all about Sweden, Olly, and you must get her to show it you on the map), with a number of other brave men who were his friends, and helped him in his battles.  And one day a messenger came over the sea from another country close by, called Denmark, and the messenger said, ’Which of all you brave men will come over and help my master, King Hrothgar, who is in sore trouble?’ And the messenger told them how Hrothgar, for many years past, had been plagued by a monster—­the hateful monster Grendel—­half a man and half a beast, who lived at the bottom of a great bog near the king’s palace.  Every night, he said, Grendel the monster came out of the bog with his horrible mother beside him—­a wolf-like creature, fearful to look upon—­and he and she would roam about the country, killing and slaying all whom they met.  Sometimes they would come stalking to the king’s palace, where his brave men were sleeping round the fire in the big hall, and before anyone could withstand him Grendel would fall upon the king’s warriors, kill them by tens and twenties, and carry off their dead bodies to his bog.  Many a brave man had tried to slay the monster, but none had been able so much as to wound him.

“When Beowulf and his friends had heard this story they thought a while, and then each said to the other, ’Let us go across the sea and rid King Hrothgar of this monster.’  So they took ship and went across the sea to Hrothgar’s country, and Hrothgar welcomed them royally, and made a great feast in their honour.  And after the feast Hrothgar said to Beowulf, ’Now, I give over to you the hall of my palace, that you may guard it against the monster.’  So Beowulf and the brave men who had come over with him made a great fire in the hall, and they all lay down to sleep beside it.  You may imagine that they did not find it very easy to get to sleep, and some of them thought as they lay there that very likely they should never see their homes in Sweden again.  But they were tired with journeying and feasting, and one after another they all fell asleep.  Then in the dead of the night, when all was still, Grendel rose up out of the bog, and came stalking over the moor to the palace.  His eyes flamed with a kind of horrible light in the darkness, and his steps seemed to shake the earth; but those inside the palace were sleeping so heavily that they heard nothing, not even when Grendel burst open the door of the hall and came in among them.  Before anyone had wakened, the monster had seized one of the sleeping men and torn him to pieces.  Then he came to Beowulf; but Beowulf sprang up out of his sleep and laid hold upon him boldly.  He used no sword to strike him, for there was no sword which men could make was strong enough to hurt Grendel; but he seized him with his strong hands, and the two struggled together in the palace.  And they fought till the benches were torn from the walls, and everything in the hall was smashed and broken.  The brave men, springing up all round, seized their swords and would gladly have helped their lord, but there was no one but Beowulf could harm Grendel.