the greatest work of literature in old English is the epic poem, Beowulf.

It based
on legends that the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings brought with them to England. The
poem was sung for many years before an anonymous monk finally wrote it down
sometime between the years 700 and 1000

Beowulf is my name. I will tell my errand to the great prince, your lord, if, good as he is, he will grant that
we might address him.”
Beowulf is a warrior from the land of the Geats (a Scandinavian). He crosses the
sea to help Hrothgar, King of the Danes because he has heard that a monster
called Grendel has been attacking Hrothgar’s great hall and devouring his people.
Beowulf waits for Grendel in the great hall. He has no weapon or armor. Beowulf
fights with Grendel and rips off his arm. Grendel returns to his cave to die and
Hrothgar’s people celebrate. But now Grendel’s mother appears and avenges her
son by killing one of Hrothgar’s best warriors. Beowulf pursues her. He enters the
aquatic cave where she lives and kills her in a fierce battle.

Grendel : Then the fierce spirit painfully endured

hardship for a time, he who dwelt in the darkness; for

every day he heard loud mirth in the hall…The grim

spirit was called Grendel, known as a rover of the

borders, one who held the moors, fens and fastness. “

Grendel´s mother:

The geats : Beowulf begins by telling of how Hrothgar became king of the

Scyldings (Danes) sometime in the 6th century A.D.

Hrothgar, King of the Danes

Cristian an pagan ideas

It is better for a man to avenge his friend than

much mourn

“fate saves an undoomed man when his courage is good

 thanks “God that the wave-way had been easy for them”

“‘Fate always goes as it must

BEOWULF
S ometime around 450 A.D., tribes of Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians
crossed the sea from Northern Europe and began to invade Britain. The
native Celts escaped to those lands that today are called Ireland, Scotland and
Wales. In England, meanwhile, the invaders replaced the Christian religion with
their own Germanic polytheism. They also replaced the native Celtic language
with proto-German, an ancestor of modern German. Over the years their
language changed, as did also the proto-German spoken by those who had
remained in Northern Europe. By about 700 A.D., these languages were so
different as to be mutually unintelligible. This form of speech that evolved in
Britain constituted a new language that linguists call Anglo-Saxon or Old English