Beowulf

The epic Anglo-Saxon poem, Beowulf, is a story of a hero’s adventure to defeat evil and save his people. This story takes place in ancient Denmark, where there lived a monster called Grendel. Grendel terrorized Hrothgar’s kingdom by killing many men at night every week. The inhabitants were scared for their lives, and many abandoned their homes.

Beowulf Hrothgar for permission to defeat Grendel, but the king is unsure if he should let Beowulf risk his life. Finally, Hrothgar accepts Beowulf’s offer by giving him weapons and armour.

After Beowulf kills Grendel with his bare hands, he goes on to kill Grendel's mother in order to get rid of the evil in the world. But after becoming extremely wealthy from his adventures, Beowulf dies while fighting a dragon that was wreaking havoc throughout Geatland.

It was written between the 8th and early 11th century in Old English. The poem was written anonymously in Old English alliterative verse. It has only one surviving manuscript dating between 1000-1014 CE called The Nowell Codex, which was found in an abbey in 1562 AD. Beowulf is considered one of the oldest heroic poems from the early middle ages.