Reading Diary B: Beowulf

I finished reading the Beowulf unit for this Reading Diary. I was really excited to read about Beowulf and his encounter with the monster Grendel so I was glad to see that the tale would come early on in this reading. As always, I kept some notes about my favorite stories and what I thought could be used in my storytelling post.

The Battle with Grendel

This is what I was excited for since reading the previous half of the unit. Once again, the vivid details used by the writer were inspiration to try and use the same detail in my writing. I felt like the writing gave way to lots of action packed writing and I was really impressed with the author's ability to create so much action with just their words. The part I found most amusing is that when all the people of Heorot awoke and heard a racket they looked up to see Beowulf and his men on the rooftop holding up Grendel's bloody arm. I could just imagine the look on their faces!

The Arrival of the Dragon

I liked this story because I thought it did a great job of setting up future stories. Having a slave, with no name, tell the story about what he saw in the dragon and the many spoils that he slept with was a great way to lure the reader into wondering what was true in his story or if they could even trust what he was saying. This also led to Beowulf being skeptical until the slave pulled out the jeweled cup which he had taken from the dragon's lair.

The stranger stealing the jeweled cup from the dragon (illustrated by A.R. Skelton).