Grendel's Monstrosity

First, Grendel is an angry demon who has been attacking Hrothgar’s Kingdom and hurting the villagers for twelve years. Some people refer Grendel as, “Grim demon”. Beowulf is informed about Grendel destroying the kingdom and hurting innocent people. One night Grendel had struck Beowulf’s men with his brutal strength. After Grendel slaughtered all the men, Beowulf walked up to Grendel tried to grab, but Beowulf grabbed Grendel’s arm and held onto him with a firm grip. Grendel was trying his best to escape Beowulf because of his brute strength. For example, “you could hear Grendel’s claws cracking.” Beowulf through Grendel’s urge to rip Grendel’s whole arm and part of his chest off. Beowulf watched as Grendel died slowly from the amount of blood loss.

In this next quote, Raffel translates the overall fear that Grendel creates and his monsterous persona in this quote. He says, “Till the monster stirred, that demon, Grendel, who haunted the moors …” (Beowulf, p. 49, II. 16-17). This quote explains how Grendel was irritated by the warriors and their loud of praise of the Lord, which led to his vicious attacks.

Through out the story, the reader constantly questions Grendel's actions, for one moment he seems like the horrible creature, as he maims and kills innocents, for no apparent reason, however at other times he knows he must do the right thing, and not be that evil monster. Such as when he rushes the meadhall, and goes after the Queen, Wealtheow, the same woman he that he saw throwing himself at her feet. "I decided to kill her. I firmly committed myself to

Austin Shoemaker English Mrs. Muller THESIS: In the epic Beowulf , Grendel deserves the punishment he receives because of the terror and killing he brings to Herot for twelve winters, therefore revealing that bullies should get the punishment they deserve. As a descendant from cain and a fierce monster grendel destroys everything in his path and finally gets what he deserves.

In the epic of Beowulf, one of the warrior’s biggest adversaries is a creature from the swamp named Grendel. Although the character of Grendel is present for only a short portion in the story of Beowulf, Grendel signifies one of the important messages in the text about humanity. In Beowulf, Grendel is called a ‘monster’. However, if observed closely, analyzing the meaning behind the story, it is easy to see that Grendel is not a typical monster, in fact, it doesn’t seem like he is a monster at all. There is much evidence within the short period of the text where Grendel is present, which indicates he is

To begin, Beowulf has a complex motivation for fighting the monster Grendel. His first motivation is duty which is part of the Anglo-Saxon code he’s obligated to go and kill Grendel. His people told him so go and do it so he does duty comes first and personal choice comes second. On page 47 lines 244-246 Beowulf says, “My people have said, the wisest, most knowing And best of them, that my duty was to go to the Danes’ Great king.”

The story of Beowulf is a heroic epic chronicling the illustrious deeds of the great Geatish warrior Beowulf, who voyages across the seas to rid the Danes of an evil monster, Grendel, who has been wreaking havoc and terrorizing the kingdom. Beowulf is glorified for his heroic deeds of ridding the land of a fiendish monster and halting its scourge of evil while the monster is portrayed as a repugnant creature who deserves to die because of its evil actions. In the epic poem, Beowulf the authors portrays Grendel as a cold-hearted beast who thrives on the pain of others. 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 set out to change the

Grendel is a horrible beast who massacres king Hrothgar’s people, but he does respect his ability to command his people. Hrothgar is an older man who has grown his empire's wealth and its military. He has no eligible successors and so he must maintain his throne until his two sons Unferth and Hrethric are of age. Hrothgar does this with several methods like marriage, ring-giving, and Beowulf. The choices Hrothgar makes is the reason he is seen as good king and that is why Grendel despises him enough to murder.

Grendel killed everyone, as a result of them celebrating. Grendel attacked, while the soldiers were sleep; although he ate the soldiers. Grendel heard about Beowulf, and how Beowulf, was going to kill him, until Beowulf killed Grendel. Grendel upbringing was bad, because his mother was a monster. Grendel didn’t have a good relationship with his father, because of that; Grendel hatred for people grew.

Before the attacks, there were certain conflicts in these characters that led to their eventual hostilities. Some sinful traits that both Grendel and the Dragon possess are the expression of pride and greed. When talking about Grendel, the people of Hrothgar say “If Grendel wins, it will be a gruesome day; he will glut himself on the Geats in the war hall, swoop without fear on the flower of manhood as others on others before” (Lines 442-445). Grendel, if he wins his plight against Hrothgar and the warriors, will glut himself amongst the Geats, and overindulge in devouring humans; a clear example of his unnecessary greed. His sin of pride is seen in how he thinks he will condescend the humans after winning.

"He found them sprawled in sleep, suspecting nothing, their dreams undisturbed. The monster's thoughts were as quick as his greed or his claws." He is said to not have a method to his madness. In Beowulf it seemed that he got pleasure out of killing. Although there are several differences in the way Grendel is described, there are also several things that are the same in both Grendel and Beowulf.

It may be that at one point Grendel was a human much like Beowulf. "Yet, so as to save his life, he left behind his hand, his arm and shoulder" (957-959). He has the appearance of a man and he has a mother, but the humanness of Grendel has disappeared, and what remains is a creature that as the text says, "the Creator had condemned." Instead of saying that Grendel was just a real bad guy, through these descriptions, he has taken on a supernatural or mystical quality. God was even concerned enough to curse Grendel for his atrocities.

Grendel’s killing was unforgivable and someone had to put an end to it. Hrothgar and his army of men could not accomplish this, someone had to come and take care of this problem. Grendel’s attacks were King Hrothgar’s fault for sleeping with the witch and starting this curse, everyone had to pay for the mistake he made. In the world we live in, when someone dares to harm innocent people, that person must be punished. This crime can even lead to death sentence in some states.

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 wants to kill Grendel so he can show other how brave he his, and that he can take any evil monster down. Once Beowulf gets there he brags about to the villagers about how he killed many sea monsters on his way to Heorot, so that the villagers can feel confident that Beowulf