The dragon (Beowulf) Grendel's mother and Grendel, Beowulf returns to homeland and becomes king of the Geats. Fifty years pass with Beowulf leading as a wise king, when a local dragon is angered when a slave enters its lair and takes a cup from its treasure. The creature attacks the neighboring towns in revenge. Beowulf and a troop of men (“the Geats”) leave to find the dragon’s lair. The Geats run away in fear, leaving only Beowulf and his young companion Wiglaf to slay the dragon. Beowulf receives a fatal wound from the dragon, but Wiglaf impales the dragon’s belly to reduce the
Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics wrote that the "epoch-making paper" stood out in considering "Beowulf" as literature. Heaney argued that Tolkien "took for granted the poem's integrity and distinction as a work of art", and showed how the poem achieved that status: Heaney called the paper's literary treatment "brilliant". He suggested that it had changed the way that "Beowulf" was valued, and that it had started "a new era of appreciation" of the poem. Tolkien's own translation of "Beowulf", published posthumously in 2014 as "", has been linked to the essay. Shippey has argued that the translation throws light on "what Tolkien really thought in