Grendel In 'A Brief Analysis Of Beowulf'

In the poem he is a monster, fearless and heartless in his attacks on the thanes and geats. He is a terror, and an unstoppable horror until Beowulf comes along. In the movie, Grendel seems unstable and he looks like a mentally unstable monster. He is powerful and strong, but looks timid. In the poem Beowulf goes to collect Grendel’s head from the mothers cave and cuts it off, but in the movie Grendel’s mom cuts the head off herself.

In the beginning of the story the plot stays the same for the most part... other than Beowulf being motivated by other things than glory or pride. When Grendel is killed in the movie they introduce his mother, they don't show her face but they hint to her being very seductive by the way she talks. Grendel’s mom doesn't really seek revenge in the movie but Hrothgar asks Beowulf to kill her because of a prior incident (Grendel is actually Hrothgar's son) with Grendel’s mom. Beowulf obliges and goes to kill G’s mom but when he enter her den he is almost instantly taken away by her beauty, this causes Beowulf to have a lapse in judgement and impregnate G’s mom. This is very different from the book because in the book he kills G’s mom in a battle to the death then cuts the head off of Grendel’s dead body as illustrated “Armless, exactly as that fierce fighter had sent him out from Herot, then struck off His head with a single swift blow”(542). Also after Beowulf was seduced he goes back to Hrothgar and lies to him and the Danes saying that he has killed Grendel’s mother. This is the major plot difference in the movie and the book.

One aspect of Grendel that is alike in both stories is the way he acts. In Grendel the monster kills many people. He does it very brutally too. "Enough of that! A night for tearing heads off, bathing in blood. Except, alas, h has killed his quota for the season. Care, take care of the gold-egg-laying goose! There is no limit to desire but desire's needs." This was Grendel's law. He does not take pity on any human. From his point of view, the humans deserved this and they were going to get it. These actions are the same in Beowulf

Despite Grendel being written in both novels the, he is quite a different character. Their perspectives do share some similarities but also depict some differences between them. Grendel is depicted as a savage monster in Beowulf, while the book likes to show the deeper meaning behind the monster and why he took the actions he did. It truly shows the difference between self-perception, in comparison to the perception of

In both works, Beowulf and Grendel, Grendel himself is generally given the same connotations. He is given kennings, called names, referred to as the evil spawn of Cain, and even viewed as a monster; but why? Why in both books is he a wicked, horrible, person who is harshly excluded from everyone? After stumbling upon John Gardner's book, it was halfway expected that some excuse would be made for Grendel; that he wasn't really the inexorable monster the thanes in Beowulf portrayed him as. But all it really did was make him worse. What is the message we are being sent about Grendel?

Grendel immediately cleared the fortified route to the Herot with gigantic métier and brutality. Grendel's strides were clearing. With each step, the animal's tremendous, calloused feet in every practical sense flew, in a consistent movement. "His eyes sparkled in the dimness, seethed with a shocking light". Before any of the troopers had the chance to be awoken, Grendel soaked the life of a Geat. Destroyed like a sensitive bread, the body was drained and altogether ate up. "The plenitude before me is flawless, a grand delicacy, unkept and delightfully vulnerable" Grendel evaluated identifying with his extraordinary fortune.

1. Grendel is a character in who poses more capabilities than a normal human being. The presentation in the novel portrays him as a demon. The novel makes him look like the devil himself is controlling him. The novel has a hero who is Beowulf. Ironically, Grendel also has his own powers and acts which make him seem like a hero although he is not the main hero in the play. He uses his powers and little intelligence to threaten and instill fear in others, such as Danes, so that he can win. Grandel is not absolutely immortal, but his qualities are beyond those of an ordinary human being which makes him be a hero although he does the opposite of what a hero does and Beowulf defeated him.

The plot is where the book and the movie totally differ, they have almost nothing in common. A big plot twist in the movie is when Beowulf goes to kill Grendel’s mother; first of all he did not end up killing her and lies about it. Also in the movie, it shows that Grendel’s mother is just angry about Beowulf killing her son, so she makes him stay and give her a new son by making love to her. Another big plot twist is when Hrothgar kills himself and Beowulf does not return back to his kingdom, and becomes King of Dane Land. But in the book Hrothgar lives and stays king of his land and Wiglaf takes the throne after Beowulf dies; “Take what I leave, Wiglaf, lead my people, help them; my time is

“Beowulf” and Grendel are two tales similar in many ways, yet different from each other. These stories are like a coin; you cannot have one side without the other. Just as the sides of a coin share the same coin, these stories share a similar plot, a setting, and tell of the same events. The sides of a coin also have differences as do “Beowulf” and Grendel. In the case of these two tales this difference is in their respective philosophical views.

Beowulf is portrayed as a hero-figure, though a less-than-ideal leader, since his warrior-like tendencies and habits follow him. Conversely, the movie Beowulf portrays our hero as more of an anti-hero. By its very nature, Beowulf is an epic hero, but I do not think that the movie does not portray him as such a hero compared to the original translation, because it has an entirely different storyline. If anything, the movie portrays Beowulf as a weak person, easily swooned by the beauty of Grendel’s mother. The movie and the book differ in several key ways, including his relationship with the kingdom and his villains. Even though the general plot is the same, when you really take a deep look at the differences, Beowulf’s movie ceases to be a version of Beowulf anymore, but rather an entirely new story about the same person.

Children typically bear some physical resemblance to at least one of their parents. The child may have the same skin color, facial expressions or height as his or her parent. Could this be the same for behavioral traits? Are behavioral traits likewise inherited? Or, are they learned? In other words, do behavioral traits come from nature (inherited) or from nurture (learned)? This question can be applied to “Grendel,” a murderous monster a in the epic poem of “Beowulf,” Was Grendel born a monster? Or, was he raised to be a monster? Or, are his monstrous behaviors a result of both nature and nurture? Descriptions of Grendel from the “Beowulf” poem give evidence that his monstrous behavior was a result of both nature and nurture; a

On the other hand, another difference between the movie and the book is Beowulf lies about killing Grendel’s mother. Instead of killing her, he had sex with her. They had a dragon together. His son was doing harm to people, so he had to kill the dragon. What that does is change the whole theme. He puts more people in danger, including himself. The dragon killed Beowulf. In the movie he fought the dragon under the water instead of Grendel’s mother. In the movie they made him a liar.

     Contrasting points of view in Grendel and Beowulf significantly alter the reader’s perception of religion, good and evil, and the character Grendel. John Gardner’s book, Grendel, is written in first person. The book translated by Burton Raffel, Beowulf, is written in third person.

The story digressed from talking about Grendel to talking about Cain and Abel. Once again, this digression served more than one purpose. “He had dwelt for a time in misery among the banished monsters, Cain’s clan”(104-106). Here we see that Grendel is a descendent of Cain. This biblical reference shows the importance of Christianity to the Anglo Saxon people. “The giants too who strove with God time and again until he gave them their reward”(113-114). They had a strong belief in a God and higher beings, as well, that the reason things happen is because God is sending a message. A theme throughout this digression is good vs. evil or Cain vs. Abel. This digressions theme is not just related to the digression, but to the overall story of Beowulf. Beowulf is the heroic warrior, and Grendel is the malevolent monster. This digression purpose was to show the importance of the Christianity culture and an overall theme of the epic

The major theme that we saw in the movie Beowulf is lies. Lies, always lead you to do bad things. They also make you take bad decisions that can affect you in the future. The problems that we saw in the movie were created by the king and Beowulf lies.