About the Beowulf

2. •Differences and
analogies between
Beowulf and Homeric
Poems
-Themes and historical
backgrounds
-Heroes and Monsters
-Tecnical aspects
•Artistic adaptations

4. •The poem was written in
the 8th century but events
inside it take place
between the 5th century
and the 7th one , when
Anglo-saxons had already
moved to England; anyway
they were still in close
contacts with their
Germanic kindreds.
•Like the Scandinavian
poem, it is not known
exactly when and who
wrote the Iliad and the
Odyssey; this poems deals
with the Trojan War of the
12th century B.C., adding
mythological elements and
characters.

6.  Odisseus, also known as Ulysses, is the legendary king of Ithaca, in
Greece. He is one of the most famous heroes belonging to the classic
mythology, thanks to his intelligence and sharp he survives to all the
difficulties that he has to face during his homecoming.
 Achille is an half-god who fights with the Greek army during the Trojan
war. The story of his death is narrated in the “Iliad”, another Homeric
poem. He has many powers including an incredible strenght and an
undistructible body; he is also expert in fighting with weapons and with
bare hands. Achille has only a weakness: his heel is like an human one
and he will die because of an arrow in that point.
 Beowulf is a Scandinavian hero with incredible physical strength. He
can fight underwater, he killed with his bare hands the monster
Grendel, he lifted the Giant’s sword and he bring alone the monster’s
head. He fights in many battles and returns victorius from all except his
last against a horrible fire-breathing dragon. Another eroic trait of
Beowulf is his ability to put his people’s welfare before his own. Even in
death he wishes to secure safety for the Geats: a tall lighthouse is built in
order to help people find their way back from the sea.

8.  The Cyclops is one of the monsters Ulysses has to face.
The word “cyclops” has greek origin and it means “rounded eye”, these
monsters were represented as terrifying giants with a big rounded eye at
the center of the forehead.
 Scilla and Cariddi are two monsters frequently presented inside epic
poems. At first they were two beautiful women and because of their sins
and faults they were turned into two sea-monsters by Zeus and Circe and
positioned in the Strait of Messina. In the Odissea they tried uselessly to
obstacolate Ulisses homecoming.
• Beowulf had to fight many different monsters
during his life. He first defeat Grendel, a monster
with dragon sembiances represented as the devil.
Grendel has incredible powers, including
umbelievable strength; he had been fearing Danes
every night before the arrival of the Scandinavian
Hero that killed him. Grendel’s mother, who lives
in a desolate lake, tries to revange her son, but
Beowulf defeated also this enemy.

9. The Geat people built a pyre for Beowulf,
stacked and decked it until it stood foursquare,
hung with helmets, heavy war-shields
and shining armour, just as he ordered.
Then his warriors laid him in the middle of it,
Mourning a lord far-famed and beloved.
On a height they kindled the hugest of all
funeral fires: fumes of woodsmoke
billowed darkly up, the blaze roared
and drowned out their weeping, wind died down
and flames wrought havoc in the hot bone-house,
burning it to the core. […]