Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary is a prose translation of the early medieval epic poem "Beowulf" from Old English to modern English language. Translated by J. R. R. Tolkien from 1920 to 1926, it was edited by Tolkien's son Christopher and published posthumously in May 2014 by HarperCollins. In the poem, Beowulf, a hero of the Geats in Scandinavia, comes to the aid of Hroðgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall Heorot has been under attack by a monster known as Grendel. After Beowulf slays him, Grendel's mother attacks the hall and is
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.