The dragon (Beowulf) The dragon (Beowulf) The final act of the Anglo-Saxon poem "Beowulf" is about the hero Beowulf's fight with a dragon, the third monster he encounters in the epic. On his return from Heorot, where he killed Grendel and Grendel's mother, Beowulf becomes king of the Geats and rules peacefully for fifty winters until a slave awakens and angers a dragon by stealing a jewelled cup from its lair. When the angry dragon mercilessly burns the Geats' homes and lands, Beowulf decides to fight and kill the monster personally. He and his thanes climb to the dragon's lair where, upon seeing
Beowulf in front of him. In the way that it is currently bound, the "Beowulf" manuscript is followed by the Old English poem "Judith". "Judith" was written by the same scribe that completed "Beowulf" as evidenced through similar writing style. Worm-holes found in the last leaves of the "Beowulf" manuscript that aren't present in the "Judith" manuscript suggest that at one point "Beowulf" ended the volume. The rubbed appearance of some leaves also suggest that the manuscript stood on a shelf unbound, as is known to have been the case with other Old English manuscripts. From knowledge of books held in