Asset ID: 102495013 / Jackie Edwards / An illustration of a dragon waking from its slumber

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.
This depiction indicates the growing importance and stabilization of the modern concept of the dragon within European mythology. Beowulf is the first piece of English literature to present a dragonslayer. Although many motifs common to the Beowulf dragon existed in the Scandinavian and Germanic literature, the Beowulf poet was the first to combine features and present a distinctive fire-breathing dragon. The Beowulf dragon was later copied in literature with similar motifs and themes such as in J. R. R. Tolkien 's The Hobbit , one of the forerunners of modern high fantasy .
The dragon fight, occurring at the end of the poem, is foreshadowed in earlier scenes. The dragon fight symbolizes Beowulf's stand against evil and destruction, and as the hero, he knows that failure will bring destruction to his people after many years of peace. The scene is structured in thirds, ending with the deaths of the dragon and Beowulf.

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