Beowulf Hrothgar, king of the Danes, whose great hall, Heorot, is plagued by the monster Grendel. Beowulf kills Grendel with his bare hands and Grendel's mother with a giant's sword that he found in her lair. Later in his life, Beowulf becomes king of the Geats, and finds his realm terrorized by a dragon, some of whose treasure had been stolen from his hoard in a burial mound. He attacks the dragon with the help of his "thegns" or servants, but they do not succeed. Beowulf decides to follow the dragon to its lair at Earnanæs, but only his young Swedish
Beowulf its "popularity" took it). There are Scandinavian sources, international folkloric sources, and Celtic sources. 19th century studies proposed that "Beowulf" was translated from a lost original Scandinavian work, but this idea was quickly abandoned. But Scandinavian works have continued to be studied as a possible source. Proponents included writing in 1886 that an Old Norse original version of "Beowulf" must have existed, but that view was later debunked by (1914) who pointed out that "Beowulf" is fundamentally Christian and written at a time when any Norse tale would have most likely been pagan. The epic's possible connection to "Grettis saga"