Beowulf: Plot Synopsis
The principal plot consists of what its translator, Seamus Heaney, has called three
agons (from a Greek word meaning “struggle”): Beowulf’s
encounters with Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and a Dragon. The numbers below
correspond to lines in the poem.
Agon One: Grendel
- 26ff.: funeral for Shield Sheafson, Hrothgar’s great-grandfather, his body
sent “on out into the ocean’s sway” (42). (The poem opens and closes with a
funeral.)
- 99-114: Grendel descended from
[Cain](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cain_and_Abel).
- 115ff.: Grendel attacks Heorot, Hrothgar’s great hall.
- 170-88: narrator blames Danes’ devotion to “pagan shrines” (175).
- 189ff.: Beowulf the Geat hears of the Danes’ distress and goes to relieve
them.
- 456-72: Hrothgar tells of his ending the feud between Beowulf’s father,
Ecgtheow, and the Wulfings by sending a treasure trove to the Wulfings on
Ecgtheow’s behalf (implying that Beowulf is indebted to Hrothgar).
- 499-606: Unferth’s “contrary words” and Beowulf’s reply.
- 612-41: Queen Wealhtheow “observing the courtesies”; Beowulf’s
promise.
- 642ff.: bid goodnight; Beowulf battles and mortally wounds Grendel, but not
before the fiend kills and consumes a Danish thane.
- 832-35: Grendel’s torn shoulder, arm, and hand displayed.
- 866ff.: a bard sings “Beowulf’s triumphs”; digression one: Sigemund the
valiant dragon-slayer, implicitly compared to Beowulf, and both explicitly
contrasted with King Heremod, whose warrior prowess declined because he was
overcome by grief (as is Hrothgar?)
- 924ff.: Hrothgar celebrates Beowulf, who responds in kind.
- 979-89: Unferth’s earlier “contrary words” (501) rendered false by the
awesome display of Grendel’s hand, Beowulf’s trophy.
- 990ff.: feasting, fellowship, and joy return to Heorot; Beowulf’s deed amply
rewarded.
- 1070ff.: digression: bard relates story of Danish/Frisian conflict:
Hildeburh, a Danish princess married to Finn, king of the Jutes (Frisians),
suffers the loss of her brother Hnaef and son. The feud is resolved, but old
resentments resurface when Hengest and the Danes ambush the Jutes, killing Finn
and returning home with the queen.
- 1167-90: Queen Wealhtheow acknowledges Horthgar’s intention to adopt Beowulf
as a son; but she also admonishes her husband to “bequeath kingdom and nation”
to “kith and kin”—namely, his nephew, brother Halga’s son, Hrothulf.
- 1191-1214: Beowulf rewarded with a torque (neck-ring) which, we are told,
will be given eventually to his uncle Hygelac (Geat king) who will lose it when
the Geats fall to the Frisians.
Agon Two: Grendel’s Mother
- 1232ff.: bedtime once again; rest and wellbeing short-lived.
- 1258-78: more info about Grendel’s ancestry: Cain, the first murderer.
- 1294-99: GM (Grendel’s mother) gets Aeschere, one of Hrothgar’s most valued
retainers (described by Hrothgar at 1323-31).
- 1361-82: Hrothgar describes the mere, Grendel’s and GM’s swampy home, and
offers further reward to Beowulf if the Geat warrior will rid the Danes of the
remaining fiend.
- 1397ff.: having accepted the challenge, Beowulf goes after GM.
- 1455-91: Unferth gives Hrunting (famed sword) to Beowulf; Beowulf acknowledges
gift and bequeaths his own sword (called “Naegling,” we are told at line 2680)
to Unferth should Beowulf die battling GM.
- 1492-1590: Beowulf battles and defeats GM; cuts off the head of Grendel’s
corpse.
- 1591-1605: waiting at the surface, Danes give up and leave; but Geats remain
hopeful of their leader’s success.
- 1632ff.: Beowulf and Geats, bearing Grendel’s head, return in triumph to
Heorot.
- 1709ff.: Hrothgar contrasts Beowulf with evil Danish king, Heremod (cf. 866
above), and goes on to admonish Beowulf to avoid dissolute behavior and pride.
At one point the Danish king tells the warrior to seek “eternal rewards” (1760).
(Is this a Christian sentiment, or does Hrothgar mean something like glorious
reputation?)
- 1807-12: Beowulf returns Hrunting to Unferth, but in keeping with his
character tells a noble lie: that the sword not only did not fail him, but that
it was “a powerful help.”
- 1813ff.: Geats return home, amply rewarded and beloved of the Danes.
- 1914ff.: Geats arrive home.
- 1931-62: Geat Queen Hygd, having “distributed / bounty to the Geats”
(1930-31), is contrasted with the evil Queen Modthryth, who would execute a man
for merely glancing at her.
- 2000ff.: home in Hygelac’s hall, Beowulf tells his story.
- 2032-69: Beowulf’s digression, in which he imagines a renewal of hostilities
between the Danes and the Heathobards, despite the marriage of Freawaru,
Hrothgar’s daughter, to Ingeld the Heathobard. This story ironically recalls the
Danish bard’s account of the Finnsburg Episode: both conflicts involve a failed
peace alliance through marriage—the Frisian Finn to the Danish Hildeburh; Ingeld
the Heathobard to the Danish Freawaru.
- 2152ff.: Beowulf bestows Danish gifts on Hygelac; the torque given to Beowulf
is given now to Hygd, Hygelac’s queen.
- 2190ff.: Beowulf rewarded in turn with land, hall, and throne; Hygelac dies in
battle against the Shylfings (Swedes); Beowulf becomes king and rules well for
“fifty winters … until one began / to dominate the dark, a dragon on the
prowl” (2109-11).
Agon Three: Dragon (Old English wyrm)
- 2213-26: exiled slave steals precious goblet (2217) from Dragon’s lair to
appease his master and be reinstated (2281-86).
- 2232-41: treasure an “ancient cache,” the “riches of a high-born race” long
since died off.
- 270-81: dragon guarded hoard for three centuries, his fury dormant until
aroused by the intruder.
- 2324ff.: Beowulf receives news that the dragon has destroyed his hall, the
Geats’ “throne room,” and is resolved to face the beast alone—”too proud” to
fight with an army (2245-47).
- 2354-96: digression: circumstances of Beowulf’s rise to power: Hygelac’s death
in battle; B’s triumph in the same war; his refusal to be “elevated over
Heardred” (Hygelac’s son) as king (2373-76); Heardred’s death at the hands of
Onela and the Swedish exiles, his “reward” for extending hospitality
(2384-86).
- 2417-24: B’s premonition of his own death.
- 2425ff.: digression: Beowulf recounts Geat history: Haethcyn’s murder of
brother Herebeald (recalling Cain and Abel story?) when their father Hrethel was
king (2435-62); Hrethel’s heartbreak and death (2462-71); subsequent Swedish
invasion, Haethcyn’s (just?) death (2482-83); B’s own part in battling the
Swedes and Frisians (2490-2509).
- 2518-28: decision to use weapons—mail shirt, and later shield (2524), and
blade (2578)—against the fierce foe.
- 2538ff.: B battles dragon.
- 2596-2601: frightened troops abandon their leader—all except the valiant
Wiglaf (2602).
- 2609-25: brief account of Wiglaf’s weapon: won by his father, Weohstan, in
battle against Eanmund, Swedish son of Ohthere and nephew to King Onela who
“ignored the blood-feud” in rewarding Weohstan the fallen Eanmund’s battle gear
(2616-19).
- 2631ff.: Wiglaf shames the cowardly Geats for abandoning Beowulf.
- 2677-93: inspired “by the thought of glory,” Beowulf attacks, but his sword
(Naegling) snaps and he is mortally wounded.
- 2694-2711: with Wiglaf’s help, Beowulf slays the dragon.
- 2729-51: Beowulf regrets having no son on whom he might bestow his armour. His
only consolation: glory (2732-40), the final celebration of which will be to
behold the defeated dragon’s treasure-hoard (2743-51).
- 2794ff.: B gives praise to God and orders the construction of his Barrow at
Hronesness; gives his torque, shirt, and helmet to Wiglaf; and dies.
- 2860ff.: Wiglaf rebukes the Geats who abandoned Beowulf and prophesies foreign
invasion as their just reward (2886-90; cf. next note).
- 2910ff.: digression: Wiglaf prophesies future decline of Geats at the hands of
foreign invaders, especially Swedes, whose feud with the Geats he recounts in
some detail (a greater elaboration of the story told by Beowulf at
2425ff.)
- 3038-57: description of dragon and Beowulf lying side by side in death.
- 3058-75: narrator moralizes about gold hoarding—but he seems conflicted.
Why?
- 3076ff.: Wiglaf too, though ostensibly eulogizing, begins with this
astonishing remark: “Often when one man follows his own will / many are hurt.”
Beowulf was wrong to go after the dragon and his hoard? This from the same
character who so roundly chastised the Geat tail-turners?
- 3120-36: Wiglaf assembles a crew to get the treasure.
- 3137ff.: Beowulf’s funeral. Description of the Geat woman’s lament at lines
3148-55: fitting close to a story in which heroic values are both celebrated and
steeped in blood, even while mourned as part of a fading world.
©Robert Whalen, 2023