“Herot trembled, wonderfully/ Built to withstand the blows, the struggling/ Great bodies beating at its beautiful walls;/ shaped and fastened with iron, inside/ And out, artfully worked, the building/ stood firm.” This example of imagery is one of many throughout the whole book of Beowulf translated by Burton Raffel. Beowulf is an epic poem and Hrothgar is the king of Herot and is rather old. Everyone he is troubled at the raging demon named Grendel. Every night Grendel comes and disturbs the mead hall and with King Hrothgar getting older he needs some help and luckily a young strong warrior named Beowulf arrives to Herot to help out and ends up defeating the great monster and becoming known as an epic hero. The first climax of the poem is when Beowulf arrives to Herot to help the Danes and fights Grendel and pulls his arm from his socket and causing a very bloody battle and Grendel’s death. The second climax of the poem is when Beowulf now has to fight Grendel’s mother to seek revenge for her son’s death causing another bloody battle and cutting off her head. The third climactic moment of the poem is Beowulf’s battle with the fiery dragon, Beowulf eventually strikes the dragon in this fight and kills him but during the fight the dragon sunk his fangs in his neck delivering a fatal wound to him. The imagery through the poem is what makes these climaxes so much easier and more interesting to comprehend.
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