High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The final act of the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, depicts the hero Beowulf`s fight with a dragon, the third monster he encounters in the epic. Returning from Heorot, where he killed Grendel and Grendel`s mother, Beowulf becomes king of the Geats, and rules peacefully for 50 years until a slave angers a dragon by stealing a jewelled cup from its lair.The dragon destroys the homes of Beowulf`s people causing him to decide to kill the dragon. With his thanes, he goes to the dragon`s lair, where, faced with the beast, the thanes run leaving only Wiglaf to battle at Beowulf`s side. The dragon wounds Beowulf fatally, and Wiglaf slays the dragon.