How Does Beowulf Die?
Explore the death of the hero Beowulf in his final battle with the dragon, the kingdom he left, and the lasting legacy of his death in Old English poetry.
Beowulf dies in a fight with a dragon at the end of the Old English poem Beowulf. The hero, now an old king of the Geats, having ruled for fifty years, hears that a fire-breathing dragon is ravaging his kingdom, the dragon having been roused by a thief who stole a single cup from its hoard. Beowulf goes out to meet the dragon, taking eleven warriors with him, and in the battle all of the warriors flee except the young warrior Wiglaf. Beowulf and Wiglaf kill the dragon, but Beowulf is mortally wounded by the dragon’s venom, and the king dies. The death of Beowulf is the central event of the second half of the poem, and it is one of the most powerful single scenes in Old English literature.
The Old English Poem
The poem Beowulf is preserved in a single manuscript, the Cotton Vitellius A.xv, which is held in the British Library in London. The manuscript dates from around the year 1000, but the poem itself is thought to have been composed in the 8th or early 9th century, possibly in the kingdom of Mercia or in the area of the Anglo-Saxon settlement. The poem is the longest surviving poem in Old English, with 3,182 lines.
The poem is set in Scandinavia, in the lands of the Danes, the Geats, and the Swedes, and it draws on the heroic traditions of the continental Germanic peoples. The hero Beowulf, a prince of the Geats (a people in what is now southern Sweden), travels to Denmark to free the Danish king Hrothgar from the monster Grendel. After killing Grendel and Grendel’s mother, Beowulf returns to the Geats and eventually becomes king. He rules for fifty years, and the second half of the poem describes his fight with the dragon and his death.
The Dragon’s Hoard
The story of the dragon’s hoard is told at the beginning of the second half of the poem (lines 2200 ff). According to the poem, a great hoard of treasure lies in a barrow, guarded by a dragon. The dragon has been guarding the hoard for three hundred years, and it is content in its possession until a thief breaks into the barrow and steals a single cup.
The thief is described as a slave, a man who has been forced to flee from his master. He has been wandering in the wild, and in his desperation he has come upon the barrow. He has crept inside and stolen the cup, hoping to use it as a ransom for his freedom. The theft is a small one, but it has catastrophic consequences: the dragon wakes, the dragon is enraged, and the dragon flies out from the barrow and begins to ravage the kingdom.
The story of the theft is one of the most powerful in the poem. The image of a desperate slave, taking a single cup from a great hoard, is one of the most vivid in Old English poetry. The image is, in this sense, a statement about the price of heroic action: the slave’s desperation is the cause of the dragon’s rage, and the dragon’s rage is the cause of Beowulf’s death. The reading has been treated in modern scholarship since the 19th century.
Beowulf’s Decision to Fight
Beowulf, now an old king, is told of the dragon’s ravaging. The poem describes him as sitting in his hall, listening to the accounts of the dragon, and brooding on his own past. The picture is of a king who has been a great hero in his youth, and who is now old, and who is faced with a challenge that will require all of his strength.
The decision to fight is described in the poem as a moment of reflection. Beowulf remembers his youth, his battles with Grendel and Grendel’s mother, and his long reign. He knows that he is old, and that he is likely to die. He is also aware of the cost of not fighting: the dragon will continue to ravage the kingdom, and the people will suffer.
The decision is, in the surviving sources, a statement of heroic commitment. Beowulf decides that he will fight, and that he will accept the consequences. The decision is the central moment of the second half of the poem, and it is the moment when the hero’s fate is sealed.
The Battle with the Dragon
The battle with the dragon is described in lines 2500 ff. of the poem. Beowulf takes eleven warriors with him, including his young relative Wiglaf. The party travels to the dragon’s barrow, and there they confront the dragon. Beowulf, drawing his sword, leads the charge.
The battle is the longest sustained fight in the poem, and it is described in extraordinary detail. The dragon breathes fire, the sword of Beowulf is broken, the warriors flee. Wiglaf alone remains. The young warrior, having heard the king’s cry for help, returns to the battle, and the two of them together fight the dragon. Wiglaf, with a single thrust, pierces the dragon’s belly, and Beowulf, drawing his dagger, cuts the dragon in two.
The battle is described in the poem as a moment of supreme effort. The image of the old king, fighting the dragon with a broken sword, and the young warrior, coming to the rescue, is one of the most powerful in Old English literature. The two, together, kill the dragon. The dragon is dead, but Beowulf is mortally wounded.
Beowulf’s Death
The death of Beowulf is described in lines 2800 ff. The hero, having killed the dragon, knows that he is dying. He calls Wiglaf to him, and he asks to see the treasure he has won. Wiglaf enters the barrow and brings out a great hoard of treasure, and Beowulf looks on the gold and the jewels and the cups and the armor.
The death of Beowulf is one of the most moving scenes in Old English poetry. The hero, having won the treasure, knows that he is dying, and he gives his last speech. He thanks Wiglaf for his loyalty, he tells Wiglaf to be a good king, and he gives the treasure to his people. He then dies, and the poem moves to the funeral.
The last words of Beowulf are, in the surviving sources, a statement of heroic value. The hero thanks Wiglaf for the loyalty of a warrior, the loyalty of a younger man to an older one. He tells Wiglaf to be a good king. He gives the treasure to his people. The picture is of a hero who, having lived a long life and having won a great treasure, dies in a moment of self-recognition. The death is the end of the heroic career, and it is the moment when the hero is buried with the treasure he has won.
The Treasure and the Burial
The treasure, after Beowulf’s death, is taken by the Geats and placed in the barrow with the dead king. The poem describes the funeral in lines 3100 ff.: the body is burned on a great pyre, the ashes are placed in a barrow on a high cliff, the Geats ride around the barrow twelve times, and they lament the death of their king.
The image of the barrow on the cliff, with the treasure and the king inside, is one of the most famous in Old English poetry. The barrow is described as visible to seafarers, a monument to the king’s fame. The poem ends with a description of the dragon’s barrow, the treasure within, and the death of the king.
The treasure, after Beowulf’s death, is left in the barrow, and the poem implies that it will be there for centuries. In this picture, treasure that has been won, that has been lost, and that is now buried. The reading matches with the medieval Scandinavian imagination of treasure as a cursed object, and it is one of the principal themes of the poem.
The Meaning of Beowulf’s Death
The death of Beowulf has been widely discussed in scholarship since the 19th century. The poem’s interpretation has gone through many phases, and the meaning of the death has been variously understood.
The earliest readings, by scholars such as Frederic Klaeber and J. R. R. Tolkien, emphasized the heroic and the elegiac: Beowulf is a great hero who dies in a moment of supreme effort, and the death is a statement of the values of the heroic age. The reading matches with the poem’s explicit statements about heroism and loyalty, and it has been the dominant reading in English-language scholarship.
Later readings, by scholars such as E. Talbot Donaldson and Leo Carruthers, have emphasized the tragic: Beowulf is a great hero who, in his old age, faces a challenge he cannot meet, and the death is a statement of the futility of heroism. The reading matches with the poem’s implicit statements about the price of heroism, and it has been treated in modern scholarship.
The most recent readings, by scholars such as Kevin Kiernan and Roberta Frank, have emphasized the political: Beowulf is a great king who, in his death, ensures the survival of his people, and the death is a statement of the value of good kingship. The reading matches with the poem’s explicit statements about kingship and loyalty, and it has been treated in modern scholarship.
The Death of Beowulf in the Scandinavian Sources
The story of Beowulf’s death is preserved in the Old English poem only, but the story has clear parallels in the Scandinavian tradition. The most striking parallel is with the story of the Norse hero Sigurd killing of Fafnir, in which a hero kills a dragon and takes a treasure. The two stories are part of a larger European tradition of dragon-slaying narratives, and the parallels suggest that the story of Beowulf and the dragon is one of the oldest in the Germanic tradition.
The Old English poem Beowulf is, in this sense, a key source for the European tradition of dragon-slaying narratives. The poem’s central scene — the old king, the young warrior, the dragon, the treasure — is one of the most famous in Old English poetry, and it has inspired modern adaptation since the 19th century.
The Death of Beowulf in Modern Culture
The death of Beowulf has had a significant impact on modern popular culture. The poem is a major focus of English literature and English-language scholarship, and the death of the hero is one of the most famous single scenes in Old English poetry. The image of the old king, fighting the dragon, has inspired many modern adaptations.
The most famous modern adaptation is the 2007 film Beowulf, directed by Robert Zemeckis, in which the hero’s death is a major focus. The image of the old king, the dragon, and the treasure has drawn attention from many other modern adaptations, including the novel Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton and the Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley.
The death of Beowulf is also a major focus of academic study. The 20th-century scholar J. R. R. Tolkien, in his essay Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics, argued that the death of the hero is the central event of the poem, and that the poem’s meaning is to be found in the hero’s death. The reading has been treated in modern scholarship, and it has shaped the way the poem is read in the English-speaking world.
The Hero’s Death and the World
The death of Beowulf is, in the surviving sources, a statement of the heroic ideal. The hero, having lived a long life, having ruled a great kingdom, having won a great treasure, dies in a moment of supreme effort. The death is not a defeat: it is the culmination of the heroic career. The hero has done what was required, and he has died as heroes die.
The image of the old king, the young warrior, the dragon, the treasure, and the barrow is one of the most famous in Old English poetry, and it has been widely studied for more than a century. The death of Beowulf is, in this sense, the most powerful single scene in the Old English poetic tradition, and it has inspired modern adaptation, scholarship, and imaginative engagement.