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
Saga of Old City Gygax's first novel, and it was edited by Kim Mohan. It was the first Greyhawk novel. In 2008 Troll Lord Games released a new hard cover reprinting of "Saga of Old City". Saga of Old City Saga of Old City is a 1985 fantasy novel by Gary Gygax, set in the world of Greyhawk, which is based on the "Dungeons & Dragons" fantasy role-playing game. "Saga of Old City" was the first novel to feature Gord the Rogue. "Saga of Old City" starts in Gord's childhood, and ends with his triumphant return to Greyhawk City as a young man and