This week I selected Beowulf. The story chronicles three major events in the life of Beowulf. From what I learned it was probably written sometime between 700 and 1000 AD.
In the story Beowulf defeats Grendel a monster in battle. Then he defeats Grendel’s mother. Then he rules for 50 years before he is killed in a battle against a dragon that also dies in the fight.
Beowulf was a warrior. He fought against powerful enemies and was able to prevail where others failed. It made me think about the types of battles encountered today. The average person today would not be as versed in weapons of war as in the days of Beowulf. What are the dragons of today?
Overall I found the story entertaining and am glad I selected it for this week.
“The whole world is a series of miracles, but we're so used to them we call them ordinary things.”
Hans Christian Andersen
“Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. It undergoes continual changes: it is barbarous, it is civilized, it is rich, it is scientific; but this change is not amelioration. For every thing that is given, something else is taken. Society acquires new arts and loses old instincts.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
