This book (or poem, or whatever you would call it) accomplishes the primary goal of mythology: it tells a story of heroism and basic ideals, upon which a belief system can built. It turns out, the system was more literature written in English than any moral component of Beowulf or his supporting cast.

Heaney’s translation gives a rich texture to a story that seems like it would be pretty flat. It reminds me of a Shakespearean tragedy, with its dense use of language that creates complexity where there should be none. The plot is incredibly basic, but at least it prevents any doubt about your rooting interests. You can’t read this and root for Grendel, or Grendel’s mother. This is entirely about the heroism of Beowulf, and his rightful ascension to the throne.

The book is dense, and also reminds me of the Bible. There are a lot of names, and a lot of “factual” details crammed into a story about fantastical monsters and characters with no moral complexity whatsoever.

Grendel shows up at a celebration and starts killing people. Beowulf kills him, and, like the above quote mentions, they hang his arm from the rafters. It’s pretty incredible, how there is no reason for Grendel to show up, and yet killing him is counted as some kind of impressive historical victory.

Time for some “literary analysis”...

It presents itself as evidence of Beowulf’s greatness. Not only is he a man who can kill a monster, but he can be eating, be caught completely unawares, and still accomplish the task.

After Grendel is dead, his mother shows up (who is only referred to as “Grendel’s Mother”). Beowulf mixes up his monster battling technique by battling it underwater. A strange twist upon the very Earth-bound Grendel, but it illustrates Beowulf’s adaptability, and how his battling ability has grown. The “Beowulf Culture” seems to place a strong emphasis on fighting, since fighting Grendel allowed him to kill Grendel’s mother, and it then allows Beowulf to become King.

The weird part of this book (other than it was written so long ago, and yet has all of these weird creatures in it), is that Beowulf is described as being King for 50 years, with nothing really happening. Since this is the first work of English Literature, it would seem like a great place for the first plot twist.

That’s right, after 50 years of sitting on the throne, presumably getting old and soft, a dragon shows up. Similar to the “Grendel” race of monsters that arrived previously, there is not a lot of detail given to this dragon, or its reasons for attacking poor old Beowulf & Co. But Beowulf does fight it, with the help of his friend Wiglaf, and well, should I spoil the ending?

I guess I won’t, but the ending doesn’t really matter. The interesting part about Beowulf is that you basically get out of it what you want.

It’s not really that great of a read, as the plot and the language are sparse and dense, respectively. But it has a special place in the history of literature, so to say it’s a “historical curiosity” is a bit of an understatement.

And how can you hate that horrible 2007 movie without at least reading the book? Well, it’s probably extremely easy, but it is a short book...

   -- Jason Luna