Vile and deadly, the monster Grendel rises from his dreggy pool in the night to seek out his victims and kill them in dreadful silence. Hrothgar, king of the Danes, sees no end to the bloodbath: too many of his brave warriors have been slaughtered.

Yet there is one man who remains unafraid, one man capable of standing up to the fury of the terrifying monster and his evil mother - Beowulf.

One of the world's great adventure stories, this tale was first told more than a thousand years ago. In Robert Nye's marvellous retelling, it is as spine-chilling as it was then.