Intro. [Recording date: February 16, 2023.]
Russ Roberts: As we speak is February sixteenth, 2023, and my visitor is cartoonist and writer, Zach Weinersmith. He’s the creator of the webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. That is his second look on EconTalk. He was final right here in January 2018 speaking about his e book Soonish. Zach, welcome again to EconTalk.
Zach Weinersmith: It is extremely thrilling to be right here.
Russ Roberts: Our matter for in the present day is a bit uncommon. You may have a e book popping out known as Bea Wolf, two phrases: first phrase, Bea, as within the brief model of the identify Beatrice; second phrase, Wolf as within the animal. Bea Wolf. I am excited to say that, proper now–it hasn’t come out yet–but it’s the primary launch in kids’s Norse literature.
Zach Weinersmith: That is proper.
Russ Roberts: No imply feat. Amazon describes it as, quote, “A contemporary middle-grade graphic novel retelling of Beowulf, that includes a gang of troublemaking youngsters who should defend their treehouse from a fun-hating grownup who can immediately flip kids into grown-ups.” We’ll discuss Bea Wolf, your e book, however we’ll additionally discuss plenty of different things–poetry and life and no matter else comes up alongside the best way.
So, let’s begin with the truth that this e book is co-authored with an illustrator, though you might be an illustrator. Are you able to clarify that?
Zach Weinersmith: Yeah. Nicely, I am an American illustrator. Boulet a French illustrator, which places him, like, an order of magnitude above us. That’s altering by the best way. However, there is a a lot deeper French literary custom. I am solely half joking right here. The French have a a lot deeper comics-as-a-storytelling respectable medium, and Boulet is principally high of that, for my part. And so, like, for a e book like this, I might have achieved it myself, however I might simply level to locations the place he, I imply aside from his a lot greater technical competence, there are plenty of refined issues he does that I’d not have achieved.
I give an instance, truly. There is a half early within the e book, possibly we’ll learn later, a couple of boy who turns right into a teenager–and that is portrayed as a type of horrible factor that is occurred to him. And, I feel if I had achieved it, I might have illustrated it, however I’d’ve made {the teenager} form of gross and teenagery. Boulet drew him type of good-looking, and prefer it’s not so dangerous that he is {a teenager}. It is very mild; and I simply love that. I’d’ve achieved it like a silly, bumbling approach. And, he did it on this mild, very French approach. And so, it has been magical to work with him on this.
Russ Roberts: So, the illustrations are spectacular, and we will not present that within the audio model of this. However they’re nice, and you may get on-line and look at–and we’ll hyperlink to the e book, after all, and other people can take a look at what the type is.
However the different query, after all, is: why would you write this e book. Beowulf is an obscure, 1500-year-old poem written in–I do not even know what it’s written in. It has been translated many occasions. It is considerably Homeric within the sense that I feel it was orally delivered throughout its beginnings and in most likely many various variations. And, you are riffing on this completely inaccessible poem–at least in its authentic version–and turning it right into a kids’s e book. What had been you considering?
Zach Weinersmith: Nicely, so I am an Outdated English literature main, so it is a part of my working information as a sure sort of nerd.
However I–you know, Beowulf has a status such that individuals who learn it get entranced by it. And, it does have these magical qualities partly as a result of we all know little or no about it. For one thing just like the Aeneid, now we have one thing like eight or 9, like, e book variations of it–manuscripts. For Beowulf, there’s one; and it was nearly misplaced in a hearth. And so, we simply have this one doc. We do not know hardly something about it. The scribes who wrote down the copy now we have do not appear to essentially have cared about it this a lot. And but, it is one of many lasting poems in English.
No person desires to learn Spencer’s The Faerie Queene anymore. Individuals discover Milton very tough. However, folks will nonetheless choose up, like, the Seamus Heaney version of Beowulf and browse the primary 30%–which is all monster fights–and form of mumble by the center half. However, there is one thing very compelling about it.
By way of why I began writing it myself, I even have a really explicit story, which is I had this concept of doing a joke model the place the joke is that it is youngsters, however they’re getting became adults–which is clearly worse than dying. And that simply appeared humorous to me.
However, it turned out to be wealthy as a result of it provides this aspect of transition. And, the unique Beowulf, I feel, very clearly is a narrative about mortality. It is billed as a narrative about monster combating, but it surely’s actually a narrative in regards to the type of impermanence of life and all that stuff.
I used to drive my daughter to preschool and we had a 20-minute drive within the morning. And, my daughter could be very sensible, however simply won’t take note of me–still would not take note of me. And, I swear she would ask me a query, she could be gone–before the query escaped her mouth, she could be some place else as I used to be speaking.
However, for some motive, I began telling her this child’s model of Beowulf, and he or she was simply totally enthralled. She needed to know what occurred subsequent. You can see her clenching her fists at totally different moments, like, appropriately. And weirdest of all–originally, I used to be simply doing a type of, like, okay model. After which, I began dipping into poetic strategies from the unique, these little thins known as kennings and alliterative verse with breaks between traces and stuff. And, she simply appeared to it extra. And, it was just like the extra I poured on the fifth-century high quality, the extra engaged she obtained. And, there have been complete scenes I used to be going to chop out, however I did a model for her and he or she was so totally braced by it that I felt I needed to hold them.
And so, it simply saved going. After which, ultimately, I had a poem I believed was unpublishable. And, by a real sequence of coincidences, we managed to land it someplace. And, I might go into that. That is most likely too inside-baseball for folks.
Russ Roberts: I need to return to the line–I do not imply to alarm you, Zach–but you stated she’s actually sensible, however she would not take note of you. The phrase ‘however’ might be changed by ‘due to this fact.’ It’s a must to watch out. Definitely, for kids, that is not unusual.
Russ Roberts: However, coming again to the book–Beowulf the original–is the story of a king who wants a savior as a result of there’s monsters that come out of the lake and dismember his males, his warriors. And so, Beowulf is that this warrior king hires to kill Grendel.
SPOILER ALERT, by the best way. If you wish to skip the subsequent 30 seconds since you need to learn it, discover out your self what occurs.
However, Grendel is that this monstrous factor that comes out of the water and it seems that that is the least of Beowulf’s issues. His actual drawback is Beowulf’s–excuse me–is Grendel’s mom.
And, I’ve to simply say–we’re not going to enter this intimately, however I need to point out it–David Whyte, W-H-Y-T-E, wrote a beautiful e book some time again known as The Coronary heart Aroused. And, The Coronary heart Aroused is an attempt–very ambitious–it’s an try to make use of poetry to cope with company life. A bit of–unimaginable, actually. However, it is a great e book and he has a chapter on Beowulf. And, he argues that what Beowulf can assist you see is that lurking beneath the floor of the lake are your actual demons. They’re hidden, they’re within the darkness.
And, not solely do they arrive to get you, however there is a mom of these demons, the factor that spawned them. And that’s even scarier. Now I do know your e book would not cope with the mother, it simply sticks with Grendel, no less than for this version.
Russ Roberts: I am certain there will be a sequel. However, you need to touch upon that in any respect, or is that too bizarre?
Zach Weinersmith: No, that is attention-grabbing. No, no, no. Like I stated, we do not know something about Beowulf. The robust suspicion, as you stated, is it is an oral poem after which it will get written down. However, what folks typically do not know, it will get written down lastly within the eleventh century, after which it is simply within the attic of English literature. And, for a few years, it was not thought of good. It was thought of this type of bizarre factor, like, match for locating references and philology and this factor. And, it is typically thought of that J.R.R. Tolkien and one other man named Kerr [?W.P. Kerr?–Econlib Ed.] form of stated, ‘No, no: That is actually, actually good.’ And, that they had their very own interpretations of it.
And, what’s attention-grabbing is it makes an incredible substrate for these kinds of interpretations, as a result of we do not know what–like, there are complete components and it isn’t clear why they’re there. There is a type of thriller high quality to it. And so, that’s an attention-grabbing interpretation to me. It isn’t mine.
I’d say, one of the vital attention-grabbing issues I’ve examine Beowulf, is there is a fashionable perspective that’s, like: Perhaps that is simply not meant to be metaphorical. Perhaps this is rather like UTU [?utu? maybe meaning reward or retribution?–Econlib Ed.]–the reality that somebody dies as a contemporary individual as a universalized metaphor. However in actual fact, the individuals who have listened to it could’ve simply been, like, ‘Oh, it is unhappy that he died’–this actual man on this story.
So, for me, I take the identical interpretation as Tolkien had, which is it is the story about–he referred to it as heroic, elegiac, which means it’s a story about dying and a form of explicit, you may say Northern or, that will’ve been his perspective on it.
It is attention-grabbing to suppose this concept of Grendel and his mom as type of metaphor for lurking psychology. I assume the principle motive I am hesitant–and I do not need to get on an excessive amount of of a tangent here–but we all know there’s a complete class of Norse tales during which there’s only a second monster. It is like a regular storytelling approach.
And so, you’ll be able to get–you should be a bit cautious. You’ll be able to press no matter metaphor you need onto it as a result of it is your alternative: it is how you are feeling about this poem. However there is a form of anthropological side to it.
Russ Roberts: No, it is form of cool, although. It is definitely a regular fashionable trope that you just kill the factor you suppose you’ll want to kill after which, oh, my gosh, there’s this big factor looming behind it. The truth that it is a mother is absolutely uncommon and I like that interpretation–David Whyte, and he does much more with it that goes on for pages, and really thoughtfully. I like to recommend that e book, typically. It is a beautiful e book.
Russ Roberts: However, let’s return to what you talked about shortly in passing. You stated there’s sure stylistic facets of Beowulf–there’s alliteration. There are what are known as kennings, and you are going to inform me what that’s in a second. After which, there’s type of the spacing.
Speak about what kennings are, after which learn us an excerpt, the opening of your poem, your e book.
Zach Weinersmith: Yeah. One of many issues these previous poems do–and there’s a number of traditions that do it–is they use these little phrases which can be nearly like riddles. They usually get used repeatedly so you recognize what they’re. For instance, a traditional one is ‘battle sweat’. And, should you’re an individual from this time interval and also you hear ‘battle sweat’, you recognize they’re speaking about blood. That is what they’re saying. Or should you hear ‘battle adder’–there’s one other one: adder, like a snake–which means an arrow. I consider that is proper.
And so, one of many video games they’d play that makes the story very compelling, and I feel it nonetheless actually works as a reader, is you provide you with these little phrases that allude to one thing else.
One other traditional one is, I feel ‘seawood’ means boat. ‘Whale-road’ is among the often-used ones. It means the ocean. It simply provides plenty of richness to the textual content.
And, it is particularly handy–I do know this now–if you are attempting to make alliterative traces: that’s to say, traces that often have no less than two or three phrases which can be essential that begin with the identical letter in a brief line, it is rather onerous to try this.
However, should you can, as an alternative of–in my e book, I’ve an authentic kenning which refers to a river as a ‘sliding-sea,’ and I wanted that ‘s’ sound. That is the one motive it is known as that. I feel it sounds good. Yeah, it is one among my favourite simply because it additionally feels like a child factor. You’ll be able to think about a Viking saying it, however you too can think about a child saying it.
Russ Roberts: And, these kennings, these phrases which fashionable poets, after all, use as effectively, they’re sometimes hyphenated, no less than in your e book. I do not know in the event that they’re hyphenated within the authentic.
Zach Weinersmith: I am not an knowledgeable in Outdated English. I do know in translation, that is often what’s achieved. I do not know if a man within the seventh century would’ve achieved that.
Russ Roberts: Okay, so let’s hear the opening of Bea Wolf.
Zach Weinersmith: All proper, let’s do it.
Hearken to the lives of the long-ago youngsters, the world-fighters,
The parent-uminding youngsters, the improper, the politeness-proof,
The unbowed bully-crushers, the bedtime-breakers, the raspberry-blowers,
Fighters of fun-killers, fearing nothing, fated for fame.There was Tanya, treat-taker, terror of Halloween,
Her costume-cache huge, sieging kin and neighbor,
Draining full candy-bins, fearing not the destiny of her enamel.
Ten thousand treats she took. That was a superb Tuesday.And Shawn, peace-shatterer, shrieked he’d by no means depart the park.
His shame-blasted dad and mom bargained: ice cream for silence.
However there lay no bargains between lion and lamb.
Forty sunsets they stayed, sleepless and sorrowing.And Sonya, foam-slinger, shot so many skyward darts,
The summer time blaze was blotted out, licorice-black,
And beneath that sun-starved evening, no certainty reigned,
Save this: that Sonya would by no means help the dart cleanup.
Russ Roberts: That is superior. You maintain that–I will name it bardic, that over-the-top type by the entire e book. Am I proper?
Zach Weinersmith: Yeah. And, I’ve had a lot of individuals who I confirmed the primary chapter to inform me they had been terrified to learn the remainder. Like, it could get boring. They usually had been stunned that they saved having fun with it. So, that was very reassuring.
Russ Roberts: Let’s discuss poetry typically. Poetry is a bit out of vogue lately. I feel you are one among a handful of poets to look on EconTalk. I am an enormous poetry fan, particularly for kids: spent plenty of time studying poems–literally poems, but in addition rhyming books, Dr. Seuss being an apparent instance, but in addition one among my favourite books, I will simply point out right here, for kids, Seven Foolish Eaters, magnificent e book. And, poetry has a musical high quality to it. It appears nearly designed, when it is rhyming or rhythmic, to worm its approach into our brains in a approach that prose doesn’t. Inform me what you consider that, each for kids and for adults. What are your ideas on that?
Zach Weinersmith: Yeah. Poetry has gone by an analogous course of that comics have truly, the place, no less than in our culture–that is to say, like, Anglophone tradition generally–it is taken into account both a form of derelict artwork type for lecturers, or it’s for kids. And, I feel that is unlucky.
It is humorous. What’s unusual to me–and I can speculate about this however I do not know why–is should you return and also you learn a e book from, as late as just like the Forties or Nineteen Fifties, an everyday individual will pop in some traces of verse simply to be, like, ‘Oh, I used to be studying this just lately.’
One factor I take into consideration, there’s an nearly forgotten writer who I fairly a bit, named Lilias Haggard. And, she was a girl who simply wrote type of, like, nation writing. And, she would slip in little bits of verse.
However that is not the fascinating half. I remember–I feel I can recite it from memory–there’s a little bit of poetry she put in a e book and it was addressed to, I feel she stated it was addressed to a hawk and it was,
Oh, have you ever fairly forgot
these flights out[?] resting thought
earlier than this homely lot[?] half-tamed your opinions.The flowers and the celebrities
had been as soon as your solely bars
and the place the north wind soars[?] had been your dominions.
And, the fascinating thing–I imply wonderful–but additionally, she simply put it in: I bear in mind her saying one thing like, ‘I heard this just lately.’ And it is like unimaginable culturally, proper?
Russ Roberts: Yeah.
Zach Weinersmith: Individuals do not do that anymore. We do not write letters the place we might say, ‘By the best way, I got here throughout this,’ or ‘By the best way, here is a bit poem I wrote for you.’ However, for her, it was simply regular. It wasn’t a flourish or something like that. It was only a factor she would do.
And, what was fascinating, too, is she did not know the place it got here from. I used to be in a position, with the fashionable Web, to seek out it. I truly purchased the e book by the man; and all the opposite poems had been horrible. She someway obtained the nice poem.
And, the opposite humorous half is definitely addressed to a goose, which form of ruins the entire thing.
However, you’ll be able to see it was engaged in this type of strategy of sharing stuff. This was once a part of our tradition. And someway it obtained murdered; and I do not know why. And, I feel it is unlucky. It isn’t similar to a style went away: it isn’t like nation music went away. It is like music went away. It is a complete sort of artwork that nobody engages with.
Russ Roberts: Yeah, it’s kind of of a thriller. Clearly–we’ll get to this later–poetry typically, not at all times, however typically requires work. And, work is a little bit of out of–it’s a bit out of vogue. I love the poems that I’ve at my fingertips. I want I had extra. We have talked a bit bit about this earlier than on this system. However, final evening, I used to be at dinner and I had an urge to cite “Ulysses,” by Tennyson. And, I do know–I do not know–I most likely know 20 traces of “Ulysses” by coronary heart. I as soon as knew the entire thing. I recited in eighth grade–thank you, Miss Keneen, which I’ve talked about earlier than. However, it is beautiful to have it at your fingertips. I seemed it up and I learn it off my telephone, the piece I needed that was not at my fingertips–but simply the factor I really like.
Zach Weinersmith: Yeah. I am curious to ask: I do know you at the moment are at a college whose purpose is to have folks truly learn the books folks discuss. And, it is an attention-grabbing thought. I do not know–it might by no means have been tried. However I am fascinated about: Do you power them to memorize? As a result of that is one other factor you are not supposed to try this I feel is extraordinarily helpful. I feel Harold Bloom stated someplace, ‘You principally can’t perceive a poem you have not memorized.’ I feel that is a bit a lot, however I’d no less than say there’s–you won’t ever get deep understanding.
And, a part of that’s as a result of, with a view to memorize, you need to make sense of it. Like, as a result of it is very onerous to recollect one thing that is simply gibberish. It will be very onerous to recollect a 100 traces of nonsense. However, like, 100 traces of the Iliad is kind of doable.
Russ Roberts: So far as I do know–I can not converse for each college member–we educate The Iliad and The Odyssey right here, and I do not know whether or not folks memorize any bits of it or chunks of it. However here is what your remark jogs my memory of: An actor who memorizes, say, Shakespeare for a job has to grasp it to have the ability to converse it. And, as you say, in any other case, it is simply gibberish, particularly in that bizarre Shakespearean sort-of English, however not the English we converse precisely, however considerably associated. And, to memorize it and to have the ability to ship it should give an actor–a critical, Shakespearean actor–a large perception into the which means. Or ought to.
Zach Weinersmith: I feel so. Yeah, it ought to. I really feel that approach. Such as you, I’ve far too few verses dedicated to reminiscence. However I do have some. And, I do really feel like, if you learn it, it is superb. Once you recall it, it is like placing a bit room in your persona.
The opposite thing–like, non-trivially, by the way–I think about lots of people being hesitant about this factor, however, like, it is very straightforward to memorize plenty of verses. You may shock your self. When you begin attempting to memorize one thing and simply add a line a day, you’d suppose would high out someplace. And, it simply turns into very pure. It is a part of your working information.
And, the opposite thing–and that is getting dangerously near speaking about ROI [Return on Investment] for poetry, which I do not need to say–but like, for example, you are on a stroll by your self and also you’re undecided what to do with your self. And, you’ll be able to sum it up, this complete story and you are able to do it and there is one thing very partaking about it. Like, you do not really feel bored. It feels nearly prefer it’s a part of the human mind that is speculated to be there.
When you had been a farmer in a subject a number of 100 years in the past, you’d have most likely had a big assortment of ballads in your head–well, most of which might have simply been tales. You simply had these: it is like a quality-of-life factor. It makes your life higher that you are able to do this for your self.
Russ Roberts: Nicely, I feel that[?] track does that for many fashionable readers–excuse me–modern people. However, there’s something–I imply poetry, a part of it’s, what I am attempting to say right here about parenting, I feel, is attention-grabbing. If I play you, my baby, the music, the soundtrack of my life–so, for my kids, I’d be enjoying them Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, some Madama Butterfly, some Frank Sinatra a bit bit later–did not Sinatra after I was younger, however cherished him and nonetheless like him fairly a bit: They do not like any of that. I do not know whether or not I am an enormous exception or not, or an exception. However, I feel typically, children–teenagers–want their personal soundtrack, and their lives are totally different and their soundtrack is totally different. Their mates are listening to free music.
There are youngsters who’ve previous souls: They need to take heed to Sinatra. However typically, they need their very own music.
And so, the music that my youngsters obtained immersed in–that was mine–tended to be musicals that spoke to them–Depraved, Hamilton, and [?] Les Mis–those that will be our huge three. After which, a bit little bit of Barenaked Women, and another enjoyable songs that we cherished.
However poetry is completely totally different. So, poetry, they’ve as a part of their soundtrack. It is simply not with the melody. It is their personal melody.
So, all I am attempting to say in a protracted roundabout approach is that I feel it is good to provide your youngsters poetry as a result of they’re extra prone to take it with them than they’re prone to take your favourite music of your teenage years, say. Whereas the poems that you just cherished as a baby, as a result of your dad and mom learn them to you, they could love them simply since you learn these poems to them.
Zach Weinersmith: Yeah. That is attention-grabbing.
I’m wondering why that’s, although. Why ought to music be so temporal and poetry as this–I imply, I assume as a result of they’ll apply their very own option to sound it as a part of that. However that is an attention-grabbing level.
Russ Roberts: No, I feel the reason–actually, I do not suppose it is so totally different. I feel many of the poems–my dad cherished Keats. I’ve a lot of bother studying Keats. I can learn him a bit. And, I prefer to learn him, to remind me of my dad. However, the poems I really like that my dad learn to me or instructed me about had been extra Kipling, that are rhythmic, rhyming poems. Or Lochinvar by Sir Walter Scott, what are generally known as story poems. And, these have a tendency to remain round, in contrast to I feel the music half.
Zach Weinersmith: Yeah. Kipling is an excellent instance, I feel. So, my understanding is he would actually take heed to folks music in his head and type of faucet on his desk as he wrote. And you’ll–I do not suggest it as a result of it isn’t for everybody. This man named Peter Bellamy, who truly tried to reconstruct what he might need been listening to and sing it with it. It isn’t stunning music. It is very English, very screaming, bleeding, shouting ballads. However, you would nearly really feel such as you’re in a–like, you are actually there dying of cholera, too. Yeah. That is attention-grabbing. Yeah. Kipling is an attention-grabbing one to me as a result of he is clearly, being an arch-colonialist, could be very a lot on the outs now. However you just–he’s so unreasonably good.
And, simply the sound of words–I imply, the one Kipling folks know is If, which I thought of to be pretty mediocre Kipling. Like, it is Kipling doing life recommendation, like, ‘Be your greatest self’-type of stuff. Which is ok as a result of it is Kipling: He is the very best at it.
However, there’s a lot extra depth there, it is nearly astonishing. And, yeah, Kipling is one–I have memorized a bit of–he’s, he’s–no, not on this one. I used to be planning to steal a line from him if I get to do a sequel. There is a poem he wrote known as “Gentleman-Rankers.” Which is just–so, one of many easiest poems ever written, to my thoughts. And there is a half that–I will most likely get this barely incorrect, but it surely goes one thing like:
If the house we by no means write to, and the oaths we by no means hold,
And, all we maintain most distant and most pricey
Ought to cross the loud night breathing barrack room and return to wake our sleep,
Are you able to blame us if we soak ourselves in beer?
And, here is the actually good half:
When the drunken comrade mutters and the nice guard-lantern gutters,
and the horror of our fall is written plain,
Each secret, self-revealing on the aching white-washed ceiling,
Are you able to blame us if we drug ourselves from ache?
And so, I really like that.
I need to be clear. It is: ‘Each secret, self-revealing’–that’s: self, hyphen, revealing–Each secret is revealing itself.
So, the theme is there’s this man, is a gentleman ranker, which means he ought to have been in the next social standing on this bizarre nineteenth century British system. And, for no matter reason–either his dad and mom had been broke or there was some fall from grace–he’s now with the common males. And that is an unimaginable place to be in, on this tradition. It is onerous to narrate to and particular now, however I feel it is very straightforward to narrate to typically that feeling of, like, being not within the place you thought you’d be.
And, that scene of him wanting on the ceiling–“each secret, self-revealing,”–it’s, like–like, solely Kipling. It rhymes and alliterates. You can see all of his disgrace is simply dancing above his head. And so, I used to be attempting to steal that line, ‘each secret, self-revealing,’ however I do not know the place to place it. I simply wanted–
Russ Roberts: Let’s speak in regards to the authentic Beowulf, the 1500-year-old poem. Is it price studying?
Zach Weinersmith: Oh, sure.
Russ Roberts: I imply, Bea Wolf is price studying. That, we have established.
Zach Weinersmith: Good[?], Bea Wolf.
Yeah, let me discuss that. So, what’s Beowulf? Beowulf, such as you stated, is an oral poem, we expect. It has element–we suppose that as a result of it has parts which can be oral poem-ish, however we do not know.
However, it appears believable that, as a result of there was this story that, most likely had its origins in plenty of totally different traditions, someplace in medieval Northern Europe.
And within the eleventh century–the model now we have will get written down, most likely copied from a replica of a copy–but, anyway, it is a story–it is often introduced as a form of monster battle in three acts. Which I feel is principally incorrect. It is how you’ll mentally condense it should you learn it, is: There’s this–Hrothgar, the King, builds an incredible corridor. Then this monster from hell, Grendel, comes and trashes it and eats a bunch of his mates. And, that is very unhappy.
And, they do not know what to do. And, for 12 years, every little thing is gloomy. After which, this man Beowulf comes over the ocean and he is simply stronger than any man and he rips the monster’s arm off to kill it. After which, his mom comes and will get the arm again, and I feel eats any individual whereas she’s there. After which, so, Beowulf has to go battle that monster alone.
After which, the subsequent half that individuals bear in mind is often later: Then you definitely flash ahead. Beowulf is, like, seventy years previous, about, and he has to battle a dragon. And it is his final battle. [More to come, 29:47]
