:-) A love story indeed... So it's more than just hospitality that the Beowulf poet presents in ironic fashion as the relationship between B and G (host and guest arriving for...dinner), now people will think it's a figure for dating or marital love ... complete with the mother-in-law coming the next night, presumably to tell Grendel what a bad choice Beowulf is, etc.

More seriously, I am aware of The Road to Middle Earth but haven't read it, although it is on my Amazon wish list! I read another book by Shippey; can't think of the title right now. That's an interesting point about two kinds of heroism that I hadn't thought of or encountered. I do remember clearly how in The Hobbit Tolkien describes Bilbo's decision to take that next step down towards Smaug's lair as the bravest thing he'd ever done. Isn't it amazing how sometimes the most important things we do, as far as our actual intention and decision-making and our own personal virtue comes in, are often the smallest of outward visible actions?

Also, I thought the visuals in Rohan in the movie were very true too. As if the only thing that they ('they' meaning both Jackson and Tolkien himself here, I think) changed was the common imagery of the wild boar, and put the horse theme in its place.