![]() In his death-speech, Beowulf nominates Wiglaf as his heir and asks for a monument to be built for him on the shoreline.īackground Sigurd and Fafnir by Arthur Rackham, from his 1911 illustrations for Richard Wagner's Siegfried and The Twilight of the Godsīeowulf is the oldest extant heroic poem in English and the first to present a dragon slayer. He cuts the dragon in the belly to reduce the flames, and Beowulf deals the fatal blow. Meanwhile, his kinsman Wiglaf scolds the other members of the troop for not going in to help, before coming to Beowulf's aid. Beowulf tells his men to stay outside, that this fight is his alone, but the dragon proves strong and mortally wounds Beowulf. Beowulf and a troop of men leave to find the dragon's lair. The creature attacks the neighboring towns in revenge. Fifty years pass with Beowulf in charge, when a local dragon is angered when a slave enters its lair and takes a cup from its treasure. The scene is structured in thirds, ending with the deaths of the dragon and Beowulf.Īfter his battles against Grendel's mother and Grendel, Beowulf returns home and becomes king of the Geats. The dragon itself acts as a mock "gold-king" one who sees attacking Beowulf's kingdom as suitable retribution for the theft of just a single cup. The fight with the dragon symbolizes Beowulf's stand against evil and destruction, and, as the hero, he knows that failure will bring destruction to his people after many years of peace. The dragon fight, near the end of the poem, is foreshadowed in earlier scenes. Tolkien's The Hobbit (1937), one of the forerunners of modern high fantasy. The Beowulf dragon was adapted for Middle-earth in J. Although the Beowulf dragon exhibits many existing motifs common to Germanic tradition, the Beowulf poet was the first to combine features and present a distinctive fire-breathing dragon. Beowulf is the first piece of English literature to present a dragonslayer. This depiction indicates the growing importance and stabilization of the modern concept of the dragon within European mythology. When the dragon wounds Beowulf fatally, Wiglaf attacks it with his sword, and Beowulf kills it with his dagger. He and his thanes climb to the dragon's lair where, upon seeing the beast, the thanes flee in terror, leaving only Wiglaf to battle at Beowulf's side. When the angry dragon mercilessly burns the Geats' homes and lands, Beowulf decides to fight and kill the monster personally. On his return from Heorot, where he killed Grendel and Grendel's mother, Beowulf becomes king of the Geats and rules wisely for fifty years until a slave awakens and angers a dragon by stealing a jewelled cup from its lair. The final act of the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf includes Beowulf's fight with a dragon, the third monster he encounters in the epic. It does not store any personal data.Beowulf battles his nemesis, the dragon, shown in a 1908 illustration by J. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". ![]() The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". ![]() These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. ![]()
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