Once upon a time, hundreds of years ago, there lived a king, and his name was King Hrothgar. He was a king caring man who loved his men and in return they loved him. King Hrothgar had a problem though, that problem was a huge, ugly, cannibalistic monster who's name was Grendel. Every night Grendel would come to Hrothgar's hall and attack and kill several of his men and then would eat them. He would leave and then return the next night, only to do the same thing, night after night Grendel continued to do this.

Hrothgar couldn't stand to loose another one of his men so he sent a message to someone he thought could help. This someone was the nephew of the Swedish king Hygelac, and the warrior's name was Beowulf. He was very strong and was one of the best warrior's of his uncle's hall, but his uncle's warrior's didn't think much of him; they considered him to be just a youngster who didn't know anything about the real world.

When Beowulf heard about the summons from Hrothgar, he wanted to head out immediately and help out the poor king, his uncle warned him to be careful and to not do anything extreme. Beowulf then left to go and help Hrothgar, leaving behind his uncle, who thought he would never return. Beowulf then showed up to King Hrothgar's Hall and the king was very relieved to see him.

Hrothgar asked Beowulf what he planned to do and he replied "I'm going to stay here in your hall until Grendel shows up, then, I'm going to attack him, and since Grendel doesn't have any weapons I won't have any either." King Hrothgar and his men thought Beowulf was crazy and they whispered to each other that he really wouldn't show up without any weapons. But, sure enough, as the evening progressed, Beowulf and his men settled in for some sleep, without their weapons.

Then, Grendel came. He began his night routine of killing and eating Hrothgar's men and Hrothgar began to winder if Beowulf was going to do anything. Grendel was about to kill another one of the king's men when he stopped and started staring at a sleeping Beowulf. "Now here is a man worth eating" thought Grendel as he approached Beowulf.

Just as Grendel reached for the sleeping warrior, Beowulf leaped up from where he was resting and jumped on Grendel's back, clinging to his arm. Grendel shouted from surprise, this is not what he was expecting! He tried to shake Beowulf off, but he soon found it impossible; Beowulf was not going to let go. Grendel couldn't take it anymore so he decided it would be best to leave so the mighty warrior wouldn't kill him.

Beowulf was not going to let him go, as Grendel tried to run away, Beowulf held tightly onto Grendel's arm. Grendel eventually managed to get away but, he left his arm behind. He ran off crying to his mom about how mean and senselessly cruel Beowulf was. Grendel's mommy did not like that. What kind of person would take someone's arm for no reason? Beowulf's mom then decided to seek revenge for her son. A few nights later after Hrothgar and his men congratulated Beowulf for his good work, they all fell asleep in the hall. Then, Grendel's mom came. She grabbed Hrothgar's best warriors and then left.