In this essay we are going to analyze one of the “side stories” from the poem Beowulf, the lament of the last survivor (Anonymous, 81). This small passage is an important incision in the main body of the poem, one last explanation to mythological facts and founding elements of the world the author opens in front of our eyes, and how they shape its environment. With an incursion into a declamation by an unknown person until that moment, but who, with his last actions is defining the fate of our hero, Beowulf. The passage has to be understood in the main context of the poem, as it is a past action that leads the poem in the present to its definitive ending. The lament of the last survivor is an echo from the past that lets us understand the mourning of a man, which buries the legacy of its people finally by a dragon, who definitively marks the fate of Beowulf. …show more content…
This treasure comes into play as a thief enters the dragon’s realm to steal a jeweled goblet. When the dragon awakes, it is enraged by the disappearance of the goblet, and rises from its cave expelling fire and burning the land, just to allow our hero, Beowulf, to enter again in action. Two events, greatly separated in time: The burial and the theft, were deemed to chain Beowulf one last time to his previous heroic acts and monster-battling. So, who is the last survivor? Who is this person that with his last act of honor to his own people, is dooming a different race that might settle into the land? Why the mourning and the lament are inserted in the story just before the dragon