In "Eaters of the Dead", Michael Chrichton's fictionally-historicized retelling of Beowulf, it's speculated the monsters are a relic Neandertal tribe. It's a mi

In "Eaters of the Dead", Michael Chrichton's fictionally-historicized retelling of Beowulf, it's speculated the monsters are a relic Neandertal tribe. It's a minor point in the novel, but it stuck with me (and has become much more scientifically plausible since the 1970s when he was writing), so I always think of Beowulf as being about Neandertals.