Beowulf, King of the Geats, is now about 75 years old. He becomes entangled with the dragon by means of the dragon’s flight of vengeance. Among other buildings, Beowulf’s royal hall was burnt to the ground. We are not told of loss of life, but it can be assumed that a large wooden hall cannot be suddenly burnt without casualties. Beowulf was apparently not at home. His hall burnt, some of his people killed, Beowulf is cut to the core by the sudden reversal of fate.
Long ago, Hrothgar had warned him that even the good king who ruled well might be subject to sudden tricks of fate in his old age. It happened to Hrothgar; now it is Beowulf’s turn. Unlike Hrothgar, Beowulf is sure he can avenge himself. Is there any young hero on the scene to take his place? Apparently not.
Beowulf’s mindset is explained briefly, but with some care (2327-32). His first thought may be to recall Hrothgar’s words, and he wonders if he has offended God, the Ruler of All. These painful, dark thoughts are completely unlike his usual mental state. He knows (2342) that he is doomed to die. Like the Last Survivor, he has only to spin out the days with the appropriate actions, and the end will come. There is no good outcome, only a possibly successful one.
The Old English word for someone who was doomed to die survives as an antique word, “fey.” Fey means not just doomed to die, but also having the mindset that comes with knowing that you are going to die. Nothing matters if you know you will die in battle; why brush your teeth? Fey can also imply a touch of madness and an other-world, fairy sense. Beowulf is now fey, doomed to die, and he has a new mindset, a fey one. He is not mad or impractical, but sets about to make sure his last battle is at least successful. He has to avenge himself, that much is clear, and that means a successful attack on the dragon.
First he commands a special iron shield to be made. From Tacitus’ Teutons to the civilized English of the late Anglo-Saxon period to the fiercest Swedish Vikings, all used wooden shields. The center “boss” was metal, but the shield itself was always wooden. An iron shield will be unusually heavy, but it will not catch fire. Next, after this is finished, he chooses companions. This is probably a mix of his youthful and experienced retainers, numbering twelve including himself. The thirteenth man is their guide, the runaway slave—the thief.
At first, Beowulf’s mind on setting out is reported as carefree and confident. With his new iron shield, he remembers his many victories and does not feel afraid. But when they reach the cape on the seashore, where the dragon’s barrow is located, Beowulf’s mind changes. Now he feels truly fey; he knows in his deepest heart that this is his last battle. He is “restless and ripe for death” (2420). It is in this state of mind that he takes time out to rest, and to tell one last story.
Many of the details we have of Hrethel’s family, and some of the details of the Swedish feud, come from Beowulf’s speech as he pauses. Recall his eagerness to attack Grendel’s mother, when he would not linger on the shore of the haunted mere. Now, on this shore, he dawdles and speaks to his companions. The tone of his speech is elegiac; he speaks of death and loss. It is in this frame of mind that he tells about Hrethel’s loss of his son, about how an old man grieves when he loses his oldest son. Like Hrothgar long ago, an old man with many memories, he wants to tell it one more time and through remembering the grief of Hrethel, to mourn his own coming death. Perhaps he wishes to cheer himself with a memory of past victory when he tells about defeating Day-Raven with one crushing blow.
Beowulf knows he is no longer as strong as thirty men, but he hopes he has yet enough strength for his last task. After a last formal boast, he gets up and is ready for the fight.
Beowulf’s last instructions almost bring about defeat, and this is the first deed that brings any hint of criticism from the narrative voice. Although he is there with eleven companions (the runaway slave, presumably, has been allowed to leave), he wishes to fight alone. He instructs his men not to help him, but to stand back and watch, waiting in safety.
His men must have heard this instruction with a mixture of relief and discomfort. They have a conflicting loyalty now. They need to obey their king, but on the other side, their normal duty is always to come to his aid. For him to command them not to help is a contradiction; it releases them from their oaths to help him, without releasing them from their oaths to obey him.
At the same time, they have no desire to fight the dragon. Their shields are wooden, and they have never fought any supernatural or inhuman creature. Fighting monsters is Beowulf’s specialty, in their minds, even if he is now 75. Is Beowulf right, though, to command his men to leave him alone? According to the Germanic traditions, there is no “fine print” in which if a king is attacked by a supernatural beast, everyone is allowed to run away. It would have been wiser, I think, to have his men help as was their duty.
The fight begins in an unpromising way. Beowulf, finding that the door into the cavern is streaming with the dragon’s heat, decides to call him out. The dragon, hearing a human voice, hopes to find the thief and rushes out. Both of them are checked for a moment, staring. Who is this? But then the dragon answers with his usual weapon, a stream of fire. The iron shield does not burn, but it cannot stop the flames and intense heat, and Beowulf is overcome. First, Beowulf has quickly struck a blow with his sword, not enough to kill the dragon, but enough to wound and astonish it. This wound only makes the dragon’s fire hotter, and with his sword turning out not strong enough to pierce the dragon’s scales, Beowulf must do something he never thought to do: he runs away.
Wyrd is against Beowulf this time. When Grendel’s mother attacked him with her knife while he was still catching his breath, fate had been with him, and had denied her victory. Fate is not with Beowulf, but is it with the dragon? It is not long until Beowulf steps forward again to fight the dragon, and the wounded beast and burned man begin a battle to the death.