The Dragon (Beowulf)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The final act of the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, depicts the hero Beowulf's fight with a dragon, the third monster he encounters in the epic. Returning from Heorot, where he killed Grendel and Grendel's mother, Beowulf becomes king of the Geats, and rules peacefully for 50 years until a slave angers a dragon by stealing a jewelled cup from its lair.The dragon destroys the homes of Beowulf's people causing him to decide to kill the dragon. With his thanes, he goes to the dragon's lair, where, faced with the beast, the thanes run leaving only Wiglaf to battle at Beowulf's side. The dragon wounds Beowulf fatally, and Wiglaf slays the dragon.