Summer Books: The Beowulf Notebooks, Day Three
Beowulf and his companions return home to their King. After several years of service to Hygelac and, then, Hygelac’s son (whose murder is depicted below), Beowulf himself became the ruler of the Geats. In his old age, Beowulf must do battle one more time. A poor fellow steals a goblet from the lair of a centuries-old dragon, and the dragon soon begins to plague Beowulf’s land and people. Beowulf’s own hall is burned to the ground. With a small army of his followers, Beowulf travels to the dragon’s den to take care of matters. However, his weapons fail him. With the aid of Wiglaf, the only one of his army to “stick around” during the battle, he is able to lay the beast to waste, but not without a poisonous death-bite on the neck. Beowulf dies. Wiglaf and his fellow Geats mourn the death of their leader. They burn his body on a pyre and create a barrow by the beach to house the gold and for all sea-farers to remember their hero by.