The greatest literary work that has survived is an epic poem of about 3000 lines called Beowulf. It was probably composed in the eighth century and written down some 300 years later. It is the story of the heroic deeds of Germanic warriors in the fifth and sixth centuries. The hero comes to the court of a Danish king and frees him from a terrible monster called Grendel, and then from Grendel's mother, an even more ferocious beast. The second half deals with Beowulf's old age , when he is king and must defend his country against a fearsome dragon, which he manages to destroy, but dies in the process.