(9) BEOWULF

 

Haunted Heorot – haunted by monsters.

After the Odyssey (as the epic template of everything), Beowulf is the epic template for horror fiction, endlessly adapted for dark fantasy horror ever since.

It has the classic horror fiction scenario – where humans have trespassed into the territory of something much older and darker, that now emerges at night to prey upon on them.

It even has the classic horror fiction twist – that the first monster Grendel is not the last and the initial victory of slaying him is only a brief illusion, the eye in the storm, as an even more dangerous monster takes its place. In Beowulf, that’s Grendel’s mother, seeking vengeance for her slain son – and unfortunately she does not usually look like Angelina Jolie.

O – and there’s a dragon but that doesn’t come close to the horror or suspense of Grendel and his mother, even when Beowulf dies to slay it.