Anonymous · 1000 · sea

The Old English epic, composed more than a thousand years ago and set in a sixth-century Scandinavia its audience knew as real geography. Beowulf, a warrior of the Geats of southern Sweden, sails across the sea to the aid of the Danish king Hrothgar, whose hall Heorot is terrorised by the monster Grendel. Victorious, he returns home, becomes king, and falls at last fighting a dragon. The route crosses the waters between Sweden and Denmark and back.

1. 1
   Geatland

   In the land of the Geats in southern Sweden, the young warrior Beowulf hears that the Danes across the water are plagued by a monster, and gathers his men to sail to their aid.

2. 2
   The Danish Shore

   Beowulf and his thanes beach their ship on the Danish coast, where the shore-guard challenges them.

3. 3
   Heorot

   At Hrothgar's gold-roofed hall of Heorot on the Danish island of Zealand, Beowulf tears the arm from the monster Grendel and then hunts its mother to her lair beneath a haunted mere.

4. 4
   The Danish Shore

   Their errand done, they return to the waiting ship on the shore.

5. 5
   Geatland

   Laden with honour and treasure, Beowulf sails home across the sea to Geatland, where in time he becomes a wise and long-reigning king of his people.

6. 6
   The Dragons Barrow

   Fifty years on, an old king now, he goes out to face a dragon roused over its hoard, and wins the fight but takes his death-wound, and is burned on a great pyre above the sea.