14. The second saga of Beowulf
Following his adventures with Grendel and his mother, Beowulf returns to Sweden, where he rules the kingdom of the Geats. Within his kingdom resides a winged dragon, guarding a cave in which a vast treasure is hidden. When a runaway slave discovered the cave, he returned to his master bearing a golden chalice. The dragon retaliates against the Geats by flying over their villages, breathing fire upon them, destroying their homes and killing many. The Geats turn to their King, Beowulf, for protection. Though by this point in the narrative Beowulf is old and lacking the strength of his youth, he decides to slay the dragon personally, taking 11 warriors with him on an expedition to the dragon’s cave. When they reached the cave, Beowulf instructs his companions not to intervene in his combat with the dragon.
Beowulf’s armor is inadequate to protect him from the flames of the dragon’s breath. When it is clear to his companions that the King is in mortal danger, a warrior named Wiglaf rushes to his aid. Together they slay the dragon, but Beowulf’s injuries are mortal. After asking to see the treasure, Beowulf dies. He is cremated in a funeral pyre on a cliff overlooking the sea, the treasure destroyed alongside his body. When the flames die out, the Geats build a large cairn over the site, in memory of Beowulf and as a landmark for mariners. The saga of Beowulf in written form was first discovered in England in the 1600s, and it has remained popular ever since. Numerous variations of the myth have evolved over time, and Beowulf appears in other myths and legends in Germanic, Norse, and English tales over the centuries.