How Did Grendel Change 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.

Both of the pieces of literature, Grendel and Beowulf, contain the same story; it is just told from different viewpoints. Beowulf is an epic oratorical poem depicting the heroic Beowulf defeating the hideous creature that haunts the halls of Herot. Grendel, however, allows the reader to be able to experience the story from Grendel’s point of view. Though the books depict the same creature who possesses the same qualities, within Grendel, he is given more human characteristics and this makes the reader feel as though they are reading about a different being.

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.

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

The story of Beowulf is a heroic epic, chronicling the distinguished deeds of the great Geatish warrior, Beowulf, who travels across the seas to rid the Danes of the evil monster Grendel, who has been inflicting destruction and terrorizing the kingdom. Beowulf is glorified for his heroic deeds of ridding the land fiendish monsters and stopping the scourge of evil, while the monster, Grendel, is portrayed as a repugnant creature who deserves death for its evil actions. However, 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, sets out to change the reader’s perception of Grendel and his role in Beowulf by narrating the story through Grendel’s point of view. John Gardner transforms Grendel, once perceived as an evil fiend in Beowulf, into a lonely but intelligent outcast who is actually quite similar to humans, due to his intelligence capacity for rational thought and his real, and at times irrational emotions. Gardner portrays Grendel as a hurt individual and as a victim of oppression, ostracized from civilization. Although the two works revolve around the same basic plot,, the themes and characters in Beowulf and Grendel are often different and sometimes contradictory.

The poem does not give this insight of what happens before, or from Grendel's point of view. Seeing this scene in the movie gives the audience a better understanding of why Grendel and also his mother attack the Danes. Later in the movie Beowulf says, "He's no more human than you and I", which is true. If the Danes didn’t kill Grendel's father, the outcome of the story could have possibly been changed because Grendel would have had a different life and not seek revenge on the Danes, specifically the one who Grendel had seen kill his father. In the poem Grendel fights Beowulf, rather than avoiding Beowulf most of the time in the movie. In the poem, Grendel is seen as an evil monster that kills and eats the Hrothgar warriors and cannot be penetrated by weapons, rather than just human, or troll, like the movie. When the battle with Grendel occurs in the poem, it is said that Beowulf had cut off his arm to defeat him. While in the movie, Grendel finds himself stuck hanging, and must cut off his own arm to escape from Beowulf and his men. Both the movie and poem result in the death of Grendel, eventually leading to the revenge of his mother.

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

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

Grendel is very faithful to his mother, he trusts her all the time. Whenever he is in a dangerous situation or he feels pain he will scream out “Mama, Mama”(Gardner 173). “A shriek ten times as loud as mine came blaring off the cliff...It was my mother!...She came roaring down like thunder”(Gardner 27). It is not just a call sometimes it will come in handy and she will save him.

In both John Gardner’s novel Grendel, and the Epic Beowulf, there is one recurring major character, Grendel. While the same in name, Grendel is illustrated in different lights between the two texts. The character exemplifies some of the same traits between the two texts, but is also shown to have some major differences.

Consequently, Grendel’s mother was furious once she found out her son had been killed. She blamed Hrothgar and the entire village, but she later found out Beowulf slaughtered Grendel. For example, “Grendel’s mother sad heart, and her greed drove her from her den on the dangerous path of revenge. When Grendel’s mother was coming up with a plan she thought about taking Grendel’s head back so Beowulf could get credit for killing him. It was too late for Grendel’s mother, she already made her decision, she wanted to kill Beowulf too. Hrothgar

In addition, Grendel’s mother plays a big role in the novel and the relationship between Grendel and her seems complicated. In Grendel, Grendel calls his mother mean names such as fat, but Grendel does love his mother. The only reason why he can not show her any affection, she does not speak the same language he does. This explains why she stared into his soul at often times because it was her way of showing him affection. She would also do things like smother him in her and although he did not like it, he took it because he knew this was one of her few ways of showing him she loved him.

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.

Our first character, Grendel, is an exceptionally diverse character. It is implied that in both book and poem, Grendel is a blood-thirsty monster. All Grendel does is go through