Plot Summary

This documentary goes beyond the text of the epic poem and examines the history behind its writing. With interviews and travels in Europe, BEOWULF AND THE ANGLO-SAXONS dives into the culture of the people who created the classic myth. This title also explores the warrior society of the ancient people. Miraculously preserved over the centuries, its artistic importance was unrecognized until an essay by J. R. R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings) revealed its unity and multi-dimensional structure. Beowulf is now regarded as the most important manuscript the Anglo-Saxons have handed down to us, of immense linguistic as well as poetic value. This program sets out to trace the origins of the tribes that brought this epic into being, the war-like Norsemen from Sweden, Denmark and Germany who were to conquer and settle regions of a more clement and fertile island that would become known as England, named after the tribe of the Angles.