The Legend Of Beowulf

Tonight, I retell you the story of Beowulf, the famous Anglo-Saxon epic poem put in writing in Old English at the turn of the second millennium. Beyond the story itself, what does Beowulf tell us of its time, the population of England, the emergence of the English language, or the society that produced it? And what was its influence on modern Fantasy, starting with the work of JRR Tolkien?