The dragon (Beowulf) The dragon (Beowulf) The final act of the Anglo-Saxon poem "Beowulf" is about the hero Beowulf's fight with a dragon, the third monster he encounters in the epic. On his return from Heorot, where he killed Grendel and Grendel's mother, Beowulf becomes king of the Geats and rules peacefully for fifty winters until a slave awakens and angers a dragon by stealing a jewelled cup from its lair. When the angry dragon mercilessly burns the Geats' homes and lands, Beowulf decides to fight and kill the monster personally. He and his thanes climb to the dragon's lair where, upon seeing
The dragon (Beowulf) trigger a chain of events in "The Hobbit". The "Beowulf" dragon is the earliest example in literature of the typical European dragon and first incidence of a fire-breathing dragon. The "Beowulf" dragon is described with Old English terms such as "draca" (dragon), and "wyrm" (reptile, or serpent), and as a creature with a venomous bite. Also, the "Beowulf" poet created a dragon with specific traits: a nocturnal, treasure-hoarding, inquisitive, vengeful, fire-breathing creature. The fire is likely symbolic of the hellfire of the devil, reminiscent of the monster in the Book of Job. In the Septuagint Bible, Job's monster is characterized