<P> Hrothgar, Beowulf and their men track Grendel's mother to her lair under a lake . Unferth, a warrior who had doubted him and wishes to make amends, presents Beowulf with his sword Hrunting . After stipulating a number of conditions to Hrothgar in case of his death (including the taking in of his kinsmen and the inheritance by Unferth of Beowulf's estate), Beowulf jumps into the lake, at the bottom of which he finds a cavern containing Grendel's body and the remains of men that the two have killed . Grendel's mother and Beowulf engage in fierce combat . </P> <P> At first, Grendel's mother appears to prevail . Beowulf, finding that Hrunting cannot harm his foe, puts it aside in fury . Beowulf is again saved from his opponent's attack by his armour . Beowulf takes another sword from Grendel's mother and slices her head off with it . Travelling further into Grendel's mother's lair, Beowulf discovers Grendel's corpse and severs his head . The blade of Beowulf's sword touches Grendel's toxic blood, and instantly dissolves so that only the hilt remains . Beowulf swims back up to the rim of the pond where his men wait in growing despair . Carrying the hilt of the sword and Grendel's head, he presents them to Hrothgar upon his return to Heorot . Hrothgar gives Beowulf many gifts, including the sword Nægling, his family's heirloom . The events prompt a long reflection by the king, sometimes referred to as "Hrothgar's sermon", in which he urges Beowulf to be wary of pride and to reward his thegns . </P> <P> Beowulf returns home and eventually becomes king of his own people . One day, fifty years after Beowulf's battle with Grendel's mother, a slave steals a golden cup from the lair of a dragon at Earnanæs . When the dragon sees that the cup has been stolen, it leaves its cave in a rage, burning everything in sight . Beowulf and his warriors come to fight the dragon, but Beowulf tells his men that he will fight the dragon alone and that they should wait on the barrow . Beowulf descends to do battle with the dragon, but finds himself outmatched . His men, upon seeing this and fearing for their lives, retreat into the woods . One of his men, Wiglaf, however, in great distress at Beowulf's plight, comes to his aid . The two slay the dragon, but Beowulf is mortally wounded . After Beowulf dies, Wiglaf remains by his side, grief - stricken . When the rest of the men finally return, Wiglaf bitterly admonishes them, blaming their cowardice for Beowulf's death . Afterward, Beowulf is ritually burned on a great pyre in Geatland while his people wail and mourn him, fearing that without him, the Geats are defenceless against attacks from surrounding tribes . Afterwards, a barrow, visible from the sea, is built in his memory (Beowulf lines 2712--3182). </P> <P> Beowulf was written in England, but is set in Scandinavia; its dating has attracted considerable scholarly attention . The poem has been dated to between the 8th and the early 11th centuries, with some recent scholarship offering what has been called "a cohesive and compelling case for Beowulf's early composition ." However, opinion differs as to whether the composition of the poem is nearly contemporary with its transcription, whether it was first written in the 8th century, or if a proto - version of the poem was perhaps composed at an even earlier time (possibly as one of the Bear's Son Tales) and orally transmitted for many years, then transcribed in its present form at a later date . Albert Lord felt strongly that the manuscript represents the transcription of a performance, though likely taken at more than one sitting . J.R.R. Tolkien believed that the poem retains too genuine a memory of Anglo - Saxon paganism to have been composed more than a few generations after the completion of the Christianisation of England around AD 700, and Tolkien's conviction that the poem dates to the 8th century has been defended by Tom Shippey, Leonard Neidorf, Rafael J. Pascual, and R.D. Fulk, among others . </P>

How old is beowulf in his last battle
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