Beowulf is an Old English epic of 3,182 alliterative lines, preserved in the Nowell Codex and regarded as one of the foundational works of early English literature. Written by an anonymous poet, it is set in 5th–6th‑century Scandinavia, though the surviving manuscript dates from around AD 975–1025. The poem follows the hero Beowulf as he aids Hrothgar, king of the Danes, by defeating the monster Grendel and, soon after, Grendel’s vengeful mother. Returning home, Beowulf becomes king of the Geats and rules for fifty years before facing a dragon in his old age. He kills the creature but is mortally wounded, and his people honour him with a funeral pyre and a great barrow overlooking the sea.
Christopher Leith wrote, designed and directed his own adaptation of Beowulf in 1971, bringing the epic’s mythic scale and stark imagery into a distinctive puppetry language shaped by his carving, dramaturgy and musical composition.
