Write your own Beowulf story

Beowulf

A Geatish warrior of immense strength (he has the might of thirty men in his grip), nephew of King Hygelac, who sails to Denmark with fourteen companions to rid King Hrothgar's hall of the monster Grendel. He kills Grendel bare-handed by tearing off its arm at the shoulder, then dives into a haunted mere to slay Grendel's mother with a giant-forged sword after his borrowed blade Hrunting fails him. Decades later, as aged king of the Geats, he fights a fire-breathing dragon that is ravaging his land over a stolen cup, killing it with help from his young kinsman Wiglaf but dying of its venomous bite; he is honored with a barrow built on Hrones Headland called Beowulf's Barrow.

Hrothgar

Aged king of the Danes (Scyldings), son of Healfdene, who built the great mead-hall Heorot but was unable to defend it from Grendel's twelve-year reign of terror. He treats Beowulf as a foster-son, rewards him lavishly with treasure and an ancestral sword-hilt, and delivers a long moral speech warning him against the corrupting effects of pride and power. He weeps openly when Beowulf departs, sensing they may never meet again.

Grendel

A monstrous, man-eating march-dweller descended from the biblical Cain, who lives in the moors and fens and cannot be harmed by ordinary swords due to a spell of protection. For twelve years he raids Heorot nightly, once carrying off thirty thanes in a single attack, until Beowulf wrestles him and tears his arm from its socket, a wound from which he dies in his lair. His severed hand, arm, and shoulder are displayed in Heorot, and his head is later cut off and brought back from the mere.

Grendel's Mother

A monstrous 'mere-wife' who lives in an underwater cave beneath a haunted lake ringed by wolf-cliffs and fire on the water; she has held that domain for a hundred winters. After Grendel's death she raids Heorot to avenge her son, killing Hrothgar's beloved counselor Aeschere and carrying off his head. Beowulf pursues her into her underwater lair and kills her with a magical giant-forged sword found among her hoard, after his borrowed sword Hrunting fails to bite her skin.

The Dragon

A fifty-foot-long fire-drake that guards a vast heathen treasure hoard hidden in a barrow for three hundred years, following the death of the last survivor of an ancient noble race who buried it there. Enraged when a fugitive slave steals a jeweled cup from the hoard, it burns homes and terrorizes the Geatish countryside by night. It kills King Beowulf in single combat, biting through his neck, but is itself slain by Beowulf's sword-thrust and Wiglaf's dagger, after which its carcass is shoved off a cliff into the sea.

Wiglaf

Son of Weohstan, a young kinsman of Beowulf and the only one of his eleven chosen companions who does not flee in fear during the dragon fight. He rushes to Beowulf's aid, helps deliver the killing blow to the dragon, and stays with the dying king to hear his last wishes. Afterward he bitterly rebukes the cowardly retainers, predicts the fall of the Geatish nation now that its protector is dead, and oversees Beowulf's funeral and the burial of the dragon's treasure with him.

Hygelac

King of the Geats and Beowulf's uncle and liege-lord, to whom Beowulf gives all the treasures and armor he won in Denmark rather than keeping them for himself. Hygelac dies in a disastrous raid into Frisian territory, falling under his shield while wearing the great necklace Wealhtheow gave Beowulf; his body and treasure are captured by the Franks. His death precipitates renewed war between Geats and Swedes, and eventually Beowulf becomes king in his place.

Wealhtheow

Queen of the Danes and Hrothgar's wife, who ceremonially carries the mead-cup through Heorot to guests according to rank. She publicly thanks God when Beowulf arrives, gives him a jeweled collar, arm-rings, and a corselet, and urges Hrothgar to be generous and to look after their sons' interests. The great necklace she gives Beowulf is later worn by Hygelac and lost with him in the Frisian raid.

Unferth

A Danish courtier ('spokesman') who sits at Hrothgar's feet and taunts Beowulf during the feast, claiming Beowulf lost a childhood swimming contest against Breca. Beowulf rebuts him at length, describing killing sea-monsters during the five-night swim. Despite the insult, Unferth later lends Beowulf his ancestral sword Hrunting for the fight against Grendel's mother, though he himself is noted as having failed at swordplay among his own kin.

Aeschere

Hrothgar's most trusted counselor and old battle-companion, elder brother of Yrmenlaf, killed and beheaded by Grendel's mother when she raids Heorot in revenge for her son. His death devastates Hrothgar, who calls him the dearest of his thanes and describes the loss as harder to bear than Grendel's original attacks.

Hrethel

Former king of the Geats who raised Beowulf from age seven alongside his own sons Herebeald, Haethcyn, and Hygelac. He dies of grief after Haethcyn accidentally kills his elder brother Herebeald with a stray arrow, a 'feeless' (unavengeable) death within the family that Hrethel compares to a father watching his son hang on a gallows.

Finn

A Frisian chieftain married to the Danish princess Hildeburh, whose hall becomes the site of a bloody feud when his guest-kinsman Hnaef and other Danes are attacked and killed there. After a brokered peace, the surviving Danes under Hengest winter with Finn, but Hengest's men Guthlaf and Oslaf later return with fresh forces, kill Finn, sack his stronghold, and carry Hildeburh back to Denmark.

Hildeburh

A Danish princess married to Finn of the Frisians whose brother Hnaef and son are both killed in the same battle when old feuds erupt at Finn's hall. She is forced to watch her kinsmen burn on the funeral pyre together and is eventually taken back to her Danish homeland after the Danes avenge Hnaef by killing Finn.

Heorot

The great gold-adorned mead-hall built by King Hrothgar, called 'the Hart' for the antler-like gables decorating its roof; it is described as the noblest hall ever raised, with a stone-paved approach and a floor and walls bright with gold. It becomes the site of nightly slaughter when Grendel occupies it for twelve years, and later the scene of Beowulf's battles with Grendel and, indirectly, Grendel's mother. The poet foreshadows that the hall is eventually destroyed by fire during a future feud between Hrothgar and his son-in-law.

Grendel's Mere

A haunted lake in wolf-haunted, fog-shrouded highlands, overhung by a frost-covered forest whose roots grip the rock; strange fire is sometimes seen flickering on its waters at night. A hart pursued by hounds will die on the bank rather than dive in, and no one before Beowulf has ever dared plumb its depths. Beneath the water lies an air-filled cave-hall where Grendel's mother keeps her lair and hoard.

The Dragon's Barrow

An ancient burial mound near the sea and a headland, built by the last survivor of a forgotten noble people to hide his clan's gold, cups, armor, and heirlooms after all his kinsmen died. Occupied for three hundred years by the dragon, it stands near the strand and is the site of Beowulf's final battle; afterward its treasure is looted and its guardian's corpse thrown into the sea before Beowulf himself is buried in a new barrow nearby.

Hrones Headland (Hrones-Ness)

A high sea-cliff in Geatland chosen by the dying Beowulf as the site for his own funeral barrow, so that sailors navigating the coast could see it and remember him as 'Beowulf's Barrow.' His body, along with the dragon's treasure, is carried here after his death and burned on a pyre before the mound is raised.

The Scyldings (Spear-Danes)

The ruling dynasty and people of Denmark, named for the legendary founder Scyld, ruled in this era by King Hrothgar, son of Healfdene. They suffer twelve years of terror from Grendel before Beowulf's intervention, and are entangled in the older Finn-Hengest feud with the Frisians as well as looming future conflict between Hrothgar and his son-in-law.

The Geats (Weders)

A seafaring people ruled in turn by Hrethel, Haethcyn, Hygelac, and finally Beowulf, based across the sea from Denmark. Renowned for their sea-voyages and war-gear, they lose their protector when Beowulf dies fighting the dragon, and the poem ends with the prophecy that their old enemies the Swedes will soon attack now that the kingdom stands undefended.

The Swedes (Scylfings)

A rival northern people locked in generational blood-feud with the Geats, ruled by kings including Ongentheow and later Eadgils. Ongentheow is killed by the Geatish warrior Eofor in a brutal battle, and Beowulf later helps Eadgils take the Swedish throne by force; at the poem's close, the Geats fear Swedish invasion once Beowulf, their protector, is dead.

Kin of Cain

A lore-category describing the monstrous lineage said to have descended from the biblical Cain after he murdered his brother Abel and was exiled by God; it includes Grendel, his mother, and by extension etins (giants), elves, and evil spirits, as well as the giants who warred against God before the Flood. This bloodline is depicted as eternally cursed and outside human and divine fellowship.

Hrunting

An ancient heirloom sword lent to Beowulf by Unferth for his fight against Grendel's mother; its iron blade is etched with poison and hardened in battle-blood, and it had never failed any warrior who wielded it. It proves useless against Grendel's mother, the first time in its history it fails to bite, because she and her lineage are protected by a spell against ordinary weapons.

The Giant-Forged Sword

An ancient sword found by Beowulf among the treasures in Grendel's mother's underwater lair, made by giants long ago and so massive no other man could wield it in battle. Beowulf uses it to kill Grendel's mother and to behead Grendel's corpse; its blade then melts away like ice, leaving only the jeweled hilt, which Beowulf carries back to give to Hrothgar.

Naegling

Beowulf's own sword, used throughout most of his final battle against the dragon; despite Beowulf's immense strength, it shatters when he strikes the dragon's head, as no blade can withstand the force of his blows. Its failure leaves him without an effective weapon at the critical moment of the fight.

The Dragon's Hoard

A vast treasure of gold cups, dishes, rusted helmets, arm-rings, and a golden banner, originally buried by the last survivor of a vanished noble race and guarded by the dragon for three hundred years. It is protected by a spell allowing only God to grant a worthy man access to it; after the dragon's death Wiglaf and seven companions loot it, and by Beowulf's dying wish all of it is burned on his funeral pyre and then reburied with him in his barrow, as useless to men as it was to the dragon.

Beowulf's Mail-Coat

A hand-linked, gold-garnished battle-sark inherited as a Geatish heirloom, forged partly by the legendary smith Wayland, that Beowulf wears into nearly every fight. It protects him from the fangs of sea-monsters during the swimming contest with Breca and later saves his life when Grendel's mother's short sword and her monsters' teeth fail to pierce it in her underwater lair.

Wyrd (Fate)

A pervasive concept throughout the story representing destiny or fate, treated as an inexorable force that governs the deaths of warriors and the rise and fall of kings, still spoken of with a kind of reverence even by the Christian narrator. Characters repeatedly acknowledge that 'Fares Wyrd as she must,' accepting death in battle as preordained regardless of courage or strength.

The Feud of Finn and Hengest

A tale sung by Hrothgar's minstrel at a feast in Heorot, recounting how the Danish prince Hnaef was killed visiting his sister Hildeburh at the hall of her Frisian husband Finn, along with Hildeburh's own son. A truce is struck and the surviving Danes under Hengest winter with Finn, but longing for vengeance, Hengest and returning kinsmen Guthlaf and Oslaf ultimately storm Finn's hall, kill him, and take Hildeburh and Finn's treasure back to Denmark.

The Prophesied Feud of Ingeld and the Heathobards

Beowulf's own foretelling of how the political marriage between the Danish princess Freawaru and Ingeld, prince of the Heathobards, will fail: an old Heathobard warrior will recognize looted ancestral weapons worn by a Danish thane in Ingeld's hall, incite a younger warrior to avenge his father's death, and the resulting killing will reignite war between the two peoples, breaking all oaths of peace.

The Sea-Swimming Contest with Breca

A boyhood boast-turned-ordeal recounted by Beowulf in answer to Unferth's taunts: as youths, he and Breca swam far out to sea together with swords drawn to fend off sea-monsters, staying together for five nights until a storm and current separated them. Beowulf claims to have killed a monstrous sea-beast that dragged him to the bottom during the swim, using his sword and being protected by his linked mail-coat.