Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Bent, James" to "Bibirine" by Various
1. Beowulf, with fourteen companions, sails to Denmark, to offer his
137 words | Chapter 7
help to Hrothgar, king of the Danes, whose hall (called "Heorot") has
for twelve years been rendered uninhabitable by the ravages of a
devouring monster (apparently in gigantic human shape) called Grendel, a
dweller in the waste, who used nightly to force an entrance and
slaughter some of the inmates. Beowulf and his friends are feasted in
the long-deserted Heorot. At night the Danes withdraw, leaving the
strangers alone. When all but Beowulf are asleep, Grendel enters, the
iron-barred doors having yielded in a moment to his hand. One of
Beowulf's friends is killed; but Beowulf, unarmed, wrestles with the
monster, and tears his arm from the shoulder. Grendel, though mortally
wounded, breaks from the conqueror's grasp, and escapes from the hall.
On the morrow, his bloodstained track is followed until it ends in a
distant mere.
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