Similarities Between Grendel And Beowulf

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

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.

To honor the Beowulf’s heroic life and battles, I’ve been assigned as one of his closest warriors to exclaim his appellation and share the stories of his battles. One of the citizen came up to me and asked, “I heard that Beowulf was an amazing guy, but I never fully knew him. Could you tell me more about him?” I was extremely excited as this man was the first person to ever ask me about Beowulf. “Beowulf was a strong leader and a great friend. Although he might not have been a very humble man, he was nowhere near being a bully. He’s the type of man that would belittle anyone who hurts the weak and innocent. Beowulf was mettlesome and was never intimidated by any menace.” The man’s eyes were already widen. “He sounds like a guy I would wanna be protected by,” the citizen said, “Can you tell me about one of his battles?” I prepared myself as I was about to begin a long lecture of how strong Beowulf was.

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

Perspective plays one of the most important roles in literature due to the drastic shifts between the meaning of who is the real antagonist, profoundly portrayed in the epic Beowulf and the novel Grendel. The first major piece of English literature, Beowulf, was narrated through the perspective of the poet, experiencing his surroundings by following Beowulf’s adventures in the third person. Beowulf signifies the heroic code as the reader is provided with little background and history on Grendel, as well as a small scale of information for Grendel’s motivation. The modern novel Grendel shifts the point of view to a new rendition of Grendel, which also shifts the focus of the story from the battles to the relationships of characters and their philosophy. The third-person perspective of the epic Beowulf and the first-person perspective of the novel Grendel both serve as a lens through which the reader sees two drastically different interpretations of the same story. In Beowulf, the titular Beowulf is the hero and protagonist while in Grendel, the traditional antagonist, Grendel, is the protagonist and Beowulf is the antagonist.

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.

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.

In the both works, Beowulf and Grendel, Grendel is portrayed in different matters.The setting of the works take place in the Anglo-Saxon time period, which was present from the years 450- 1056, and the works introduce phenomenal characters. Beowulf, is a Geatish warrior, casts to Denmark to extinguish the danger that roams through the city, saving the people from the hideous creature. Being described as a brave, courageous,and effective, to protect the humans of Denmark. Beowulf interprets Grendel as being a terrifying monster who is a major threat to the hero society taking place in Denmark. Grendel, described as a disgusting creature with no soul and his only use in life is harming other humans,

Both the epic poem Beowulf and the novel Grendel depict the same storyline, but from different point of views. Grendel’s personality tends to be much more evil than he himself depicts in the novel. Since Grendel is the narrator of the novel, the audience only gets to know what the story is like from his point of view, which he stretches the truth on numerous occasions. But, in Beowulf, the poem has a narrator and is in the third person omniscient, this means the audience knows how all the characters and feeling, thinking, or saying. Also, the theme nature vs. nurture appears a lot in Grendel which means his viewpoints on certain things are either

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

There is a hero and a villain in every story, we have: Batman and The Joker, Spider-Man and The Green Goblin, Thor and Loki, and of course Beowulf and Grendel. In the epic “Beowulf” our two main characters are Beowulf the hero of the story, and Grendel the evil demon who terrorized the world. In the epic, Beowulf and Grendel are noticeably different, but at the same time alike in many ways. The people in the story may not have notice the similarities, but they could not be hidden from the peering eye of the reader. In the story Beowulf was was brave, while Grendel was cowardly, Beowulf was helpful, while Grendel only wanted to hurt people; in comparison, they were both unnaturally strong and very arrogant.

From a spider, to a snake, to the mysterious monster in the closet no one fear is the same for someone. The worst thing in the entire world to me may be one of the things that make the world great to the next person. One thing that all of humanity does inevitably fear is difference. The fear of talking different, looking different, or being biologically different cause us to believe that something is not “normal”. Who is to set the boundaries for what is normal and why is it that a word is the ruling factor in classifying what someone or something is.

The details in the book versus the movie vary in several different ways. The storyline of the movie is almost completely different than the book. Beowulf, as depicted in the movie, is much less strong than the Beowulf that is described in the book. The film shows an immortal “She Wolf.” The monster in the book is descended from evil; however, the monsters shown in the film are descended from the Kings themselves.