Grendel Is The Outcast In Beowulf

In the poem, Grendel is painted as a savage monster, with no regard to human life. The Danes often refer to him as Cain’s descendant, and state that for the crime of killing Abel Grendel will never feel God’s love and henceforth is an outcast. “...Conceived by a pair of those monsters born Of Cain, murderous creatures banished By God, punished forever for the crime Of Abel’s death….and their exile was bitter, Shut away from men…” (Beowulf, lines 20-25). This form of Grendel is a murderous beast who only knows slaughter of men for the sake of murder, stating that he, “...fought with the righteous...seeking no peace, offering no truce…” (Beowulf, lines 59 and 69). However, the novel shows Grendel in a much different way than he is portrayed in the poem. While still a monster, Grendel shows his higher intelligence and human-like qualities through his thoughts. In the beginning of the novel Grendel shows that he is capable of forming coherent thoughts and speaking quite fluently, and thus is far more sophisticated than the mindless monster portrayed in the poem. This being said, Grendel does not hate the Danes at the beginning, even attempting to make peace by stating, “Mercy! Peace!” (Grendel 51), but denied the role of friend, he accepts the role of enemy and thus begins the war with the Danes.

In civilization outcast isolate themselves from society. In the poem Beowulf, the unknown author portrays Grendel as an outcast. This epic poem is about a glorious hero and an ogre named Grendel who raids Herot and kills the king’s warriors which terrorizes the townspeople. Throughout the poem the reasoning behind the evil ways of Grendel are shown in several different ways. However, the main reason being that the unknown author uses Grendel's lair to symbolize how outcast removed from society will become evil.

One of Grendel’s motivations is envy. Grendel envies the men in Herot because he wants to be in there enjoying the party too. In the beginning of Beowulf, Grendel is described as, “A powerful monster, living down/In the darkness, growled in pain, impatient/As day after day the music rang/Loud in that hall, the harps rejoicing” (ll 1-4). Another motivation of Grendel’s is hunger. Whenever Grendel is hungry, he waits until the men in Herot are asleep, and then comes in and eats whoever he sees. No one would challenge

Grendel, the offspring of Cain the outcast, is a demon. He is a scaly creature that lives in a swampy area. He is a reptilian human, with spikes on him. He is a human-like figure, in which the way he stands. He stands on two feet, and has arms. In the book Beowulf removes Grendel’s arm and shoulder, defeating him. This must mean he has a shoulder blade and can walk like a human. He also has razor-sharp talons as it says in the book “Venturing closer, his talon was raised to attack Beowulf where he lay on the bed” (Heaney 51). One night when he is prowling around, he hears the King and his kinsmen singing out to the Lord. He hears the songs of how great God is, and is outraged. As the outcast of God, Grendel despised of God. The songs and happiness, pushes him over the edge. He plans the downfall of the hall, in spite of their songs. He will attack at night, as everyone sleeps, and butcher them dead. He sneaks in at night, watching over the guards, ready to pounce. He rips apart the men eating them alive. “Suddenly then the God-cursed brute was creating havoc: greedy and grim, he grabbed thirty men from their resting place and rushed them to his lair” (Heaney 11). This shows just how When the king awoke the next morning he grieved for his men, but little did he know Grendel would attack every night for 12 winters. Once again Grendel sets of for a night of ravishing, but the king has a plan. He has set out more guards to keep watch over the kingdom, as he sleeps. When Grendel

The story of Beowulf presents characters that fit the archetypal characteristics of the hero and the outcast. Beowulf is the main character in the novel, and he is also seen as the archetypal hero. Additionally, while Grendel and his mother are the known outcasts of the novel, Beowulf, there is an additional character that can be viewed as an outcast. While Beowulf is seen as the hero throughout the entirety of the novel, he can also be seen as an outcast. There are numerous qualities and characteristics that Beowulf, Grendel, and Grendel’s mother display that allow them to fit into their designated archetypal categories.

In the novel, Grendel, the sheltered and abnormal creature that is Grendel adopted a solipsistic view and became overwhelmed by the underground world he had grown accustomed to after experiencing an interaction with man for the first time. After years of exposure to solely the underground world, Grendel emerged from his cave and found the real world. Upon his first interaction with man, Grendel had an immediate sensation that "there was something wrong" (21). From the moment Grendel first encountered man there was an installation of a barrier between the two. The clear distance that was created contributed to Grendel's solipsistic view because it caused him to be isolated from this newly found world which led to his belief that the outside world was meaningless

Beowulf took it upon himself and accepted the task of killing Grendel “Heard how Grendel filled nights with horror/And quickly commanded a boat fitted out” (line 111-112). Beowulf heard how Grendel was killing kings Hrothgar men and knew no one could stop him but him and if he did he would be remember forever by them. Beowulf leaves his home to help people he does not even no “The young warrior Beowulf, a nobleman from the land of the Geats, travels to the kingdom of the Danes, where he saves the people of King Hrothgar by slaying the monster Grendel and his mother”. He comes to a land of sacred people and kills not just one beats but two he will forever be remember by them. Even after years Beowulf will still put his life on the line for the fame “In endless battles. I am old, now,/But I will Fight again, seek fame still/If the dragon hiding in his tower dares/to face me” (line 625-628).

Beowulf is a brave warrior. Heroes are supposed to be reliable and always willing to help. They sometimes have to put other before themselves. Beowulf has to make many hard decisions. He came from his homeland to save Hrothgar and his people. The first trial he has is an encounter with is Grendel.

Beowulf’s people describe him as the strongest and he has the Geat's trust; therefore, when he found out about Grendel, Beowulf knew he was capable to fight. This shows that he was a hero of high status and legendary importance. His goal was to “purge all evil from this hall.” (Beowulf 48) and that was what he did. The Geats saw Beowulf as confident and he saw himself like that as well. The gasconade exemplified Beowulf as greedy “they have seen my strength for themselves, have watched me rise from the darkness of war, dripping with my enemies’ blood” (Beowulf 152). The qualities of a hero are noticed in Beowulf throughout his first two battles.

At first the Geats thought that Grendel could not be defeated until Beowulf came along. Grendel was a revenge seeking descendant of Cain. Grendel had been banished from the social groups because of his appearance and relation to Cain. Grendel would be considered the outcast in Beowulf because Grendel would sit outside of Herot, listen, and watch. He would listen to the people's laughter and constant conversation. Grendel would even sit outside and watch the people enjoy their time together in Herot with envy. Grendel was the outcast of the town because of his inability to communicate with the people of Hrothgar and because of his unique

The story of Beowulf is one of a great hero. Beowulf is a very generous person who is always willing to help out when people are in need. Over the course of the story, Beowulf ends up in three major battles: the battle with Grendel, with Grendel’s mother, and with the dragon. All of these battles were different in their style and the way Beowulf approached them was different. Beowulf also had different reasons to participate in each of the battles.

To begin, one of the many ways that Beowulf was different than Grendel is that Beowulf was brave. Every night Grendel snuck into Herot Hall to destroy King Hrothgar’s men. He did this while hiding in the shadows, sneaking around in the dead of night, and attacking while the men we asleep and at there most vulnerable. These are not the characteristics the brave, these are the characteristics of a foul, loathsome, cowardly beast. Mean while, Beowulf liked to meet a problem head on, in this case the problem was Grendel himself. Determined Beowulf sailed to Denmark to defeat Grendel, telling Hrothgar that he will take Grendel’s life with his bare hands. As told in the story, “ That mighty protector of men/ Meant to hold the monster till it’s life/ leaped out” (Raffel, 1963, l. 366-368). And when Beowulf got the chance to do just that, Grendel took the cowards road, “Grendel’s one thought

Beowulf is a hero because of his actions in the novel. Heroic traits includes determination, physical strength, courage, loyalty, and leadership, which Beowulf demonstrated throughout the story. A quote from Beowulf shows an example of his determination, “…Fought with fate against him, with glory/ Denied him. He knew it, but he raised his sword/ And struck at the dragon’s scaly hide,” (Beowulf-Translator). Beowulf realized that there was a chance he would not win the battle, however his determination did not stop him from trying. Another quote from Beowulf shows his courage, “Alone shall fight for me, struggle for life/ Against the monster,” (Beowulf- Translator). Beowulf fought against Grendel without any weapons, just his

Beowulf was a hero not only because of his physical strength, but also for his concern for other people. “The hero must move beyond human limits in order to have the capacity to combat the monstrous forces that threaten the social order;” (Sharma 264) Beowulf has been deemed by most to have superhuman strength, but his superhuman strength alone does not make Beowulf any more a hero than Grendel’s strength makes him a hero. Beowulf rises above the limits of a regular human being

Beowulf was the ideal hero because of all the brave courageous things he did to put the safety and protection of his people first also he was a very fair fighter. Beowulf heard about the attacks Grendel has been committing so Beowulf and his 14 men suited up and traveled to Herot to go and take down the evil Grendel once and for all. When Beowulf and his men arrived at Herot they went into the mead hall and had a feast with the geats and danes. Once the feast was over Beowulf's warriors went to sleep but Beowulf didn't he stayed up waiting for Grendel to come because Beowulf knew that Grendel fights unfairly by attacking at night so Beowulf being the fair fighter he is did not bring a weapon to use because he said ”I have heard that the monster's scorn of men is so great that he needs no weapons and fears none nor will I”(. He isn't using a weapon because he doesn't want to fight unfairly and become a coward. So after waiting a little while Grendel comes up from his cave and goes into the mead hall and eats one of Beowulf's men so Beowulf took action