Heroic poem considered the highest achievement of Old English literature and the earliest European vernacular epic.
It deals with events of the early 6th century and was probably composed &circa; 700–750. It tells the story of the Scandinavian hero Beowulf, who gains fame as a young man by vanquishing the monster Grendel and Grendel's mother; later, as an aging king, he kills a dragon but dies soon after, honoured and lamented. Beowulf belongs metrically, stylistically, and thematically to the Germanic heroic tradition but shows a distinct Christian influence.
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