Hrothgar and his advisers can think of nothing to appease the monster’s anger.īeowulf, prince of the Geats, hears about Hrothgar’s troubles, and gathers fourteen of his bravest warriors, and sets sail from his home in southern Sweden. For the next twelve years the fear of Grendel‘s potential fury casts a shadow over the lives of the Danes. However, provoked by the singing and carousing of Hrothgar’s followers, Grendel, a monster in human shape who lives at the bottom of a nearby swamp, appears at the hall late one night and kills thirty of the warriors in their sleep.

He builds a lavish hall, called Herot (or Heorot), to house his vast army, and when the hall is finished the Danish soldiers gather under its roof to celebrate.

Hrothgar is well loved by his people and successful in war. The poem begins with a history of the Danish kings, starting with Shild (whose funeral is described in the Prologue) and leading up to the reign of the current king Hrothgar, Shild’s great-grandson.

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