I read this story that is considered a classic among classics, and I didn't see anything extrodinary about it. it seemed like a run of the mill hero vs monster strory. This put me off writing a blog post on it for a while, but I'm going to write it now before I forget about the book and have to re-read it
I could not imagine why this story was so highly regarded, so I did some research on it. I learned that this is the first epic poem written in English that we have discovered. So it marks the beginning of English literature. So I guess it wins points for blazing a trail for others to follow.
On further thought about how Beowolf seems like a basic hero fights monster story, and I realized that since every other book that has that type of theme is, in some small way, based off Beowolf. So the fact that this story doesn't have any of the other twists or surprises of other stories is irrelevant, since this is the foundation on which those books are built.
So beowolf itself isn't impressive to me, but the fact that it spawned all of the books I now read and enjoy today is worthy of praise.
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