From Monsters to Dragons.
This is one of the cooler images of Grendel I was able to find on the internet <www.timelessmyths.com/norse/beowulf.html>. Its by Robert Ingpen in the Encyclopaedia Of The Things That Never Were (1985). I like it because it is as mysterious as the monster in the poem and looks like Goya.

As we continue to make our way slowly through the poem, I am amazed at how it has this universal appeal across age groups--it easily keeps the interest and imagination of a ten-year-old even through all of the history and braggadocia.

We are finally to the part of the story that prompted us to start reading it in the first place, the dragon. Everything the poem says is in keeping with (or what it the source of?) dragon lore. Dragonology, the amazingly sophisticated and cool kid's book about dragons, mentions Beowulf, of course, and other sources of dragon mythology.

One interesting connection is the representation of larged, feathered lizards in Aztec sculpture, which Dragonology refers to as Draconis Americanus. It is amazing how trans-cultural the notion of the dragon is, and one has to begin to wonder exactly what these peoples are refering to in their depictions. Is it just an archetype of the imagination?

Caleb after Christmas dinner.

Caleb visited me over Christmas and we read more of the poem together. I've always enjoyed reading out loud to him since he was in the womb, and I think it accounts in part for our close relationship despite the distance between us. I love reading in voices and making it all dramatic. My voice for Beowulf is very He-Mannish, but with a British accent.

We had already gotten through the part where Beowulf rips off Grendel's arm and hangs it from the rafters, so we continued through the part where the knight kills Grendel's mother--underWATER, by the way, which is amazing, because the poem says he's under there for "hours." Caleb didn't even mind all of the epic boasting (I think because of all the discussion of weapons and seamonsters and stuff) and seemed to be able to keep the characters straight.

Now we head into the boring part so we can get to what we have been waiting for--the dragon.

We've begun our research on this story by reading the original Beowulf (in translation, of course). Caleb is totally into it and won't let me stop reading. We're just to the part where Beowulf is going under the lake to confirm his kill of Grendel. Can't wait for Caleb to meet Grendel's mother.

We've also been researching new versions of Beowulf online, as well as representations of the monsters (I sent Caleb a few of them) , and I think the next step will be to read John Garnder's Grendel. This will give us all we need to know.

I'm starting to see Caleb's wisdom in keeping this story simple rather than trying to dovetail it perfectly with the poem...

Caleb and I are having a disagreement about the story: He wants the dragon to be named Beowulf, but I don't because "Beowulf" is the name of the knight, and it would be confusing.

I think we should come up with another name. He said, how about "Beofox"? I like it, but after thinking about it, he thought is sounded weird.

We decided to keep it for now, but change it if we find something better.

The Authors.

OK, here's a synopsis of our story idea, which will be, according to Caleb, of the youth/fantasy genre. The story starts in past, 1006 A.D. [even though the poem itself probably dates from more like 706 A.D.], with a flashback to the death of Beowulf at the fangs of a dragon. During another flashback, we see the so-called "hunting accident" in which Herbald, the oldest brother in Beowulf's adopted family (Hrethel) is shot by his younger brother, Hathcyn, with an arrow.

Flash forward to 2006: a ten year-old kid named Grendel (his parents were Medievalists—gets teased and bullied because of his name. So he gets one of their books that theorizes that Hathcyn intended to kill his older brother in order to steal his crown and using magic wakes (from a Temple below old English ruins) the sleeping Hathcyn from his slumber to wreak his bloodlust on the world once more. Unbeknownst to Grendel, the magic actually works, and the zombie-like Hathcyn is resurrected. Fortunately, the magic is powerful and Beowulf is resurrected too.

After he realizes he is alive, Hathcyn uses magic to resurrect the long-dormant dragon--very dragon that killed Beowulf--and casts a spell on it so he will have total control of the monster. It turns out that Hathcyn was the one who had originally summonded the dragon to protect his ill-gotten crown and hoard his fratricidal loot. On the back of the dragon, Hathcyn flies to New York to terrorize the city and to take over.

One problem we are having is how do Beowulf and Grendel meet. We'll have to figure that out one we start writing. But one thing is for sure: when they do,the two friends must stop the vengeful monarch from taking over the world.

Grendel reads fantasy books about dragons, but the book turns out to be real. He uses it to help defeat the King and restore the dragon to Beowulf.