Beowulf

UERJ – Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

The elements of a narrative – Beowulf

Theme: What is the story about?
The great fight of Beowulf against Grendel.

Setting: Where and when the story takes place.
Great Hall/ At night.

Characters: All the geats guarding Heorot, Beowulf and Grendel.

Plot: It is the sequence of events.
1 – Everybody was sleeping, except Beowulf. He was waiting for Grendel’s attack;
2 – The narrator describes the way that Grendel was approaching to the Great Hall (Then, under night’s shroud, Grendel walked down from the moors; he shouldered God’s anger…);
3 – Grendel saw many warriors sleeping in the hall and planned to serve himself eating all the bodies of them. In his mind, before daybreak, he would have enough time to take away every warrior’s life from his body;
4 - Grendel ate all the body of a warrior as fast as he could;
5 – Then, Beowulf, fighting with no weapon, only using his enormous strength, appears and take off from Grendel’s body one of the monster’s arms;
6 – The evil monster tried to escape. He was terrified and desperate to go home (The evil giant was desperate to escape);
7 – The Great Room boomed and everybody was in panic;
8 – The narrator finished this part of the story telling how wonderful and strong was the Great Hall.

Mood: How does the story make you feel when you read it? This is the mood or “atmosphere”.
In the first part, when Grendel is approaching to the Great Hall, we can feel scared because the narrator is brilliant describing the monster’s intentions. After that, the story turns into action, showing the bloody battle between Beowulf and Grendel. This part of the story is really