Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away….
Only joking.
Hundreds of years ago, there lived a king. King Hrothgar was kind and caring and loved his men and his men loved him in return. But King Hrothgar had a problem. That problem was a certain huge, ugly, cannibalistic monster who answered to the name of Grendel. Every night Grendel would come to Hrothgar's hall and attack and kill several of his men and then eat them. He would leave only to return and repeat the events the next night and the next and the next and so on.
Hrothgar got so upset about the loss of his men that he sent a messenger to someone who he thought could help him. This someone was the nephew of the Swedish king Hygelac, and his name was Beowulf. Beowulf was from the lower part of Sweden, over in Europe. He was very strong and one of the best warriors of his uncle's hall, but his uncle's other warriors didn't really think much of him; they considered him to be a youngster who didn't know about the real world.
When Beowulf heard the summons from Hrothgar, he wanted to head out immediately and help out the poor king, but his uncle warned him to be careful and not do anything rash. Beowulf left to go and help Hrothgar, leaving behind his uncle who didn't expect him to return.
Beowulf showed up at King Hrothgar's hall and the king was very relieved to see him. He asked Beowulf what he was going to do to defeat Grendel and Beowulf replied.
"I'm going to stay here, in your hall, all night long and when Grendel shows up, I'm going to attack him. And because Grendel doesn't have any weapons, my men and I aren't going to have any weapons, either."
King Hrothgar and his men thought Beowulf was crazy and they told each other that he really wouldn't go without his weapons. But, sure enough, as the evening progressed, Beowulf and the men that he had brought with him settled into sleep, without their weapons.
Then Grendel came. He began his nightly routine of killing and eating Hrothgar's men and Hrothgar began to wonder if Beowulf was going to even do anything. Grendel was about to kill another of the king's men when he suddenly stopped and stared at the sleeping Beowulf.
'Now here's a man well worth eating!' The monster thought to himself and he approached Beowulf.
Just as Grendel reached the sleeping warrior, Beowulf leaped up from where he had been resting and jumped on Grendel's back, clinging to his arm. Grendel shouted with surprise. This was SO not what he had expected! He tried to shake Beowulf off, but he soon found it impossible; Beowulf was just not going to let go. Finally, Grendel just couldn't take it anymore. He decided that he should leave before this insanely strong warrior killed him.
However, Beowulf wasn't going to just let him go. As Grendel tried to run away, Beowulf held tightly onto the monster's arm and eventually Grendel did manage to get away, but he left his arm behind. He ran off, crying, to his mommy and told her how mean and senselessly cruel Beowulf had been. Grendel's mommy got really mad. What sort of person would pull off her son's arm for no reason? So Grendel's mommy decided to get revenge for her son.
A few nights later, after King Hrothgar and his men had congratulated Beowulf on his good work, (they had been partying and drinking and such in celebration) they all fell asleep in the hall. And then Grendel's mommy came. She grabbed Hrothgar's best warrior and left the hall. When all the men woke up the next morning, they saw that the warrior was gone and they realized what had happened.
Hrothgar got lots of his men, including Beowulf, together and headed to the swamp where Grendel and his mommy lived. They found the dead warrior on the edge of the swamp and Hrothgar got very upset. Beowulf dove into the swampy depths, intent on finding and killing Grendel's mommy. He stayed underwater for an entire day and most of the men who had come with Hrothgar left, saying that Beowulf was dead and that there was no point in sticking around.
Little did they know what was going on underwater. Beowulf had found Grendel's mommy and had been fighting her for some time. The struggle went on for a long, long time. Beowulf tried to use a normal sword to kill her, but it didn't work. He found a very large, ancient sword in her den and picked it up when he had the chance. After fighting for just a little bit longer, Beowulf swung the sword at Grendel's mommy and cut her head off. Then he found the sleeping Grendel and cut his head off.
Beowulf left the sword behind and made it back to solid ground, showing Grendel's head to Hrothgar as proof that he had killed the monster. Hrothgar was so happy! He gave Beowulf many, many gifts and Beowulf returned home to his uncle's hall.
But that's not the end of the story. When Beowulf returned to his uncle's hall, his uncle and everyone else there was really surprised to see him alive and even more surprised when he told them what he had done. Beowulf's uncle, King Hygelac and his son were both in a battle and both died. Beowulf assumed the throne and reigned as king for fifty years. And then a new evil showed up, but this one was entirely the fault of one of Beowulf's warriors.
This new evil was a dragon and it started attacking only because one of Beowulf's warriors had stolen one of its favourite wine glasses. The dragon came and started burning villages and actually burned down Beowulf's own home. Beowulf got really angry at the dragon and gathered eleven men together to go and fight it. But, once they reached the dragon's den, everyone ran away, because they were scared of the dragon.
Well, everyone ran away except Beowulf and one other warrior named Wiglaf. Those two stayed to fight the bad dragon together. They fought the dragon, it took them a really, really, long time, but they finally beat the guy. But, Beowulf was bitten by the dragon and was dying. Before he died, he made Wiglaf the king because Wiglaf had been the only one to show true courage and bravery by standing by Beowulf's side.
So, Beowulf died, Wiglaf became king of Sweden and Wiglaf built a nice tomb for Beowulf on top of a cliff that overlooked the sea. Thus ends the tale of Beowulf, the mightiest warrior of his time.
