Summary

The story begins with a quote from a famous scribe from the 18th century, Benjamin Thorpe, stating that scribes were illiterate and inaccurate in their translations of Anglo-Saxon texts with Beowulf being the worst.

The narrator, part of a team of monks, described Brother Ælfric re-enacting the monster Grendel from Beowulf. The monks had been given the task of transcribing Ælfric’s performances. On seeing one of the scribes, Brother Wigbert, drop his quill, Ælfric decided to include him in the play by chasing him and pretending to disembowel him while telling the other monks to capture his death-cry. Wigbert, being of a sensitive disposition, appeared traumatized during this interaction. The narrator related that prior to meeting Brother Ælfric, the monks had expected a quiet, disciplined scholar. This had turned out to be far from the case as everyday he acted out...