Beowulf

Isolation from society will drive anyone to seek a purpose for living. In Grendel by Jack Gardner, purpose is the purpose behind Grendel’s violent behavior. The novel follows Beowulf’s antagonist’s trials through three phases of his life. In each phase, Grendel learns a valuable lesson about life. Having already lost his will to live, Grendel suffers from isolation in his violent pursuit for meaning. Grendel is a monster who is a distant descendant of the Biblical Cain, the first person to commit homicide, according to the book of Genesis. The shared history between Grendel and humanity only serves to place both into permanent hostility, not to unite the two. Grendel thinks like a human, but has the innate instincts of an animal. He lacks the capability to act above his primitive instincts. Grendel’s existential crisis and his isolation from society drove him to seek for a meaning in life, even if it means he would die a villain.

Imagine a slimy swamp like place where only the most horrid monsters with the most disgusting features live, this is the fen. Now imagine A wonderful bright beautiful hall that’s almost castle like, these are the two elements of the story Beowulf a New Telling.

Beowulf is an old Anglo-Saxon story of a terrifying monster Grendel, Grendel travels to the Danes mead hall Heorot and while the danes expect it least he attacks killing countless men purely for the joys of doing so. Hrothgar king of the Danes calls for a warrior to fight this unruly beast. After 12 long years of grendel attacking Hrothgar's calls are answered and the great warrior Beowulf comes to kill Grendel. Beowulf travels to the land of the Danes from across the seas and in the first night he kills Grendel. Sadly for Beowulf Grendel has a mother that now seeks revenge for her son's death and Beowulf is asked to kill Grendel’s mother as well. Beowulf goes to where Grendel’s mother is staying and battled her to the death , Beowulf wins

“[Grendel’s] mother had sallied forth on a savage journey,/ grief-racked and ravenous, desperate for revenge” (Beowulf, 1276-1278). Her desire to avenge her son is carried out, but it ultimately leads to her death. Beowulf’s desire to garner fame and respect overpowers all of the raw emotion and anger felt by Grendel’s mother. She serves the purpose of showing the purest form of revenge, and how its blindness can lead to one’s demise.

It foreshadows his victory of pursuit which he aims to carry out in battle. Beowulf stands against evil as contained with destruction and revenge of the monsters, trolls, or giants. Grendel's mom is a threat to Beowulf because she is the queen of the sea and she´ś angry. Her wish is her dying son with his ripped off arm taken off by the monster slayer, Beowulf.

When Grendel's mother arrives to torment the Danes, seeking vengeance for her son’s death, Beowulf’s fight with Grendel's mother

The Old English epic Beowulf is the earliest recorded poem in Old English. The story is set in Scandinavia with the antagonist Grendel. Gendel is a monster and an insensitive character. Grendel was born into a monster and was cursed his entire life. Although Grendel was strong he wasn’t very brave because he only attacks at night when the guards are asleep. He has many characteristics that a monster would have. First and foremost, he was raised to be evil, and never had the chance to be good. Also whenever he would hear joy, he would be filled with anger and hatred. Grendel likes killing people he doesn’t feel any remorse after killing people. An example from the story that shows this is “Snatched up thirty men, smashed them unknowing in their beds and out with their bodies (Genesis,pg 4).”Talking about Grendel ties in with our next evil antagonist known as Cain. Cain is the son of Adam and Eve. He was a farmer who was jealous of his brother who was accepted by God and when Cain was rejected he decided to kill his brother Abel. Unlike Grendel Cain believed in god he just didn’t

In Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf, Grendel is nothing but an evil fiend that needs to be slain, “a fiend out of hell, began to work his evil in the world” (Heaney 9). Grendel is portrayed as an evil monster that has only been wreaking havoc and terrorizing a kingdom for an extended amount of time because it thrives on the pain of others. Seamus states, “Malignant by nature, he never showed remorse” (Heaney 10). Grendel is made out to appear as little more than a monster, “insensible to pain and human sorrow” (Heaney 11). He is portrayed to have little to no human qualities, to be the furthest thing from

Revenge motivates many plots in the poem but the greatest one would be of Grendel’s mother. Her loyalty and love for her son helped her during her battle. I still feel like she did no wrong when it came to trying to kill Beowulf. The anger and pain he caused her was worth his death. If the tables were turned Beowulf would have tried to kill her for killing his significant other or

Years pass by, during which Beowulf becomes king of Geatland, before his third and final battle ensues. In this circumstance, it is a dragon that had to be defeated for his own peoples ' safety to be ensured in later years. Beowulf chose a special few from his court to assist him in the extermination of the dragon, though he did not expect to need their assistance. As Beowulf and his party approached the dragon 's lair, he bellowed an enormous roar to awaken the great ravager. The dragon, overcome with anger, swooped down upon and assaulted Beowulf. Beowulf fought with sword and shield in hand, the dragon with the flames spurting from his mouth. The longer the battle went on, the more apparent it seemed this would be Beowulf 's last moments upon the earth, the dragon seemed to be too much for that great man.

From all of this, the only real explanation for his war on the Danes is this: Grendel is pure evil. “So Hrothgar 's men lived happy in his hall till the monster stirred, that demon, that fiend, Grendel, who haunted the moors” (Beowulf 1: Line 15). Hrothgar 's men, firstly, provoked Grendel simply by being happy. Any demon such as Grendel hates happiness and wants nothing but to steal, kill, and destroy that happiness in someone 's life. Throughout Beowulf, Grendel is called many names, and demon, monster, and fiend are the most frequent. It is no wonder he loved killing. Grendel was born into evil, said to be a descendant of Cain, the world 's first murderer. Grendel 's mother was evil herself, being a sea serpent who did not stray from indulging in evil either. One the fact of Grendel being evil, one piece of evidence stands above them all. “Killing as often as he could, coming alone, bloodthirsty, and horrible. Though he lived in Herot, when the night hid him, he never dared to touch King Hrothgar 's glorious throne; protected by God” (Beowulf 2: Line 80). God is good, and He will always triumph. Grendel knew he could not match the power of God, who loved Hrothgar 's throne. If Grendel were to

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 begins with a conflict that symbolizes the hostility of nature, Grendel’s acts of terror are

Similarly, Grendel in Beowulf was also a creature that was horrific in nature – full of destruction. The contempt towards festivities and joyous music may have derived from the isolation Grendel experiences. After all, he was described as one who is part of “Cain’s clan, whom the creator had outlawed and condemned as outcasts” (9). There was the same reaction of bitterness present in Grendel as in Frankenstein’s creature: both were castaways which led them to be emotionally-driven in anger. Because of his resentment, “the God-cursed brute was creating havoc: greedy and grim, he grabbed thirty men from their resting places and rushed to his lair…blundering back with the butchered corpses” (11). Grendel is nothing more than a misunderstood creature. Having hurt feelings, he too resembles a human being; any person who faces seclusion from his or her friends, family, or society as a whole would be full of frustration, sorrow, anger, and loneliness. This negative response towards emptiness brings out the inner monster in us.

The narrator of “Beowulf” introduces us to the monster that is Grendel in the very first lines of the poem. The speaker describes “a fiend from hell” and speaks of “a cursed creature” whom God has condemned as he is “the kin of Cain”. Grendel’s description immediately aligns him with sin and the darkness of human nature found in the old biblical tale. As the poem goes on Grendel attacks Hrothgar’s hall because of the singing of praise to God. Grendel cannot bear to hear the praise as he is said to “live in the land of monsters since the Creator cast them out” (pg. 39).