The Heart Aroused by David White WHYTE

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The original Beowulf is the story of a king who needs a savior because there's monsters that come out of the lake and dismember his men, his warriors. The real problem is Beowulf's excuse me is Grindel's mother. I think the thing to think this idea of Grendel and his mother as as sort of metaphor for lurking psychology has an anthropological aspect but it's not my interpretation.

Tolkien read it as a tale about mortality. The poet David Whyte said it was a metaphor for the psychological demons deep in our minds. And that, insists the cartoonist and writer Zach Weinersmith, is precisely Beowulf's appeal: Its richness opens the door to endless interpretation. Listen as the author of Bea Wolf, a graphic novel for children based on the Old English poem, speaks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about poetry in general, Beowulf in particular, whether we should require students to memorize poems, and the value of stories for children even without a moral lesson.