On this episode of five minutes in church history we're going to a medieval text

Beowulf. This text was set in Scandinavia. It was written sometime between the

600s and the 900s and it is in Old English.

It tells the tale of the Danes, the Geats, and the Swedes.

It's a hero's tale.

It's a poem.

It's well over 3,000 lines long and it tells the heroic deeds of the main

character Beowulf. Well, as a hero's tale, not only do we have to have a hero, we also have to have a villain.

And the first villain we have is Grendel, and Beowulf dispatches Grendel.

But then we have Grendel's mom. So if Grendel. But then we have Grendel's mom.

So if Grendel was an issue,

Grendel's mom is even more of an issue.

And Beowulf ultimately dispatches Grendel's mom.

Then we have another villain that appears on the scene

at the end of the book, and this is a dragon.

And as the poem depicts for us,

is locked in battle with this dragon, and Beowulf ends up receiving a fatal blow

but not before he is able to also take out the dragon. So it's a great medieval tale. It was a favorite of J.R. Tolkian and in fact just recently was

published a translation by Tolkien never before published of this classic English

text Beowulf.

Tolkien says that it is the basis for all English literature

and it's quite a text.

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