Beowulf

Retold for Grade Three and above,
with notes, word meanings and comprehension questions.

Two monsters out of control,
a dragon on the rampage,
only one man who can stop them…

Beowulf is a hero famous for his strength and courage. When he hears about the monster Grendel—who has been terrorizing King Hrothgar and his people across the sea—Beowulf wants to go and fight this evil beast. And so his dangerous adventure begins.

What will happen when Beowulf meets Grendel, the monster no one else can stop? And will this be his last adventure? Read this book to find out!

The story of Beowulf was first told—so it is thought—by English people, when the English language was very young. That kind of English is called Old English, and if you heard it today you might not understand a word of it. The story is the oldest epic in the English language. (An epic is a poem about a hero and his adventures.)

Nobody knows who first told the story of Beowulf, but it was written down some time around 700 AD. It is a story about people who lived around 500 AD, not in England, but in Scandinavia—which is now made up of the countries Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The English peoples—or really the Anglo-Saxons—originally came from Scandinavia, so they liked to tell stories about their heroic ancestors.