Beowulf Response To Grendel's Cave

There are two sides to every story. The events may be the same, but the tone in which the story is told shapes the reader’s understanding of the events. This idea is never more evident than through the disparity between Burton Raffel’s translation of Beowulf and John Gardner’s Grendel. Both novels are based on the idea of Beowulf killing Grendel. However, the two different points of view telling the story create vastly different novels. Beowulf highlights the heroic and positive world in which Beowulf lives. Whereas Grendel elucidates on the miserable life that Grendel is circumscribed to. The consistent variance in tone skews the events in two completely different directions. The tone between Beowulf and Grendel differ in

Beowulf proclaims “In the blackness of night, hunting monsters out of the ocean, and killing them one by one; death was my errand and the fate they had earned. Now Grendel and I are called together” (liens 156-160). Beowulf claims that he must go to defeat Grendel, as it was his errand, or his duty, and his fate. This speech he makes to King Hrothgar reinforces his true reason to come to the King, not for any pride. Another vow Beowulf makes is when he says “That this is one favor you should not refuse me—That I, alone and with the help of my men, many purge all evil form this hall” (lines 163-166). In this line, Beowulf is pleading for the King to do one thing, which is to give him the permission for him and his men to go and fight Grendel, what Beowulf had arrived for. The fact that Beowulf asks the king for only one thing, which is to fight Grendel, shows Beowulf’s selflessness and concern for the safety of others. At no part does he ask for a reward, but even says that if fate is in favor of Grendel to give his armor back to his family. These words help paint the image of Beowulf being concerned for others, not for his

Telling his men that he does not need them to fight Grendel is a way he shows off his pride and keeping his honor. He does not seem to be full of himself because he does defeat the monster with his bare hands, he even rips the arm off of Grendel. This shows me that Beowulf is slowly taking Grendel's pride and honor of being a fierce creature that everyone fears and does not want to mess with, to just a play toy to Beowulf that he can just rip his arm off. This major battle with this horrible monster took place in his home which is a cave, being destroyed on your own land just strips the pride and honor from you. Going to todays world with the example of the Firefighter, when a firefighter is in full official uniform people around the room gain a great respect for that person which the firefighter will feel great honor and pride inside of him and does express it like how Beowulf did destroy a monster with his bare hands. Having pride and honor just feels good and being respectable adds more to the job than anything. Firefighters create great honor in their workforce and in this world, heading into burning buildings that can fall down at any moment to save a life.

Everyone has a motivation behind their actions. Motivation can be affected by emotion or willpower. Many people get their motivation from what they want to accomplish. There is reasons for motivation behind actions in books, poems, and in everyday life. In the epic Beowulf, Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon all have a broad variety of motivations for what they do.

He struggles with the thought of being denied and offbeat. He uses violence as a way to wrestle with his feelings. The violence starts when Grendel goes to the Meadhall and kills thirty men on the first night. He says, “I was Grendel, Ruiner of Meadhalls, Wrecker of Kings! But also, as never before, I was alone” (Gardner 80). His main goal was to destroy the Meadhall and all of King Hrothgar’s people. Grendel now feels like he has power and this helps him feel better, but he also hints at the fact that he is still feeling lonely and hopeless. Therefore, he decided to cause more havoc and kill more people to help him deal with the pain. When Grendel hears some men who seem to be happy and having fun, he wishes that he was able to be happy like them. He wants to fill a void of emptiness. This motivates him to keep performing numerous attacks on the Meadhall. The violence and problems he causes lasts for twelve years until Beowulf rips his arm off. Grendel just wants to be able to communicate with someone and feel accepted. He says, "Why can't I have someone to talk to? The Shaper has people to talk to, I said. I wrung my fingers. Hrothgar has people to talk to” (Gardner 53). If he had someone who accepted him and was able to understand him, he may not have felt that he needed to perform his attacks as a way to try to lessen his pain. There would not have been twelve years of

In Grendel, the story is told from Grendel's point of view. Therefore he is not viewed as a killing machine. In Beowulf however, it is the exact opposite. Grendel is seen as a monster who is terrorizing Hrothgar's people. The way Grendel is portrayed in Grendel is different from the way he is portrayed in Beowulf regarding his initiative and purpose. Grendel is portrayed the same in both stories when it comes to his actions and his nature.

In “The Battle with Grendel” we also see how Beowulf can be violent. For example, lines 385-397 demonstrates how powerful Beowulf is while fighting Grendel. The quote says, “Grendel/ Saw that his strength was deserting him, his claws/ Bound fast, Higlac’s brave follower tearing at/ His hands. The monster’s hatred rose higher,/ But his power had gone. He twisted in pain,/ And the bleeding sinews deep in his shoulder/ Snapped, muscle and bone split/ And broke….Grendel escaped,/ But wounded as he was could flee to his den,/His miserable hole at the bottom of the marsh,/ Only to die, to wait for the end/ Of all his days” (385-397). This moment in the text shows how intense and extreme Beowulf’s actions were while fighting the monster. We, as readers, start to see how Beowulf slowly becomes who he is trying to defeat.

Grendel was most likely on high alert before killing those few men, but after he was relaxed and just enjoying another senseless night of killing. Beowulf’s waiting for Grendel to relax gave him a key advantage in their fight. Equally important, waiting for Grendel to kill some of his men allowed Beowulf the chance to see how Grendel operated. As a result, Beowulf gained another advantage in this fight.

There have been anti-war protests because people are not so sure who the bad guy is. In Beowulf, I felt that same idea. Even though Grendel is doing bad things, I don’t think that he is so different from the humans. He is killing people for his own reasons, which is the same attitude I saw in Beowulf. Grendel is jealous of the humans and his inability to be like them causes him to kill those same people he envies. Murders are acts of revenge in some cases in the story such as the death of Aeschere by Grendel’s mother for her son’s death. Killing occurs in the story for very simple or petty motives.

When Beowulf hears about Grendel, he feels that it is his duty to stop Grendel from killing anymore, Beowulf leaves to go to Herot to destroy him. Beowulf is mostly being applaud for his long journey to face this terrible monster. Beowulf says, “Grendel is no braver, no stronger than I am! I could kill him with my sword: I shall not” (line 677). Beowulf feels

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.”

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

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

Throughout “Beowulf”, Beowulf decides to go on an adventure to the Danish islands and help out the Danes in a battle of good versus evil. The reason of Beowulf’s journey was to end the reign of terror of Grendel, a monster who lives under Herot and massacres individuals. In the poem Beowulf states to King Hrothgar, “‘…Now Grendel and are called/ Together, and I have come…That I, alone and with the help of my men,/ May purge all evil from this hall,” (Beowulf 254-261). This quotation explains that Beowulf wants to rid the world of evil and help the Danes defeat what has been preying on their men and inflicting terror upon a civilization. Also, Beowulf

The character Beowulf embodied the Pagan heroic code (comitatus), but he also exhibited Christian values. Overall, he was a warrior and a hero who sought fame and reputation. Most of his actions were motivated by his desire to be remembered after his death as a courageous and loyal warrior. When Beowulf hears about Hrothgar’s trouble he goes to help him. He wants to help him for a few reasons, all of which relate to the comitatus. He wants to acquire fame and he wants lifelong honor. By beating Grendel he would receive honor and his reputation would be enhanced. Also, Beowulf wants to repay Hrothgar for settling a feud for his father years before. Beowulf is willing to do battle for the old king even though it means that he could die.