Week 12 Storytelling

My love,

I have missed you deeply while I have been away. This war seems to drag on forever. I cannot stand being away from you much longer. How are you? How are our parents doing? I have had nightmares of them passing while I am away. This is a large fear of mine. We have arrived at the place that we will be for the next few months. My bunkmates name is Ecgtheow. He has become one of my very dear friends while I have been away. Being in a foreign place without anyone you know to bring you comfort is so difficult. However, now that I have become friends with Ecgtheow, it has become much more bearable. On the days I would rather quit then get out of bed, he comes and encourages me that the quicker we win this war, the quicker I get to come home and see you. Our friendship is rich. I expect that he will be the kind of person I will grow old knowing. His son one day may need something from me and I will be quick to help.

I had a dream a few nights ago about a creature living on my land. We were all so terrified of this creature that we were planning on moving. We figured out that we could not defeat him even with every member of our army. As we were packing a man came to me and told me that someone had come to defeat this beast. I was wary, as I didn’t understand who would come to my land to do such a thing. You told me that I at least needed to go meet this man. When I did, there was something so familiar about him. His jawline, his eyes, they were just like my bunk mate Echtheow. I knew in that moment that this must be his son! I welcomed him into our home and allowed him any resources he must need to succeed in his mission. I don’t know what this dream means. I told Ecgtheow and he promised me that if I ever needed help, he would always send his son to help me. He was also pretty smug about how large his son was in my dream, but that’s typical Ecgthoew.

Tell me about one of your dreams in your next letter to me. 

Send my dearest regards to our loved ones. I miss you all dearly. 

Love, 

Hrothgar

Hrothgar. Source. 

Authors note: 

When reading the story of Beowulf this week, there was a part where Beowulf met a king that used to be war brothers with Beowulf's dad. Beowulf was coming to save this king from a creature and the king was so gracious to him because of the prior relationship with his father. I think that there is probably such rich relationships with the people that go to war together all the time so I thought that this could be a cool story to write. There is very little background about their relationship so I got to be really creative with it.