Figurative Language In Grendel And Beowulf

John Gardner’s Grendel is the retelling of the heroic epic poem Beowulf; however, the viewpoint has shifted. Grendel is told from the viewpoint of one of Beowulf’s antagonists and the titular character of Gardner’s work—Grendel. In Grendel, Gardner humanizes Grendel by emphasizing parallels between Grendel’s life and human life. Through Gardner’s reflection of human feelings, human development, and human flaws in Grendel, this seemingly antagonistic, monstrous character becomes understood and made “human.”

In the Epic Poems Beowulf, by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet, and Grendel written by John Gardner, Grendel, regardless of what he does, has been seen as unsafe to man. Grendel, perceived as treacherous, is just misunderstood and an outcast to society. The back story of Grendel is crucial to the reader’s understanding of Grendel becoming a monster. Grendel’s life experiences of his environment, men and meeting a dragon contribute to the drastic change.

Over time, the individuals within Herot have become aware of the evils and menacing conditions that have sprung from Grendel’s and his mother environment. Unfortunately, Beowulf’s boastful attitude and past war experiences with numerous creatures has led him to undermine dangers of the lair. During Hrothgar’s speech to Beowulf, Hrothgar uses figurative language, vivid imagery, and displeasing syntax to demonstrate how Grendel’s environment is filled with treachery, hellish components, and danger, creating a sense of fear and concern for Beowulf, which will allow him to develop a humble attitude. The poem provides a description on how creatures that possess superior qualities, similar to Beowulf, do not survive in Grendel’s lair. Hrothgar uses distasteful syntax and provides vivid examples to assert how creatures that contain superior characteristics and/or qualities are tarnished by the menacing environment.

John Gardner offers an alternate interpretation of the old english epic “Beowulf” by narrating the experiences of the monster Grendel, after whom the book is named. Grendel conveys himself as a homicidal, ravenous beast, only capable of destruction and chaos. Therefore, one can conclude that Grendel is indeed evil, and that he well deserves the cessation of his existence. However, depending on the philosophical ideologies and the relative perspective one finds self in, they may conclude differently. Nevertheless, the reader may likely to find one’s self both sympathizing with, and scorning Grendel, because, as the 10th century old english monster says, “balance is everything”.

Beowulf is a great piece of Anglo-Saxon literature that can be, and has been, translated in multiple ways. Of the many outstanding translations, two of which are by Burton Raffel and Seamus Heaney, different ways of writing are portrayed. Grendel’s description is written quite differently in both translations. Heaney’s translation is more similar to the Anglo-Saxon style of writing than Raffel’s translation.

2. The poet used distinctive language to differentiate Grendel and Beowulf’s movements. During their battle these differences seem to set them apart in terms of glory. The poet describes Grendel’s movements in a grotesque and stark way. “Grendel came greedily loping,” (line 711) and “… he grabbed and mauled a man on his bench… and gorged on him in lumps,” (lines 740-2) are examples of how the poet uses specific language to describe Grendel’s movement. However the poet describes Beowulf’s movements in an almost glorified way. “… he had

Grendel is a novel dominated by forces of good and evil, religious allusions, heroism, and nature. These themes are the primary go-to’s for thoughts on significant themes in a novel such as this, but one overlooked theme plays a larger role in the context of the novel. The importance and power of language is arguably one of the most significant themes of the novel. This theme is demonstrated within 3 main scenes within the novel including; Grendel’s first encounter with men, The Shaper’s words and effect, and in the battles between Grendel, Unferth, and Beowulf.

After decades of collected prose and literary works, the nature of evil has been reintroduced through bombast and pomposity words, much like those found in Macbeth and Beowulf. These two masterpieces have set the standard not only for dark literature, but also for malevolent characters. While Macbeth and Grendel may have lived hundreds of years apart and do have many differences, both are characterized by evil traits such as naive ambition, rapacious guilt, and genuine immorality. These fatalistic and malicious characters expose that any man, or creature, has the potential to ultimately become an evil and commanding oppressor, completely disregarding the essential qualities of human

Grendel, is thus seen as the descendant of an individual who epitomizes resentment and malice in Beowulf. The author states Grendel lives in exile and is seen as “mankind’s enemy”(Raffel, 22). Grendel is the representation of all that is evil and he is declared to be the “shepherd of evil and the “guardian of crime”(Raffel, 33) by the Danes in Beowulf. The author describes Grendel to be an evil, cruel, apathetic creature who’s pleasure lies in attacking and devouring Hrothgar’s men. The author describes Grendel’s malice by painting a gruesome picture of Grendel’s countless attacks on the mead hall in which he exhibits Grendel as a heartless, greedy, and violent being who mercilessly murders the men at the mead hall by tearing them apart, cutting their body into bits and drinking the blood from their veins. The author describes Grendel’s greed by stating Grendel’s thoughts were as “quick as his greed or his claws”(Raffel, 21). He describes Grendel’s as having eyes that “gleamed in the darkness and burned with a gruesome light”, swift hard claws and great sharp teeth which paints a picture of Grendel’s frightening appearance in the reader’s mind. In contrast to the traditional story of Beowulf, Grendel in John Gardner’s novel, Grendel is not depicted as a monster but as an intelligent creature capable of human thought, feelings and speech. John Gardner portrays Grendel as an outcast

Beowulf: A New Telling by Robert Nye, is the story of a hero that overcomes the evil of Cain by admitting to the evil in himself. This epic novel tells of light and dark or good and evil. They also have many moments of horror, disgust, and hero´s. The author shows the evil in men using monsters and truly evil things. Characters in this book include Skyld Sceffling, Hrothgar, Beowulf, Wealhtheow and Unferth. With all of these people, you see the good and bad within them. I think the moral of the story in this book is, we all have light and dark inside us; but it is the

Kennings and alliteration are utilized to portray a theme of outsiders being evil and dangerous. Grendel, an outcast of society, is angered by a celebration in the king, Hrothgar’s hall. Grendel comes to Hrothgar’s hall every night for twelve years to wreak havoc among the hall and disturb the king. Beowulf comes to the hall with a group of his men to rid of the monster. Grendel comes at night, filled with rage and anger to disrupt the happiness of the hall. A kenning is used to alienate Grendel: “God-cursed Grendel came greedily loping. / The bane of the race of men roamed forth,” (711-712). Anglo-Saxon literature fears the unknown and the dangerous. The kenning of “God-cursed” associates Grendel with being an outcast, by mentioning that Grendel has been outcast

Early in the writing, the use of kennings helps communicate one of the many motifs in the poem: courage. King Hrothgar, ruler of Denmark, builds a meadhall for the Danes. Once the hall is built, loud celebrating commences each night. Soon enough, nearby mythical monster, Grendel, becomes angry with the noise and terrorizes the residents. Grendel’s attacks are described as follows in lines 120-122: “Like a dark

The epic tale of Beowulf was written sometime after his death. In other words, a long time ago during the Anglo-Saxon period. Today, directors in Hollywood did not keep from creating their own rendition of this epic poem As a result, plenty of modern interpretations of Beowulf, such as Sturla Gunnarsson’s Beowulf and Grendel, have been released. Naturally, the cultural values that might be reflected in modern Beowulf renditions will demonstrate a clash with those of the original fifth century Beowulf literature. One reason for this is that in the modern age we value characters with profound characteristics, characters that change due to the challenges they experience; characters that we as the audience can attach to. Flat characters like those of the original Beowulf text are difficult to empathize with since they are not realistic enough for our standards. Due to these differences in culture and values, the Beowulf and Grendel from the original Beowulf text possess definite contrasts when compared with their Beowulf and Grendel counterparts.

The story of Beowulf is a heroic epic, chronicling the distinguished deeds of the great Geatish warrior, Beowulf, who travels across the seas to rid the Danes of the evil monster Grendel, who has been inflicting destruction and terrorizing the kingdom. Beowulf is glorified for his heroic deeds of ridding the land fiendish monsters and stopping the scourge of evil, while the monster, Grendel, is portrayed as a repugnant creature who deserves death for its evil actions. However, many have disagreed with such a simplistic and biased representation of Grendel and his role in the epic poem. John Gardner in his book, Grendel, sets out to change the reader’s perception of Grendel and his role in Beowulf by narrating the story through Grendel’s point of view. John Gardner transforms Grendel, once perceived as an evil fiend in Beowulf, into a lonely but intelligent outcast who is actually quite similar to humans, due to his intelligence capacity for rational thought and his real, and at times irrational emotions. Gardner portrays Grendel as a hurt individual and as a victim of oppression, ostracized from civilization. Although the two works revolve around the same basic plot,, the themes and characters in Beowulf and Grendel are often different and sometimes contradictory.

The poem Beowulf presents the transformation of Beowulf from a brave warrior to an honorable King. The evolution of Beowulf shows how he fulfills his obligations to the warrior’s heroic code and then transcends into a King who loyally protects his Kingdom. Beowulf’s transformation is shown through a progression of three increasingly more difficult conflicts he must overcome- first with Grendel, then Grendel’s mother and finally against the mighty dragon. These three events are seen "as the three agons in the hero 's life"(Chickering 64). Through these adverse events Beowulf will change from brave young warrior to noble King. This paper will examine the manifestation of heroism in the poem