The dragon section of Beowulf commences with the theft of “a gem-studded goblet”5 from the dragon’s hoard, an act that gains the thief nothing but provokes the destructive wrath of the dragon. Beowulf takes eleven comrades with him as he goes to meet the dragon in combat, plus the thief, “the one who had started all this strife” and who “was now added as a thirteenth to their number.” Unlike the eleven who had accompanied their lord willingly, the thief was “press-ganged and compelled” to go with them, acting as their unwilling guide to the dragon’s den.
