The epic poem Beowulf, is a work of fiction and was composed between the mid-seventh and late tenth centuries of the first millennium, in the language today called Anglo-Saxon or Old English. This story is a heroic tale of over three thousand lines, concerning the deeds of the Norse prince, also called Beowulf, and is one of the fundamental works of poetry in English. Beowulf is obviously a creation of the poet, through partial comparisons have been made between him and somewhat similar characters from Icelandic folklore and sagas. As with the other characters in the poem, he would probably have been just under 500 years old and would have died very old. That Beowulf's origin is obscure, that he apparently never married and/or had children, that he returned alone from the battle that cost his king his life instead to die at his side in the best Germanic heroic tradition, that he was almost killed. totally inactive in the conflicts between Britain and Sweden, that he sometimes seems superhuman and at other times simply a remarkable man, that he is such a curious mixture of pagan and Christian, that he does not appears nowhere else in all Northern literature. things are neither awkward nor difficult to understand when one realizes that a major poet was trying something big and new, and that he created for his original work and character in such a way as to bring together all of its complex characteristics. The poem was written in England but the events it describes take place in Scandinavia, in a partly historical “once upon a time”. Its hero, Beowulf, is the greatest presence among the warriors of the land of the Geats, a territory located in what is now southern Sweden, and at the beginning of the poem Beowulf c...... middle of paper ..... .t at a high cost. The dragon bites Beowulf on the neck and its fiery venom kills him moments after they meet. The Geats fear that their enemies will attack them now that Beowulf is dead. According to Beowulf's wishes, they burn the body of their deceased king on a huge funeral pyre, then bury him with enormous treasure in a barrow overlooking the sea. References Heaney, Seamus. Beowulf: a new verse translation. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2000. Lawall, Sarah. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. 8th edition. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2005 Nye, Robert. Beowulf: a new story. New York: Bantom Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1963 Raffell, Burton. Beowulf: translation with an introduction and an afterword. Massachusetts: Amherst, 1971 Rebsamen, Frederick. Beowulf: a new verse translation. New York: Harper Collins, 1991.