Beowulf

Beowulf has premonitions of his death, and wishes his men good luck. He then launches into a lengthy final speech, telling the story of his life. He tells how his father fostered him with King Hrethel, the father of Hygelac. They lived happily until one of Hrethel’s sons, Haethcyn, shot his brother Herebeald with an arrow. Beowulf imagines Hrethel’s misery over this treacherous killing by comparing it to that of an old man who sees his son hanged: 

He begins to keen

and weep for his boy, watching the raven

gloat where he hangs: he can be of no help.

The wisdom of age is worthless to him (167). 

Hrethel was unable to avenge his one son, as doing so would mean killing his other son, breaking the same blood-feud rule as the original murder. Instead, he wasted away.

After Hrethel’s death, the Swedes and the Geats fell into warfare over control of his lands. Hygelac at last killed the Swedish king and preserved his own kingship. Beowulf remembers good times as a warrior in Hygelac’s retinue, with its bloody battles and glorious victories. He has fought many battles, he says, and he’s prepared to fight this last one.

He tells his men that he intends to face the dragon alone, and that they should wait on the barrow: 

This fight is not yours,

nor is it up to any man except me

to measure his strength against the monster

or to prove his worth. I shall win the gold

by my courage, or else mortal combat,

doom of battle, will bear your lord away (171).

Beowulf approaches the barrow, finding at its stony entrance a powerful, boiling-hot stream of water. He enters the barrow and shouts for the dragon to come out. The ground begins to shake, and the dragon, enraged by the sound of a human voice, bursts out of the earth. It’s a spectacular sight: “the serpent looped and unleashed itself./Swaddled in flames, it came gliding and flexing/and racing towards its fate” (173).

Beowulf swings at the dragon with his sword, but hardly makes a dent, and the dragon’s flames melt the blade. Terrified, all of Beowulf’s soldiers except a man named Wiglaf beat a retreat. Seeing Beowulf struggling without a sword and tormented by the heat of his armor, Wiglaf recalls all of Beowulf’s many kindnesses to him, and draws his own sword.

He shouts to his fleeing companions, reminding them that Beowulf picked them out specifically to be his fighters and shaming them for their cowardice now. Then he runs to Beowulf’s aid. The two of them stand firm behind Beowulf’s iron shield, but now Beowulf’s sword snaps for good: “It was never his fortune/to be helped in combat by the cutting edge/of weapons made of iron” (181). The dragon swoops in and bites Beowulf in the throat, and Beowulf begins to bleed out.

The courageous Wiglaf ducks in, suffering a nasty burn, and stabs the dragon in the belly. Beowulf delivers the deathblow, stabbing the dragon in the flank with the knife he carries on his belt.

Beowulf finds that the dragon’s bite has not only wounded, but also poisoned him. He struggles into a seated position and looks out over the stones of the barrow while Wiglaf attends to his injuries.

The dying Beowulf reflects that he would have wished to pass his armor along to his son in this moment, if he had had a son. He thinks back over his career as king and is proud of his uprightness; his spotless legacy consoles him. Beowulf sends Wiglaf into the barrow, where Wiglaf finds both wonders and corruption: beautiful jewelry and corroded helmets rattling around together. Singled out for notice is 

a standard, entirely of gold,

hanging high over the hoard,

a masterpiece of filigree; it glowed with light

so he could make out the ground at his feet

and inspect the valuables (187). 

Wiglaf carries handfuls of treasure out to Beowulf, and finds him fading.

Beowulf makes a final prayer of gratitude, thanking God for his victory and for the treasure that will support his people after he’s gone, and commending the Geats to God’s protection.

Beowulf tells Wiglaf to build a barrow on the coast so that sailors will see it and remember him as they steer their ships home. He gives Wiglaf his golden collar and his armor, telling him to use them well, and says his last words: 

You are the last of us, the only one left

of the Waegmundings. Fate swept us away,

sent my whole brave high-born clan

to their final doom. Now I must follow them (189). 

Wiglaf mourns. The poet reminds us that the dragon is also dead, and that Beowulf’s triumph over it was a great one.

The men who ran away return, ashamed to find the injured Wiglaf trying to revive Beowulf with water. However, the poet tells us, no human can alter the will of God, and it was Beowulf’s time. Wiglaf again excoriates his cowardly companions, and tells them that without Beowulf to protect them, their country is likely to fall to its enemies very soon.

He orders a messenger to spread word of Beowulf’s death. The messenger reiterates the story and warns that their enemies, the Franks and the Frisians, will soon attack. He also expects that the Swedes will avenge the death of Ongentheow, killed in vengeance for Hrethel’s son Haethcyn. The messenger retells the history of the bad blood between the Swedes and the Geats.

The messenger tells the people that they must all gather for Beowulf’s funeral, making a royal pyre for him. Rather than keeping the barrow-treasure, they’ll burn it with Beowulf’s body. Through the images of melted jewelry and weapons, never to be used again by the living, the messenger predicts a tragic future for the Geats—and, the poet tells us, he wasn’t wrong in his predictions.

The Geats who hear this message rush to find the bodies of Beowulf and the dragon. Wiglaf reflects on Beowulf’s death. Beowulf’s choice to follow his will has injured them all as much as it’s saved them. He communicates Beowulf’s last wishes and orders a funeral pyre to be built. He and seven lords enter the barrow, clear out the treasure, and throw the dragon’s body into the sea.

The Geats build Beowulf a magnificent pyre as promised, and set his body alight. One woman wails in grief and dread, not just over Beowulf’s death, but also over the terrible future she foresees for her people. After the funeral, the Geats build Beowulf’s barrow. Inside it, they bury his ashes and the remnants of the treasure-hoard: “They let the ground keep that ancestral treasure,/gold under gravel, gone to earth,/as useless to men now as it ever was” (213). 12 of Beowulf’s warriors ride in circles around his tomb, lamenting his death and singing of his great feats.