Beowulf (3140–3170). "Beowulf" begins with the story of Hrothgar, who constructed the great hall Heorot for himself and his warriors. In it, he, his wife Wealhtheow, and his warriors spend their time singing and celebrating. Grendel, a troll-like monster said to be descended from the biblical Cain, is pained by the sounds of joy. Grendel attacks the hall and kills and devours many of Hrothgar's warriors while they sleep. Hrothgar and his people, helpless against Grendel, abandon Heorot. Beowulf, a young warrior from Geatland, hears of Hrothgar's troubles and with his king's permission leaves his homeland to assist Hrothgar. Beowulf and
Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics in the symbolic value of such preternatural representations of sheer evil." Weinreich added that ""Beowulf," like other ancient legends, served to nourish Tolkien's imagination." John Garth, writing in "The Guardian", describes the paper as "still well worth reading, not only as an introduction to the poem, but also because it decisively changed the direction and emphasis of Beowulf scholarship. Up to that point it had been used as a quarry of linguistic, historical and archaeological detail". Garth notes that Tolkien's paper was praised by the Irish poet Seamus Heaney in the introduction to his critically acclaimed translation of "Beowulf". He