: Seeking revenge for her son, Grendel's mother attacks Heorot [41, 45]. Beowulf tracks her to her underwater lair and slays her using an ancient sword forged by giants [31, 45].
: Highly regarded modern versions include those by Seamus Heaney and J.R.R. Tolkien , the latter of whom was a leading scholar of the poem [20, 28, 40]. Beowulf
: A pervasive sense of fate looms over the poem, suggesting that while heroes can achieve glory, death and the eventual fall of kingdoms are inevitable [11, 23]. : Seeking revenge for her son, Grendel's mother
: Beowulf, a warrior of the Geats, travels to Denmark to assist King Hrothgar, whose great hall, Heorot, is under nightly attack by the monster Grendel [6, 10]. Beowulf defeats Grendel in unarmed combat, ripping the monster’s arm from its shoulder [6, 11]. Tolkien , the latter of whom was a
The poem is traditionally divided into three major sections, each centered on a battle between the hero, Beowulf, and a supernatural foe [13, 24]: