Beowulf

Work

by Anonymous

Beowulf is an Old English epic poem of 3,182 alliterative lines, preserved in the Nowell Codex and rooted in Germanic heroic legend. It follows the hero Beowulf as he battles Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and later a dragon, becoming a king and confronting mortality. Its composition date is uncertain, while the surviving manuscript dates to approximately 975–1025 CE.