BEACHCOMBER 108 YEARS OLD AND AS EPIC AS AN EPIC...

BRINGING peace to a region that has been at war for several years is always a tricky business, as is shown by some new evidence concerning one of the earliest known epic poems in Old English.

- 

Written around AD 1000, the tale of Beowulf tells of the coming of aid of King Hrothgar of the Danes whose homeland had been invaded by the monster Grendel. Beowulf slays Grendel with his bare hands, then kills the monster’s mother and a passing dragon.

A newly discovered manuscript, however, reveals attempts by King Hrothgar to negotiate an earlier ceasefire and a binding peace treaty between Beowulf and Grendel.

“Just leave it to me,” said Hrothgar. “It’ll only take me a day to stop all this fighting.”