“Beowulf” is a heroic poem that describes a story about a warrior named “Beowulf”. Beowulf is an aid to the King of Hrothgar, whose kingdom is being destroyed by a monster named “Grendel”. Beowulf uses his strength and skills to kill Grendel and Grendel’s mother. With doing this successfully Beowulf becomes the King of the Geats.

After fifty years of ruling the land of Geats, a dangerous dragon comes and poses a threat to Beowulf’s land. He sets off to successfully defeat it but dies in the process. This is why this poem is described as “heroic”, Beowulf died defending his land and honor.

Moreover, the definition of Metonymy is a phrase that is replaced with something closely related to it. As the reader we see a lot of this done in the Beowulf poem. For example, “That shadow of death hunted in the darkness,” (Grendel 74). Two words stick out, shadow and darkness. As we know Grendel was the vicious monster who was killed by Beowulf, this makes him become the “shadow of death” and how its hunted in the “darkness” or night time in which we know that Grendel lives for the darkness.

Another example of Metonymy is how the author described the word “iron” to mean “sword”. This figure of speech is useful thought the whole poem because it allows readers to associate the name of one thing for the name of another thing that relates to each other. It gives the poem a different depth to it.

One last example of Metonymy that I will mention in the poem of “Beowulf” is in the way the author describes the ship and its parts. “Their ocean-keel boarding,” (Grendel 62). We can associate the term “ocean-keel” to refer to the entire ship.

In conclusion, Metonymy is used a fair amount of time in the heroic poem. It helps the reader understand and associate words to their liking and understanding.