...

I remember nothing but the title.. and the trauma.. :)

I had to read it in Early English Lit class. It's the first written story in the ENglish language (written in Old English) and was also the first to be bastardized by its writers. The monks who committed the story of oral tradition to paper added as many god references as they could. But the original story is still there, between the lines.

It's a story of a hero and his tribe of people in a strange, cold, and not too friendly land, fighting a mysterious monsterin the night. Very archetypal and quite a good read if you're into mythology at all.

Here's the gist:

First battle: Grendel
Beowulf is challenged by a Danish coast guard, by Evelyn Paul (1911).

Beowulf begins with the story of King Hroðgar, who built the great hall Heorot for his people. In it he, his wife Wealhþeow, and his warriors spend their time singing and celebrating, until Grendel, who is angered by the singing and an outcast from society, attacks the hall and kills and devours many of Hroðgar's warriors while they sleep. Hroðgar and his people, helpless against Grendel's attacks, abandon Heorot.

Beowulf, a young warrior, hears of Hroðgar's troubles and with his king's permission then leaves his homeland to help Hroðgar.

Beowulf and his men spend the night in Heorot. After they fall asleep, Grendel enters the hall and attacks, devouring one of Beowulf's men. But Grendel dare not touch the throne of Hroðhgar, because he is protected by the almighty God. Beowulf, feigning sleep, leaps up and grabs Grendel's arm in a wrestling hold, and the two battle until it seems as though the hall might fall down due to their fighting. Beowulf's men draw their swords and rush to his help, but their swords break upon Grendel's arm due to the thorny spikes and iron-tough skin of the monster. Finally, Beowulf tears Grendel's arm from his body at the shoulder and Grendel runs to his home in the marshes to die.

Second battle: Grendel's mother

The next night, after celebrating Grendel's death, Hroðgar and his men sleep in Heorot. Grendel's Mother appears, however, and attacks the hall. She kills Hroðgar's most trusted warrior, Æschere, in revenge for Grendel's death.

Hroðgar, Beowulf, and their men track Grendel's Mother to her lair under an eerie lake. Beowulf prepares himself for battle; he is presented with a sword, Hrunting, by a warrior called Unferð. After stipulating a number of conditions (upon his death) to Hroðgar (including the taking in of his kinsmen, and the inheritance by Unferð of Beowulf's estate), Beowulf dives into the lake. There, he is swiftly detected and attacked by Grendel's mother. Unable to harm Beowulf through his armour, Grendel's mother drags him to the bottom of the lake. There, in a cavern containing Grendel's body and the remains of many men that the two have killed, Grendel's mother and Beowulf engage in fierce combat.

Grendel's mother at first prevails, after Beowulf, finding that the sword (Hrunting) given him by Unferð cannot harm his foe, discards it in fury. Again, Beowulf is saved from the effects of his opponent's attack by his armour and, grasping a mighty sword from Grendel's mother's armoury (which, the poem tells us, no other man could have hefted in battle), Beowulf beheads her. Travelling further into the lair, Beowulf discovers Grendel's corpse; he severs the head. Beowulf then returns to the surface and to his men at the "ninth hour" (l. 1600, "nōn", about 3pm). [24] He returns to Heorot, where he is given many gifts by an even more grateful Hroðgar.

Third battle: The dragon
Beowulf fights the dragon

Beowulf returns home and eventually becomes king of his own people. One day, late in Beowulf's life, a slave steals a golden cup from a dragon's lair at Earnaness. When the dragon sees that the cup has been stolen, it leaves its cave in a rage, burning up everything in sight. Beowulf and his warriors come to fight the dragon, but only one of the warriors, a brave young man named Wiglaf, stays to help Beowulf, because the rest are too afraid. Beowulf kills the dragon with Wiglaf's help, but Beowulf dies from the wounds he has received.

After he is cremated, Beowulf is buried on a cliff overlooking the sea, where sailors are able to see his barrow. The dragon's treasure is buried with him, rather than distributed to his people, as was Beowulf's wish, because of the curse associated with the hoard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf

That movie with Christophe Lambert? BS movie ...