Revenge In Beowulf Research Paper

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

Revenge causes many of the acts of characters in Beowulf. It is a prominent theme throughout the book. Most of the acts revenge causes are battles between two characters, resulting in a death. These events include Grendel attacking Heorot, Beowulf killing Grendel, Grendel’s mother killing Aschere, and Beowulf attacking Grendel’s mother. Revenge in Beowulf helps provide context for the fighting and killing throughout the book.

Beowulf’s wrath is swift and justified. He plays no games with his opponents. Beowulf even shows respect to his foe and honorably faces them with no undue advantage. A classic example of the honor usually associated with heroes lies in Beowulf’s decision to use neither sword nor armor when facing the monster Grendel in Heorot. Beowulf instead opted, in the name of fair play, to fight the monster on it’s own terms. Unsurprisingly Beowulf conquered his foe in true idolic form, tearing Grendel’s arm from his torso with only the strength of his grip and the power of his arms. This is what we cheer for in such stories, this is the satisfying victory over evil by the true embodiment of good: the hero.

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

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.

The embodiment of envy. In the epic poem Beowulf, Grendel exemplifies envy therefore he is discontent with the happiness of others. The infusion of Biblical ideas helps form Grendel's character. As a relative of Cain, the first person recorded in the Christian Bible to murder another, Grendel is perceived as a monster. “On the kindred of Cain the Lord living ever awreak’d the murder of the slaying of Abel. In that feud he rejoiced not, but afar him he banish’d, the maker, from mankind for the crime he had wrought,” (108-111). Since Grendel’s ancestor is Cain, Grendel has been banished from the earth. Making Grendel a hell born creature with human emotions and instincts. With Grendel comes the allusion of Cain killing Abel given the time period. Grendel kills the celebratory warriors of Herot because they exuded happiness. Cain killed Abel because he felt God gave Abel more attention. Grendel’s emotions brought him to envy, so he, like his ancestor before him, killed another. Unlike Cain, Grendel killed thirty men every night for twelve years, devolving his monstrous character into an immoral character.

Anglo-Saxon also deemed it acceptable to extract a man-price for a person's death. The price could be paid for with the life of a person or even treasure. One of the first acts of revenge occurs when Grendel dies. His mother, the "She-Wolf," becomes enraged when she learns of her son's death and is drove "from her den on the/dangerous/Pathway of revenge," (l. 1277-1297, 63). In response to her son's death, she murders King Hrothgar's closest companion. When the king learns of his friend's death, he pleads with Beowulf to hunt the "she-wolf" down and kill her, and if Beowulf succeeds, he will receive an reward of "heaped-up ancient treasure," (l. 1381, 66). Beowulf takes revenge on the monster and kills her. Later in the poem, revenge once again surfaces in the Finn digression. Finn is a past ruler who attacks the Danish people, proceeding to kill most of the Danish tribe. After slaughtering many of the Danish tribe, Finn offers peace to Hengest,

In today’s society, we see violence as a way to cope with all types problems. Humans have used violence as a way to resolve issues since ancient times. The poem “Beowulf” was written between the eighth and eleventh century by an anonymous author. The poem recounts the story of a brave warrior, named Beowulf, who battles three great monsters. Two of the monsters, Grendel and Grendel’s Mother, terrorize the people of Daneland and the third monster, the Dragon, lives in Beowulf's homeland. The epic poem “Beowulf” illustrates and normalizes the idea of violence within the Pagan Warrior Culture.

Vengeance is an important value that causes misfortune in the story of Beowulf. It brings not only Beowulf, but many others, fame and glory, plus, wealth as well. It is not a sustainable value for it brings everyone in the story only destruction. The tribes that have been bonded together by this value get destroyed but it. The value of courage is tied into the story since almost the entire story is based on vengeance.

The oldest of the great lengthy poems written in English and perhaps the lone survivor of a genre of Anglo-Saxon epics, Beowulf, was written by an unknown Christian author at a date that is only estimated.  Even so, it is a remarkable narrative story in which the poet reinvigorates the heroic language, style, and values of Germanic oral poetry.  He intertwines a number of themes including good and evil, youth and old age, paganism and Christianity and the heroic ideal code, into his principal narrative and numerous digressions and episodes; all of which were extremely important to his audience at the time.  Vengeance, part of the heroic code, was regarded differently by the two distinct religions.

The story of Cain, and the murderous rage he inflicts on his brother Abel is one that many remember because of the curse Cain receives from God. After lying to God about killing his brother, Cain can no longer live a fruitful and successful life. He and his descendants are cursed to misery and torment for his transgression. Grendel, one of the unfortunate descendants of Cain, is a prime example of biblical allusion in Beowulf. “He was spawned in that slime, / Conceived by a pair of those monsters born / Of Cain, murderous creatures banished / By God, punished forever for the crime / Of Abel’s death” (19-23). This description of Grendel attaches a stigma to him without giving him any real characteristics. Before he has even

“[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.

Throughout the book Beowulf by Seamus Heaney there were many instances of revenge demonstrated by different characters. An example of when a character tries to get revenge is when Grendel’s mother comes to fight Beowulf. Grendel’s mother shows up to fight Beowulf since Beowulf had previously killer her son in battle. Another example of when a character exacts revenge is when Grendel comes to fight Hero and his people. Grendel wants revenge because he strongly dislikes Heorot and the cultural practices of the Danes. Next, at the end of the book the dragon attacks due to an accidental theft of a treasure that was the dragon’s. In the poem Beowulf, which was written, by Seamus Heaney, it is human nature to demonstrate the concept of revenge which was shown by Grendel, Grendel’s mother, the dragon, and Beowulf.

Though Beowulf was god-like and he was able to be successful when faced with decisions and adversity, he eventually succumbed to the destructive forces of nature and threw his nation into conflict. As aforementioned, Beowulf’s battle with the dragon depicts unpreventable death and destruction that afflicts everybody, his last battle also symbolizes that even the most seemingly perfect people are chained to hostile acts of nature and fate. Beowulf’s death is not a product of pride, it was a result of his altruistic nature to do good, however, his death forecasts war in his country as described by Wiglaf when ordering a messenger to tell the Geats of Beowulf’s death, “And this people can expect fighting, once/ The Franks, and the Frisians, have heard that our king/ Lies dead.” (Beowulf 2910-2913). Beowulf’s main purpose was to do good, and though killing the dragon was an act of goodness, he traded in his life for an act of good, however his death brought the large possibility of war to his

The first character did revenge is Beowulf.Beowulf begins with the story of Hrothgar and his warriors are living in the Heorot. Grendel attacks the hall and kills and devours many of Hrothgar's