University puts trigger warning on classic texts including Beowulf for ‘violence, blood and monsters’

Students cautioned that ‘there will be monsters’ in epic poem

University puts trigger warning on classic texts including Beowulf for ‘violence, cruelty and monsters’ (Getty Images)

Another university has put trigger warnings on its English literature course, warning students of distressing themes in classic text Beowulf.

The University of Aberdeen has put more than 30 warnings on one literature module called ‘Lost Gods and Hidden Monsters of the Celtic and Germanic Middle Ages’.

The reading on the course are drawn from Gaelic and Norse-Icelandic sagas, poetry and mythography and explores a “wide range of uncanny or supernatural beings,” according to the module description.