Long ago, when I was in graduate school and deep in Old English poetry, some wag of a friend gave me a DC Comics issue entitled “Beowulf, Dragon Slayer.” It depicted our hero in full superhero kit, leaping to plunge his sword into the beast, young and muscular and not at all like the graying king who fought the dragon and lost his life doing it. I remember showing the comic to my teacher, Calvin Kendall. I remember that he grimaced.
