In this progressing technological age, the Internet can serve as a helpful guide to most anything you are pursuing. Concerning the reading and studying of Beowulf, the Internet proved to be a very helpful resource. Three specific web sites that contributed to my understanding of the epic were "Sparknotes.com," "Legends.dm.net," and a site titled "Resources for the study of Beowulf." Each of these sites gives in depth analysis of Beowulf, as well as significant background information and other information that serves as a very significant and helpful resource to the studying of Beowulf.

One site that contributed greatly to my understanding of Beowulf was Sparknotes.com. Sparknotes is a site dedicated to the analysis of popular literature, as well as many other subjects. The Beowulf portion of the site is very informative and user friendly, with a plot summary and analysis of each portion of the epic. Along with plot summary and analysis, Sparknotes provides the user with background on the text and culture, along with important quotations, and even a quiz for the reader to take after they are done with the reading. The site takes an even deeper analysis with an in depth analysis of each character, and what they symbolize in the context of the poem. Sparknotes, in my opinion, is an excellent resource for any literary study, for it takes almost every significant detail into consideration, and extends the readers understanding of the text greatly. One section of the web site that I personally found extremely helpful is the section entitled "Themes, Motifs, and Symbols." This section takes a deeper look at the text, and explains such themes as "Tensions between the Heroic Code and other Value Systems," and "The Importance of Establishing Identity." These portions of the site give the reader a deeper look into not only the text, but also the time period it was written.
Another site that I found very helpful to my comprehension of Beowulf was
Legends.dm.net. This site is a whole site dedicated wholly to the study and comprehension of Beowulf. This site provides in depth background information on both the poem, and the time period. Along with that, the site provides links to several different translations of the poem, as well as several links to resources on Old English. Although this site proved to be quite helpful for background information and history of Beowulf, it does not provide the analysis that the other two sites do. This site is more geared towards explaining the time period of Beowulf as well as the history of the language and culture, and although this is not the largest focus of the other sites, it did seem to come in very helpful to my thorough understanding of Beowulf.

The last and probably most helpful site I found for Beowulf is a site titled Resources for the study of Beowulf. This site is by far the most complete resource I have found for the poem. The site is broken down into several categories, such as Why is Beowulf important? Editions and Translations, Beowulf as inspiration, and, The language of Beowulf. Each of these sections go into tremendous detail to explain to the reader every fundamental issue behind the poem that is possible. The most significant aspect of this site that I found to be most helpful is that it provides several links to various other resources under each section. By this being the case, the reader is exposed to several literary responses to Beowulf from such universities as Georgetown and Duke. With many other sites, the reader is only provided with the viewpoint of the one site only, but that is not the case with this site. With the structure of this site, I was able to fully understand the poem through the resources of numerous different sources.
With the information age playing such a significant role in schools today, students almost cannot afford to deny the Internet as a resource for comprehension of various subjects. In terms of the full understanding of Beowulf and the time period and culture it pertains to, these three web sites, and the Internet as a whole proved to be a most valuable source for complete comprehension and analysis of the poem.