Mrs. Packer & Mrs. Haggerty
Studies in World Lit II
Beowulf Study Questions
Answer the following questions about the story Beowulf.
1. What is a scop (pronounced “shope”)?
2. Who is Hrothgar?
3. What is Heorot?
4. Why is it important to the Danes?
5. Who is Grendel? What is the connection between him and Cain?
6. Describe Grendel (what does he look like, where does he live, what does he do)
a.
b.
c.
Mrs. Packer & Mrs. Haggerty
Studies in World Lit II
7. How often did Grendel go to Heorot? For how long (time period)?
8. Who is Beowulf and where is he from?
9. What does he tell the Danes he and his warriors have come to do?
10. What is a formal boast?
11. Who is Unferth?
12. Unferth questions Beowulf’s abilities. What battle does he say Beowulf lost?
13. Hrothgar tells Beowulf he can’t use something to fight Grendel. What can’t
Beowulf use? How must he fight Grendel?
Mrs. Packer & Mrs. Haggerty
Studies in World Lit II
14. Who is Wealhtheow? What does she do?
15. How does Beowulf defeat Grendel?
16. Where does Grendel go after he fights Beowulf?
17. What is foreshadowing?
18. When they know that Grendel has died, what does Hrothgar say Beowulf is like
to him?
19. After Beowulf defeated Grendel, Hrothgar had a party at Heorot. What did
Hrothgar give to Beowulf? What did he give to Beowulf’s warriors?
Mrs. Packer & Mrs. Haggerty
Studies in World Lit II
20. What is wergild? Explain.
21. What happened after the party that night?
22. What does Grendel’s mother take from Heorot (2 things)?
23. Grendel and his mother lived at the bottom of “Grendel’s Lake.” Why would no
animal want to drink from it?
24. What did Grendel’s mother do with Aeschere’s head?
25. Why does Beowulf use his horn at the lake?
26. What is Hrunting?
Mrs. Packer & Mrs. Haggerty
Studies in World Lit II
27. What are 2 reasons Unferth gives Hrunting to Beowulf before he enters the
lake?
28. What is lof and why is it important to warriors?
29. What/who grabbed Beowulf when he went into Grendel’s Lake?
30. What were 2 ways that Beowulf tried to kill Grendel’s mother that did NOT
work?
31. What did Beowulf use to kill the she-monster?
32. Why did the special sword work? Who made it?
Mrs. Packer & Mrs. Haggerty
Studies in World Lit II
33. What are 2 reasons that Grendel’s mother had the sword?
34. What does Beowulf do to Grendel’s body?
35. What happens to the sword when Beowulf uses it on Grendel?
36. When Grendel’s blood rises to the surface of the water and the Danes and
Geats see it, whose blood do they think it is?
37. What do the Danes do?
38. Why do the Geats stay?
39. What does Beowulf bring back to the surface with him? What do the Danes do
with it?
Mrs. Packer & Mrs. Haggerty
Studies in World Lit II
40. When Beowulf and his men are ready to return home, what does he tell
Hrothgar?
41. Who are Hygelac, Hygd, and Heardred?
42. How does Beowulf become King?
43. How long is Beowulf King of the Geat’s?
44. Why does the dragon begin attacking Geat land?
45. What does Beowulf decide to do about the dragon?
46. When Beowulf and his warriors approach the dragon’s home, what does
Beowulf tell his warriors?
Mrs. Packer & Mrs. Haggerty
Studies in World Lit II
47. What happened when Beowulf first tried to attack the dragon?
48. After Beowulf collapses, what do the warriors do?
49. Who stands by Beowulf?
50. Why does this differ from when Beowulf was in Grendel’s Lake?
51. Why does Wiglaf say the warriors should help?
52. What is comitatus?
53. When comitatus falls apart, what happens to the society?
Mrs. Packer & Mrs. Haggerty
Studies in World Lit II
54. Wiglaf goes to help Beowulf fight the dragon. What happens to Beowulf during
the fight?
55. This angers Wiglaf. What does he then do to the dragon?
56. What does Beowulf tell Wiglaf when he is dying?
57. What values do Anglo-Saxons feel are important for a King to have?
58. What does Beowulf ask Wiglaf to go into the dragon’s cave for? What does
Beowulf tell Wiglaf to do with it?
59. What does Beowulf want Wiglaf to do with his body after he dies?
Mrs. Packer & Mrs. Haggerty
Studies in World Lit II
60. How is Wiglaf related to Beowulf?
61. What does Wiglaf tell the other warriors when they come out of their hiding
spots after Beowulf dies?
62. In the Anglo-Saxon society, why is it better to die than be called a coward?
63. What kind of future will the warriors have in the Geat kingdom?
64. What did they do with the dragon?
65. What did the people of Geat do with the dragon’s treasure?
66. What is The Mound of Beowulf?
Mrs. Packer & Mrs. Haggerty
Studies in World Lit II
67. What are some of the values that are important to Anglo-Saxons?
68. What is the difference between Paganism and Christianity?