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Beowulf & Grendel: The Truth Behind England's Oldest Legend
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John Grigsby presents compelling evidence that the legend of Beowulf and Grendel can co longer be dismissed as a folktale - it is based on historical fact. He reveals the existence of a pagan fertility rite once practiced by the ancestors of the English people that involved the ritual taking of a sacred intoxicant combined with human sacrifice...
J.R.R. Tolkien is often credited with writing The Lord of the Rings in an attempt to create a "mythology of England". but as Tolkien was well aware, England did once have a mythology of its own, of which only a few precious fragments remain. One such fragment is a Dark-Age poem that tells of the deeds of the monster-slaying hero Beowulf, who frees the feasting hall of a Danish king from the twelve-year tyranny of a creature named Grendel and it hideous, lake-dwelling mother.
Grigsby has discovered that it was the memory of the forceful suppression of a sacrificial cult in the 5th century AD that lies behind the seemingly fantastic deeds of Beowulf. His discovery helps to answer the questions of where, when and why the poem was written, and to restore the poem to its rightful place as a national epic.
J.R.R. Tolkien is often credited with writing The Lord of the Rings in an attempt to create a "mythology of England". but as Tolkien was well aware, England did once have a mythology of its own, of which only a few precious fragments remain. One such fragment is a Dark-Age poem that tells of the deeds of the monster-slaying hero Beowulf, who frees the feasting hall of a Danish king from the twelve-year tyranny of a creature named Grendel and it hideous, lake-dwelling mother.
Grigsby has discovered that it was the memory of the forceful suppression of a sacrificial cult in the 5th century AD that lies behind the seemingly fantastic deeds of Beowulf. His discovery helps to answer the questions of where, when and why the poem was written, and to restore the poem to its rightful place as a national epic.
246 pages, Paperback
First published January 1,2005
This edition
- Format
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246 pages, Paperback
- Published
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October 10, 2005 by Watkins Publishing
- ISBN
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9781842931530
- ASIN
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1842931539
- Language
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English
Characters More characters
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Beowulf
Beowulf is an Old English heroic epic poem of unknown authorship, dating as recorded in the Nowell Codex manuscript from between the 8th and the early 11th century, set in Denmark and Sweden. Commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxo...
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Grendel
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Hrothgar (the Inheritance Cycle)
Hrothgar was the King of the dwarves, controlling the thirteen dwarf clans and Tronjheim, the city within Farthen Dûr....
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Scyld Scefing
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