Title: Beasts of time
Description: Over time the reputation of Beowulf as a poem continues to rise. Extant in only one manuscript, yet perhaps the most studied of English poems, it represents a remarkable text and artifact: the first European vernacular epic. And like much of the work of its age, Beowulf exhibits a strong native strain of apocalypticism, a pervasive awareness of the imminence of end-times.

The chief source of its apocalyptic power, the poem's beasts, haunts the reader; one cannot depart the poem without a sense that the monsters and heroes continue their battle into the present and beyond.
Subjects: Apocalyptic literature, Beowulf, Bible, Christian poetry, English (Old), Cosmology, Medieval, in literature, Death in literature, End of the world in literature, Epic poetry, English (Old), History, History and criticism, In literature, Literature and society, Paganism in literature, Christian poetry, Epic poetry, history and criticism
Places: England
Time periods: To 1500