Essay - Beowulf There by a Seat the Brave Young Man Saw...

Beowulf

***** by a seat the brave young man saw many precious jewels, shining gold on ***** ground, and works of art ***** the walls. There in the dragon's den Wiglaf ***** ***** cups of ancient men, ornaments fallen. There were helmets, old and rusty, ***** many arm-rings twisted with skill. (Treasure, gold in the ground, may be easily seized by any man, hide it who will.)

***** saw a standard all gol*****, high over the treasure, ***** greatest of hand-wonders, woven with the skill of hands. From it a light shone, lit *****ll the ground so he could look over all t***** treasures. Then, I have heard, he rifled the hoard and into his bosom loaded the ancient work ***** giants—goblets and dishes, whatever he chose, even ***** golden standard (Beowulf, Sec. 12).

In 1939, an important archaeological discovery uncovered the remains of a ship burial at Sutton Hoo, an estate on ***** estuary of the Deben River in Suffolk, England. Some ***** the objects in the grave included a sword, shield, and helmet, a harp, ***** Frankish coins which date approximately to 650-70 A.D., ***** presumed date of the action ***** ***** (Napierkowski 6).

Beowulf may have been written at any time between circa *****75 A.D. and ***** 1000 A.D. The single manuscript with the epic poem on it was discovered in the sixteenth century hav*****g fallen into the hands of a m*****n named Laurence Nowell. It has always ***** looked ***** simply as an example of early Germanic tribes and language, not ***** the great poem it is.

***** tells the story of a king, Beowulf, from his youth to old age, as he saves a neighboring people ***** a m*****ster, Grendel. He becomes a ***** ********** dies when a dragon bites him as he fights it off, defending his people. ***** is buried as a *****ro, ***** ***** ***** that a young warrior has plundered for him, which included g***** items, *****oblets, *****, and a golden st*****ard.

Copied down by monks, the poem ***** probably an originally mythological treatment of a real person ***** lived during ***** ages ***** men did not *****d could not write. Back then, ***** passed along stories by word ***** mouth, rather than printing it in a newspaper. Storytellers, called scops or bards, roamed the seas or countryside and ***** a hot meal ***** a bed, would entert*****in ***** townspeople with songs and tales of what had happened in ***** k*****gdoms. The story of Beowulf includes a profession*****l bard who accompanies himself on a harp ***** sings or chants traditional lays, who improvises a song about ********** victory.

Perhaps the Bard embellished the ***** ***** a little to flatter the great man. The king ***** not have been fighting a dragon, actually it may ***** been a bear that had been killing off people in his k*****gdom. When Beowulf kills Grendel in the beginning of the tale, the monster's mother takes r*****ge on the warriors by sneaking in to the hall