Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics give it a powerful effect. He rebuts suggestions that the poem is an epic or exciting narrative, likening it instead to a strong masonry structure built of blocks that fit together. He points out that the poem's theme is a serious one, mortality, and that the poem is in two parts: the first on Beowulf as a young man, defeating Grendel and his mother; the second on Beowulf in old age, going to his death fighting the dragon. The work has been praised by critics including the poet and "Beowulf" translator Seamus Heaney. Michael D. C. Drout called it the
Skjöldunga saga Skjöldunga saga The Skjöldunga saga (or, in another standardised Old Norse spelling, "Skjǫldunga saga") was an Old Norse Legendary saga. Dating from c. 1180 – 1200, the saga was lost in its original form. The saga focused on the Danish dynasty of Scylding (Old Norse "Skjöldung", plural "Skjöldungar"), the same semi-legendary dynasty featured in the Old English poem "Beowulf". The fragmentary Icelandic text known as "Sögubrot af nokkrum fornkonungum" is believed to be based on the "Skjöldunga saga", perhaps deriving from a late version of that work. Arngrímur Jónsson paraphrased parts of it into Latin, and parts of it are