Grendel's Poem 'Free Will In Beowulf'

In the Epic Poems Beowulf, by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet, and Grendel written by John Gardner, Grendel, regardless of what he does, has been seen as unsafe to man. Grendel, perceived as treacherous, is just misunderstood and an outcast to society. The back story of Grendel is crucial to the reader’s understanding of Grendel becoming a monster. Grendel’s life experiences of his environment, men and meeting a dragon contribute to the drastic change.

The purpose of the vows/promises in this poem is to show that that whoever is making the vow is a courageous and glorified man. This poem is said to display a code of honor and action. During these times people believed that fate or Wryd controlled their futures, so if a man made promise

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?

deciphered. Beowulf being pure good, and Grendel being pure evil. One of the reasons of

Beowulf has shown many characteristics of a hero. Where as Grendel has shown characteristics of being an outcast. The role of the hero in Beowulf was portrayed by Beowulf himself. Beowulf was the leader and took on three quests for the people. Most heros would need some form of preparation before they complete quests, but Beowulf on the other hand did not need any. Beowulf had a calling when he was leader. These callings were the three quests that Beowulf needed to complete for the greater good of Hrothgar’s people, defeating Grendel, defeating Grendel’s mother, and attempting to slay the dragon that had burned the houses and land of the Geats’.

most and hopes that God is with him even though he doesn’t have to do

“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.

There are many similarities and differences between the movie "Beowulf and Grendel", to the poem. Major differences between the movie and the poem would be Grendel himself. In the poem, he is described as an evil monster born from two demons. In the movie, Grendel is actually human, but known as a troll to the warriors and Danes. The poem doesn’t give the background of Grendel or show how the Danes killed his father and the possible reason of his revenge, like in the movie. If the witch, Selma, was not included in the storyline of the movie, the audience would not have known key information that she was used to show from more flashbacks. The witch gives more of an idea about Grendel’s past life that could have been the possibility to

I believe that some things are fate and some are free will. This means everything has a small mixture of both. Grendel, in my eyes, has accepted the fact that he is bad because he is a descendant of Cain. This does not have to be the fate of Grendel, but because he has believed that he is a bad for so long it is now his fate. Beowulf on the other hand has an abundance of free will. He chose to fight Grendel knowing it would be a hard battle. He could have let the fate of Grendel killing the townsmen erupt, but instead he took the problem into his own hands. Although I do believe Beowulf is dealing with free will, I believe his armour was put on him by fate. Beowulf was protected enough to save the town. His armour was fate, but his

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

Yet, what remained a mystery is the way he wanted to fight and defeat the monster. He decided to fight him with bare hands as he left his destiny up to fate. Hence, a reference to one

In the book Grendel, Grendel’s last words were “Poor Grendel’s had an accident, So may you all” (Grendel 174). He tells everyone this as a curse for watching him die. He feels like they deserve to be cursed for being so cruel to him even though he was never so cruel to them. To begin with, Grendel tells the reader, “they watch on, evil, incredibly stupid, enjoying my destruction” (Grendel 174).

This is the story of me Grendel and I am going to tell you how I died. I am a man-like ogre who likes to terrorize people. One day I was hunting through the swamplands. When I heard that the king wanted to kill me because I had been terrorizing his people and killing them. So I decided to go to the great mead-hall were king Hrothgar of Denmark lived to kill him that way I would become king. The king found out and ordered his warriors to kill me. They were all terrorized because they knew I had killed many Danes and no one dared to go near me. Eventually a young warrior named Beowulf hears that the king wants to kill me. He decides to help him, Beowulf comes to Denmark with a few men determined to kill me. He gets there; talks to the king and

Beowulf. Beowulf killed Grendel and then he would have to kill Grendel’s mother who was

The book Grendel, written by John Gardner, and the poem Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney, both have very distinct opinions on what role each character plays. The translator of Beowulf and the writer of Grendel follow the idea that everyone has a story. A story is the writer’s perspective on a character’s personality, the way people in the story see and treat the character, and the way it ties the ideas together. There are many examples in these two writings of this concept, but the main instances connect with the lives of Grendel, Beowulf, and Unferth.