Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics of the hero by accepting Grendel and the dragon." In Tolkien's view, the poem is essentially about a "man at war with the hostile world, and his inevitable overthrow in Time". The underlying tragedy is man's brief mortal life. Grendel and the dragon are identified as enemies of a Christian God, unlike the monsters encountered by Odysseus on his travels. What had happened is that Northern courage, exultant, defiant in the face of inevitable defeat by "Chaos and Unreason" (Tolkien cites Ker's words), fuses with a Christian faith and outlook. The "Beowulf" poet uses both what he knew to be
The dragon (Beowulf) the beast, the thanes flee in terror, leaving only Wiglaf to battle at Beowulf's side. When the dragon wounds Beowulf fatally, Wiglaf slays it. This depiction indicates the growing importance and stabilization of the modern concept of the dragon within European mythology. "Beowulf" is the first piece of English literature to present a dragonslayer. Although many motifs common to the "Beowulf" dragon existed in the Scandinavian and Germanic literature, the "Beowulf" poet was the first to combine features and present a distinctive fire-breathing dragon. The "Beowulf" dragon was later copied in literature with similar themes such as J. R. R.