Part Four of the Eternal Trial of Beowulf

How's it going, everyone? Boy, am I sweating from that long walk to work.  Today is the final day of the trial.  Are y'all excited?  I am.  I can't wait to hear the final decision.  Since today is so important and I know y'all have been waiting, I'll get on with it.  Here comes the judge now.  Everyone stood up and sat back down, the usual proceedings.

"Today is the final day of the eternal trial of Beowulf.  The court will hear testimonies concerning the battle with the Fire Dragon.  Afterwards the jury will decide upon a verdict," rang the Judge's voice throughout the courtroom.  "Prosecutor, who would you like to call to the stand?"

"Your honor, I would like to call the Fire Dragon to the stand," answered the prosecution.

"I'm here to tell all of you the truth about Beowulf," the dragon said as he walked to the witness stand and sat down.  "Listen, people.  I had things good before Beowulf came back and several years later became king.  I could do what I wanted and there wasn't any one strong enough to do anything about it.  I think he was king for like, fifty years or something like that.  But it all got to his head and he thought that he could take me on. Ha! He wasn't as strong in his old age as he thought.  One day many, many years ago, I came upon this great treasure of gold and other riches.  I figured "finders, keepers," so I carefully guarded my cave and treasure.  One day, some idiot decided he would come in my cave and steal my precious cup while I was sleeping.  I woke up and discovered this, so I went on a mission to find this person who had taken my goods.  After quietly looking around for a while, I couldn't find the culprit so I went back to my cave.  I hid there in sorrow until I heard a mortal man's voice yelling for me to come out of my cave.  I came out, angered at the disturbance, and there stood Beowulf with eleven of his men hiding in fear nearby.  We stood face-to-face, preparing to do battle with all our might.  I lunged at him because I was so angry about that little thief who had stolen my gold.  We battled for quite some time.  He even broke his sword by stabbing at me.  I was able to finally scorch him with my fiery breath.  I had him where I wanted him and was preparing to punish him for the deeds of his people when all of a sudden one of his men burst in and stabbed me.  It wounded me enough to give Beowulf time to get up and give me a good stab in the stomach.  I knew it was the end for me, but by looking at Beowulf, I could tell that his end was nearing also.  That is all I know, sir."

Wow, that dragon had quite a battle with Beowulf.  Sounds to me like neither one of them came out victorious.  I hope Beowulf has something to say to defend himself.  I really don't want to see a bad outcome today.

"The defense would like to call Wiglaf to the stand." The defense lawyer looked around the courtroom.

What a loop! I thought he would call Beowulf to the stand like usual but instead he called Wiglaf who is Beowulf's kinsman.  Everyone in the court room looks stunned.  Wiglaf still showed the scars from that battle with the Fire Dragon. 

"That Fire Dragon is such a liar.  He forgot to say that he went around burning up the town and even scorching Beowulf's palace.  He left our land in ruins.  Beowulf was very upset by this.  He just wanted to take care of his land in his last remaining years.  He didn't have a lot of fight left until the Fire Dragon pulled that stunt.  That really fired Beowulf up.  He gathered eleven of us up and took us down to the cave.  He called the Fire Dragon out and the battle went on like the Fire Dragon described earlier.  Beowulf was in trouble mid-battle so I went in to save him.  I got burnt, as you can see.  I stabbed the Fire Dragon to get him off my kinsman.  Beowulf then got up and fatally stabbed the Fire Dragon.  I dragged Beowulf away to try to help him.  He spoke his last words.  He gave me his golden collar, ring, helmet, and mail coat and drifted off into the afterlife, or so I thought. Now we're here today trying to figure it all out." Wiglaf then got up and left the stand, emotional over everything that was happening to his mighty warrior king. 

"Thank you, everyone.  We will break for a two-hour recess in order to give the jury time to decide on a verdict." The judge exited the courtroom into his chambers.

Exciting! I can't wait for the jury to get back in here with the verdict.  In the meantime, I'm going to take a short nap in my office.