Beowulf: Difference between revisions
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* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Beowulf himself.
{{quote|'''Beowulf:''' Well, friend Unferth, you had your say about Breca and me. But it was mostly beer that was doing the talking.}}
* [[Dirty Coward]]: Beowulf wisely brings 12 warriors with him to fight the dragon, but eleven of them flee at the sight of it, leaving only [[Hypercompetent Sidekick| Wiglaf]] to help him; Beowulf's final act is to name Wiglaf his heir, and Wiglaf's first act as king is to banish those eleven cowards.
* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: The dragon goes berserk after someone steals one trinket from its ''huge'' horde. [[The Hobbit| Fans of the fantasy genre can easily tell what this story inspired.]]
* [[Downer Ending]]: Beowulf dies in the fight against the dragon, and it's implied that, without their leader, the Geats will be conquered by their Swedish neighbors. Of course, Saxons love reminding their readers of the fate after.
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* [[Made a Slave]]: is just hinted at in the queen's [[Backstory]], because her name means "foreign slave".
* [[Mama Bear]]: Beowulf's mother reveals herself when she seeks revenge for her son's death.
* [[Missing Episode]]: What modern scholars know of the poem comes from ''one'' surviving original copy that belonged to its first known owner, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Nowell Lawrence Nowell], and that copy was damaged due to a fire in 1791, making the text of the third chapter (often called "The Burnt Pages") incomplete. As a result, the full story may never be known.
* [[Ten Movie Plots|Monster in the House,]] or [[The Seven Basic Plots|Over Coming the Monster,]] depending on whose perspective you take. Beowulf the Geat (one of the baddest of the [[Big Damn Heroes]]) comes over to fight the monster Grendel that has been ravaging the Dane's house for 12 years, i.e. he comes over and they've got a monster in their house.
* [[Meaningful Funeral]]: Beow's funeral at the beginning echoes Beowulf's at the end, which in turn signifies the end of the Geat's hegemony and the rise of the Swedes.
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* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: Wiglaf gives one to the troops [[Dirty Coward|who fled from the dragon]] rather than help their king.
* [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent]]: When the lake that Grendel's mother lives in is described, we know it's a bad place because it's described as being infested with all kinds of reptiles, including, but not limited to, sea dragons, serpents, and wild beasts.
* [[Riddle for the Ages]]: Who was the author? When specifically was it written?<ref>Most likely around 1000 CE, but that is only conjecture</ref> What was the original title? Due to the above-mentioned damage to the original manuscript, all three facts may never be known.
* [[Royals Who Actually Do Something]]: Of course, kings in that era [[Asskicking Equals Authority|became kings by proving themselves in combat]]. Hrothgar is capable, but can't do anything, because ... he's not a hero. (No, seriously.) Of course, there is also Beowulf himself.
* [[Short Story]]: Compared to other poetry at the time - which tended to [[Wall of Text|bore readers with endless descriptive narratives of even the smallest plot points]] - ''Beowulf'' is rather concise and gets to the point very quickly.
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