With the aid of Wiglaf, he succeeds in killing the beast, but at a heavy cost. The dragon bites Beowulf in the neck, and its fiery venom kills him moments after their encounter. The Geats fear that their enemies will attack them now that Beowulf is dead.

The protagonist of the epic, Beowulf is a Geatish hero who fights the monster Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and a fire-breathing dragon. Beowulf’s boasts and encounters reveal him to be the strongest, ablest warrior around.

Was Beowulf real? There is no evidence of a historical Beowulf, but other characters, sites, and events in the poem can be historically verified. For example, the poem’s Danish King Hrothgar and his nephew Hrothulf are generally believed to have been based on historical figures.

As a work of art, it also serves its purpose of moral instruction, today serving as a demonstration of what values were important to the Anglo-Saxon people. Especially seen through the characters of Beowulf and Wiglaf, the poem Beowulf illustrates three important morals of its time: bravery, honor, and loyalty.

The main characteristics of an epic hero that Beowulf shows is brave deeds, he is a strong and responsible leader, risks his life for the greater good of his people and his kingdom, has a great amount of courage, his inhuman strength, and his faith and gratitude.

Beowulf orders Wiglaf to go into the barrow, look at the treasure, and bring back some of it for him to see before he dies. Wiglaf obeys Beowulf’s dying wish and goes down into the barrow, where he finds amazing piles of treasure, all of it rusting and decaying.

Their battle concludes with Beowulf’s ripping Grendel’s arm off, fulfilling his promise to Hrothgar to kill the monster with his bare hands. Beowulf nails Grendel’s severed arm to the mead hall rafters and, although Grendel runs away, he is later found to have bled to death in his underwater lair.

Grendel’s mother

Æschere

Why wasn’t Beowulf in the mead hall the night Grendel’s mother attacked? To serve the king and other men drinks and food.

This essay will consider these differences in more depth, concentrating on the supposed monstrosity of Grendel’s Mother and how this is supported by the original text, for while she conforms to some stereotypes of monsters (particularly in the Anglo-Saxon age), she is not especially evil and does not necessarily fulfil …

Although his sword, Hrunting, loaned to him by Unferth, fails to penetrate the mother’s hide, Beowulf discovers a giant magic sword in the cave and is able to kill the mother with it. The sword melts to its hilt after Beowulf uses it to decapitate the corpse of Grendel, which lies nearby.

Her body is covered with greenish yellow scales that give her the resemblance of an amphibian-like creature. Her scales are hard and smooth as diamonds, but tough enough to withstand hundreds of men’s swords swinging at her. Grendel’s mother had claws with sharp nails that can pierce through the thickest wall.

She is depicted as a beautiful woman able to turn into a multi-limbed devil-like creature. Her true nature is never revealed, but according to herself, she is an ancient being who had originally lived on the castle’s lands. She mates with king Hrothgar to produce Grendel, and later tries to seduce Beowulf as well.