Courage in Death

I've finished reading Beowulf; initial impressions when the last page turned:

1.  It wasn't as bad as I anticipated
2.  I actually thought it was poetic (fancy that since it's a poem)
3.  It consisted of way more than superficial monsters, swords, helmets and characters with too many consonants in their names. Like an onion, it had many thematic layers.
4.  I would re-read it to better understand the underlying themes.
5.  If I did re-read it, I may consider reading aloud to better understand what it would have been like for this story to be told as it would have been throughout its early history.

We learn in Chapter 32 that the serf who stole the gem-studded cup from the dragon stole it due to need as he was a slave, recently beaten by his master and on the run.  However, this fact didn't matter to the dragon.  The dragon, peeved at having been disturbed and his treasure disrupted, wrecked a small village, "vomiting smoke and fire, burning down their homes."  The Geats plead to Beowulf to help slay the dragon; he agrees and then a couple chapters re-visit family history of his lineage, etc.  I noticed the dragon did not have a name as did Grendel.  I wonder why?

The action continues with Beowulf, now older and more feeble, feeling the effects of age, despite his unflinching courage.  Beowulf makes a final oratory, speaking to his people and soldiers prepared to fight the dragon should duty call:  "I've never known fear; as a youth I fought in endless battles.  I am old, now, but I will fight again, seek fame still, if the dragon hiding in this tower dares to face me."  Talk about "fake it till you make it"...I have to give him credit for his headstrong, if ultimately death-inducing bravery.

So Beowulf and the dragon duke it out; sadly, only one of Beowulf's soldiers--Wiglaf--braves the fiery battle with him when he needs it most.  Alas, however, he is too late and Beowulf suffer a fatal jugular wound.  They kill the dragon, however, in the end, slicing him in two.   Beowulf dies bravely, lying in a puddle of dragon blood on the edge of a cliff near the sea.  Wiglaf fufills Beowulf's last wish to gather the dragon-protected treasure for his people and build a huge tower at the very spot of his death so all men may see it and know it as Beowulf's tower to remember his bravery. 

Wiglaf reems the soldiers who chickend out and didn't come to their Lord's aid, "death would have been better for you all than the life you'll lead, branded with disgrace!" Our poem ends with a funeral scence on the coast of the Geats, "moaning their sorrows, lamenting their Lord...and so Beowulf's followers rode, mourning their beloved leader, crying that no better king had ever lived, no prince so mild, no man so open to his people, so deserving of praise."