Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Classic Cast: Beowulf (Patreon)

Published:
2026-07-28 21:13:21
Imported:
2026-07
Tags:

Downloads

Content

Join us for a very special, super-sized 'cast covering the epic poem Beowulf, brought to you by Strange Stories: The Roleplaying Game!

Check out the original episode from 05/26/2015!

Special thanks to our reader, Andrew Leman, and our composer, Reber Clark.

EXTRA special thanks to our illustrious guests, Mr. Bob Hanske and Dr. Catherine Batt!

Comments

Jason Thompson

I forgot Grendel was motivated by hatred of noisy partying. Fun fact: in the original version of “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” a Beowulf-Whoo catches the Grinch in the act and rips his arm off

Jesse David Young

I think this is one of my favorite episodes you've given us. You downplay both of your expertise at this point (which I expect), you have a personal connection through your highschool teacher(who has thought deeply about this work), AND you brought in someone's whose life work is this piece of literature. It's awesome. Chris also said he didn't want to live in a time where you have to walk into a strange place and recount your lineage so the strangers feel safe. I would say we still live in that space. We aren't in a similar time but we still use our experiences in similar ways to help people we encounter to feel connected and safe. If I meet you, a stranger; I am going to try to find common ground with so you feel at ease with me. We start with basic nonsense and then typically it means we walk away peacefully, or we connect and become "friends" or things go awfully (now a days that's pretty rare). Getting to my point, all of our interactions are iterations of that initial landing and introduction of Beowulf. Our behaviors haven't changed, we just generally don't murder each other when things go south.

Nathan Adam

It's been a few years since I last read Beowulf (I'm pretty sure the impetus was the original release of this episode), so I don't recall, but are the other lake monsters that attack him while he fights Grendel's mother also her children? If so, it would seem that she is the proto Shub-Niggurath.

brian phillips

I highly recommend taking a look at Wayne Douglas Barlowe’s illustration of Grendel. One of my favorite depictions of him⚔️

Our old pal Brendan Gardiner

I can 100% get behind how specific Grendel’s exclamation is, in Chad’s telling, when Beowulf attacks him and tears off his arm. Grendel calls out “Ow, my arm! It’s not there anymore and it really hurts!” instead of merely howling in pain and leaving people to wonder what part of him needs attention should they wish to help. We would do well to follow Grendel’s lead in this! Time is of the essence in these instances!

Alex Beal

I'll take the opportunity to call out Zach Weinersmith's retelling of Beowulf through the lens of children defending their hideout from adults: "Bea Wolf" https://www.smbc-comics.com/bea/ I recently picked it up to share with my kids when they get a little older and it's a fun read and wonderfully illustrated by the artist Boulet. I recommend it (along with pretty much everything else Zach has done from webcomic to graphic novels to pop science books). He's also done a similar retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. On that note, any plans to cover that story in the future? Would be interesting to hear you guys get into some Arthurian legends sometime, but I don't know that's outside the scope of the show.

Eric - Speaker in Digressions

Similarly, the Gilgamesh version of the Great Flood story that matches up very well with the whole Noah's-Ark thing in the book of Genesis has one key difference: It's not sin or disobedience that make the Sumerian gods decide to snuff out humanity, but their noisiness during divine nap time.

Min

On the subject of Hrothgar adopting Beowulf: would you believe that not only are adult adoptions incredibly common in Japan, but 98% of all adoptions are of adult men? It's actually very commonly done as a business strategy; if you're the CEO of a "family-owned" business and you don't have a biological heir whom you want to pass your business on to, it's very common to legally adopt whoever you want to be your successor. The Japanese government is very serious about tracking family lineages, and this is a very easy way to make sure your family-owned business continues unbroken. There are a variety of other reasons why a family might adopt an adult as well, such as covering up affairs or dodging inheritance taxes; there's an interesting article about it over here: https://unseen-japan.com/adult-adoptions-japan/