num_pages: 246
description: John Grigsby presents compelling evidence that the legend of Beowulf and Grendel can co longer be dismissed as a folktale - it is based on historical fact. He reveals the existence of a pagan fertility rite once practiced by the ancestors of the English people that involved the ritual taking of a sacred intoxicant combined with human sacrifice...J.R.R. Tolkien is often credited with writing The Lord of the Rings in an attempt to create a "mythology of England". but as Tolkien was well aware, England did once have a mythology of its own, of which only a few precious fragments remain. One such fragment is a Dark-Age poem that tells of the deeds of the monster-slaying hero Beowulf, who frees the feasting hall of a Danish king from the twelve-year tyranny of a creature named Grendel and it hideous, lake-dwelling mother.Grigsby has discovered that it was the memory of the forceful suppression of a sacrificial cult in the 5th century AD that lies behind the seemingly fantastic deeds of Beowulf. His discovery helps to answer the questions of where, when and why the poem was written, and to restore the poem to its rightful place as a national epic.
language: English
title: Beowulf & Grendel: The Truth Behind England's Oldest Legend
titlecomplete: Beowulf & Grendel: The Truth Behind England's Oldest Legend
characters: Scyld Scefing, Grendel, Hrothgar (The Inheritance Cycle), Beowulf
genres: Mythology, Medieval, Nonfiction, History, Folklore
ratings_count: 54
publisher: Watkins Publishing