Beowulf

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Composed toward the end of the first millennium, Beowulf is the elegiac narrative of the adventures of Beowulf, a Scandinavian hero who saves the Danes from the seemingly invincible monster Grendel and later from Grendel's mother. He then returns to his own country and dies in old age in a vivid fight against a dragon. The poem explores themes of encountering the monstrous, defeating it, and living on in the aftermath. In this story, both remote and uncannily familiar, Seamus Heaney finds a resonance that brings power to the poetry from deep beneath its surface. He is drawn to the "four-squareness of the utterance" in Beowulf and its immense emotional credibility, giving these epic qualities new and convincing reality for the contemporary reader.