Scarica "Beowulf" - Riassunto in inglese e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Beowulf “Beowulf” is the earliest story in English literature and the first important example of poetry in a European language that is not Greek or Latin. The version of the poem that we know was composed between 700 and 750 but the first written version, which is kept in the British Museum in London, dated from 1000 CE. In the old times the kings of the Danes were heroes: the first king was Shield Sheafson. He arrived on the coast of Denmark as a baby, alone, in a boat filled with treasure. He had a son, called Beow, who ruled wisely and well for a long time. Beow was successed by his son, Halfdane. The latter had a daughter who married Onela, the Swedish king and had three sons. Then one of them, Hrothgar, became the new king: he was successful in war, many men joined his army, and he built a great mead hall as a sign of his power, called Heorot Hall. There, people ate and drunk and the bards sang stories and legends and Hrotghar rewarded his followers with valuable goods. But there was a monstrous deformed creature called Grendel who hated the happiness of the Hall and lived far from men, on the bleak moors. One night, while the Danes were sleeping, it came from the darkness of the moors to the brightness of Heorot Hall. Grendel, angry and envious, bursted into the Hall and seized thirty men, carrying them away to its lair and, later, left thirty half-eaten body covered in blood at the Hall. When morning came, the Danes gazed in horror at the sight. At the following night, happened the same thing. The great Hall, the symbol of Danes ‘power, was abandoned. People went to sleep in buildings nearby but even there they were not safe. For twelve long years Grendel’s rule of terror lasted and the story of Grendel’s attacks on the Danes and his appetite for human flesh was sung by bards all over middle-earth. One night a bard was singing a story of Grendel in the mead hall of Hygelac, king of the Geats. One man paid great attention to the bard’s song: his name was Beowulf, Hygelac’s nephew and a man of incredible strength and bravery. At the end of the song, he promised to kill Grendel with his bare hands to achieve fame and glory. He chose fourteen of the bravest Geat warriors and sailed to Denmark. A Danish watchman was looking at them from the coast and thought they had bad intentions, but Beowulf explained his wish to free the Danes from the rule of Grendel and the grateful man led them outside Heorot Hall. Hrotghar knew Beowulf by repute, once he even helped the warrior’s father. The King thanked them and invited the Geat to sit at his table: food and drink were served, and the Danes all looked with admiration at their fifteen brave guests. All Danes except for one: his name was Unferth. He had a grudge against Beowulf due to youthful rivalries and accused him of being vain and selfish. The Geat gave him a sharp answer, telling everybody that he had killed his own brothers. During the night, as usual, Grendel, covered up by the obscurity, came and silently killed a man. Beowulf, as soon as he saw the demon, seized its arm and held it hard in his grip, in which there was the strength of thirty strong men, and the monster roared in pain. At the end of the fight, Beowulf tore Grendel’s arm and shoulder away from his body.
