Beowulf

Set in Denmark, King Hrothgar has constructed a new mead hall, Heorot. A noisy celebration at the hall disturbs the deformed monster Grendel, who is pained by the noise even from miles away on the high moors. He attacks the hall, killing many of the men inside. Hrothgar challenges Grendel to fight him instead, but the monster, after quietly staring at Hrothgar for a few moments, runs screaming off into the night. Back at his lair, Grendel is admonished by his (unseen) mother for attacking the humans and possibly inviting retribution. She calms down after Grendel tells her that he did not harm Hrothgar. The following morning, Hrothgar closes Heorot and proclaims that he will give half the gold in the kingdom to any man who can defeat Grendel. Soon Beowulf and his men arrive by ship from Götaland, and Beowulf offers to destroy Grendel. He convinces Hrothgar to reopen Heorot and let Beowulf's men stay there. Unferth, the King's adviser, challenges Beowulf's credibility. The warrior tells a tall tale of how he slew several sea serpents, and is capable of slaying Grendel too. Hrothgar offers Beowulf his precious golden drinking horn taken from the dragon Fafnir as a reward for Grendel's death. Beowulf is more entranced by Hrothgar's young queen, Wealtheow.

That evening, Beowulf asks his men to sing loudly. He undresses in order to fight the unarmored Grendel on equal terms and elects to sleep until the monster arrives. As expected, Grendel is infuriated by the noise and attacks the hall. Beowulf fights him with his bare hands, proving more than a match for the demon. After Beowulf punches out the monster's sensitive ear, Grendel tries to flee for his life, only to have Beowulf taunt him and eventually rip his arm off. The dying Grendel flees back to his cave, where he tells the name of his killer to his mother. Beowulf is proclaimed a hero. That night, a private conversation between Hrothgar and Wealtheow indirectly reveals that Hrothgar was in fact the father of Grendel. Wealtheow has been refusing to sleep with her husband out of revulsion. This is why the king has no heir.

Enraged by grief over her son's death, Grendel's mother flies to Heorot. She distracts Beowulf in a dream by taking the guise of Wealtheow. When Beowulf awakes, he finds that all of his men in the hall have been killed, skinned and hung from the rafters like hunting game. Only his friend Wiglaf survived, only because he had been at the beach preparing their ship for departure. Beowulf confronts Hrothgar, who tells Beowulf that Grendel's mother is indeed the last of the monsters. Unferth apologizes to Beowulf for having doubted him, and offers his sword Hrunting for use against Grendel's mother.

Beowulf and Wiglaf seek out the cave of Grendel's mother, which is filled with water since she is a water demon. Beowulf enters the cave alone to find it filled to the ceiling with treasure. Grendel's mother appears to him in the form of a beautiful woman, offering him fame and power if he will give her another son. She also asks for the Dragon Horn of Hrothgar, with the promise that Heorot will be safe as long as it is in her possession. Beowulf gives in to her temptations.

Beowulf returns to Heorot, claiming to have slain Grendel's mother. He brings back Grendel's head as proof of his deeds. He says that he lost Unferth's sword and Hrothgar's horn during the battle. In private, Hrothgar points out inconsistencies in Beowulf's story and asks if he did indeed slay Grendel's Mother. When Beowulf doesn't give a straight answer, Hrothgar knowingly says that all he cares about is Grendel's death: with Grendel dead, his mother is no longer Hrothgar's curse. King Hrothgar names Beowulf heir to the throne. Hrothgar then leaps from the balcony to his death to the surprised horror of everyone. Beowulf is crowned king and takes Wealtheow as his wife.

Many years pass. King Beowulf is unable to enjoy his power and glory, and his relationship with Wealtheow has grown cold. When Unferth's slave Cain finds the Horn of Hrothgar on a barren hill, Beowulf understands that Grendel's mother has reneged on their bargain, and Heorot is in danger once more. That night he dreams of his son he had with Grendel's mother. The son, who appears as a golden youth before transforming into something infinitely more foul, threatens to kill Beowulf's wife and his young mistress Ursula. The next morning before dawn, a fierce dragon attacks a village outside of Heorot. The dragon gives a message to Unferth to take to Beowulf: "The sins of the father!" Beowulf realizes that the only way to save his people and his kingdom is to kill Grendel's mother and her new son. He says his last goodbyes to Ursula and Wealtheow, then leaves.

Beowulf and Wiglaf ride to the cave of Grendel's mother and Beowulf confronts her in an attempt to re-establish the deal, but it is too late: his son, in the monstrous form of the dragon, attacks, easily defeating an attempt by Beowulf's army to trap and kill it. The dragon flies to Beowulf's castle, but Beowulf is able to cling to its back. The monster smashes Beowulf into a cliff and throws him into the sea in a vain effort to kill him, but Beowulf survives. The dragon spots Wealtheow and Ursula on the castle wall and attempts to burn them. Beowulf, remembering what Hrothgar told him earlier, plunges his sword into the weak spot in the dragon's throat, robbing it of its ability to breathe fire, though Beowulf loses one arm and burns the other in the process. The dragon tries to destroy the battlements in an effort to kill the two women, causing Beowulf to drop his sword. In desperation, he thrusts his hand into the wound he has inflicted on the dragon and rips out its heart. Mortally wounded, the two fall to the shores far below. The dragon changes back to its human form, the golden young man whom Beowulf saw in his dreams. Beowulf looks upon his son one last time before he is washed away into the sea, apparently retaken by Grendel's mother. Wiglaf arrives at the beach in time to hear Beowulf's last words. Beowulf leaves his kingdom to Wiglaf.

Wiglaf prepares a Viking funeral for Beowulf. As Wiglaf watches the burning boat that serves as Beowulf's funeral pyre, he sees Grendel's mother kissing the corpse. The Dragon Horn also washes ashore and Wiglaf finds it. As he does, Grendel's mother then appears in the water and beckons to Wiglaf. It is unknown if the cycle will continue.