The Epic Of Beowulf, Grendel 's Mother, And The Fire Dragon

When he struggles and struggles finally Beowulf strength is too much and Grendel’s arm is ripped from its socket. He knows his horrible fate which is to bleed to death in the horrid fen.Although soon after the She demon, Grendel's mother comes back for revenge. Beowulf is prepared and more ready then he’ll ever be.He defeats the She demon triumphantly and comes home strong with pride. Soon Beowulf becomes homesick and returns to his homeland of the Geats, he fights strongly with his uncle until he dies, Beowulf is asked to be the king of the Geats but kindly declines. It is only when Heardred, Beowulf cousin dies that he accepts the position of king and rules wisely. Beowulf grows old and creates the golden age for the land but when the fire drake an evil monster who guards treasure burns down most of the land, Beowulf is ready for one last fight. Using the bees to sting it to death Beowulf and his companion Wiglaf face the beast and kill it. Beowulf's last battle is one to remember and shortly after Beowulf dies of old age but everyone knows that his spirit will live on and create peace for the land of the

Another way in which Beowulf represents a characteristic of an epic hero is he travels and fights with a group of people. “So Beowulf chose the mightiest men he could find,/ The bravest and best of the Geats, fourteen/ In all,” (ln. 119-122). Beowulf personally chose the warriors he journeys with himself; although Beowulf is generally the one to conquer the monsters, these soldiers are with him through all of his battles. In The Battle With Grendel, all of the men are sleeping in Herot; yet, when Grendel appears, Beowulf is the one to fight and execute him. The story is similar in The Battle With Grendel’s Mother; his men follow him to the edge of the lake, yet he is the one to explore the lake and fight and kill Grendel’s mother. Likewise, in The Last Battle when Beowulf fights the dragon, he begins fighting with all of his men, yet all but one abandon him. Beowulf obtains a strong group of people that he travels with, yet ultimately he solves problems himself.

Another obvious heroic characteristic that Beowulf portrays is the defeat of monsters and other malevolence. He does this throughout the story, not only using brute force, but also cunning tactics, such as the time when he attacks Grendel’s extremely sensitive ears. Beowulf also disposes of Grendel’s Mother, using a gigantic sword in her lair to decapitate her, and ends the reign of terror on the Danes. Years later, after Beowulf is crowned King, his land is assailed by the Dragon. This epic battle proves just how valiant Beowulf actually is, going after the beast single-handedly, instead of endangering any of his men. It is a long, hard-fought battle, in which Beowulf contests with all his might. Beowulf ultimately kills the Dragon –rips out its heart-, but not without a price; the battle costs the King his life.

Beowulf’s first battle is against Grendel in an attempt to help King Hrothgar of Denmark and the Danes. The king builds a great mead-hall known as Heorot, where his warriors can gather to drink, receive gifts from their lord, and listen to stories sung by the bards. All the noise and commotion angers Grendel, who is a horrible demon that lives in the swamplands of the king’s kingdom. Grendel is an outcast who desperately wants to be a part of the Danes. He is bitter about being excluded from the mead-hall festivities. As a result of his jealousy and loneliness, Grendel terrorizes the Danes every night, killing them and defeating their efforts to fight back. The Danes live in fear, danger, and suffer death from Grendel for many, many years. Eventually, word of the kingdom’s suffering at the hands of Grendel reaches Beowulf. He feels inspired by the challenge of defeating the monster and decides to help the Danes. The king holds a big feast to celebrate Beowulf’s help,

The story of Beowulf is one of a great hero. Beowulf is a very generous person who is always willing to help out when people are in need. Over the course of the story, Beowulf ends up in three major battles: the battle with Grendel, with Grendel’s mother, and with the dragon. All of these battles were different in their style and the way Beowulf approached them was different. Beowulf also had different reasons to participate in each of the battles.

1.     An anti-hero is the opposite of a hero. It is the character that goes against all the traditional values of society. Grendel has strong traits of the average anti-hero. He lives in a cave with his mother in the middle of no where. Everybody in the land refuses to accept him, even as the lowest of their kind, and they are constantly trying to kill him. He is deprived the rules and consequences of society by not being allowed to join men, he rejects the values and rules of political establishment by terrorizing Hrothgar’s kingdom, and he is often angry because when the shaper sings he falls into the trance of possibility, but then remembers the dragon.He

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

Beowulf’s triumphs are short lived due to another attack on Herot. This time, Grendel’s mother comes to the great mead hall to avenge her son. The battle between Grendel’s mother and Beowulf differs greatly from the previous battle with the beast’s son. After another attack, Beowulf now must seek out his new enemy, and fight her on her own turf. As it stood, the scores were even between the monsters and the Danes, but Beowulf now looked for victory over the monsters, not revenge. Beowulf also had to regain his reputation. He had just won a trophy, when the bigger, badder bully came up to him and took it straight from his grasp. Now Beowulf traveled to the burning lake, which proved a test of its own. He then swam to the bottom of the lake where the monster resided. All of this just to get to the monster shows that this brave hero would do anything to set the scores right for his people and for the glory that came with it.

Mankind for centuries has viewed good as better than evil and that the hero must always win in the end. There are three major battles throughout the poem: Beowulf against Grendel, Beowulf against Grendel’s mother, and Beowulf against the dragon. In the battle of Beowulf verses Grendel, the good side is Beowulf, and the evil, or aggressor, is Grendel. During the intense part of the fight, Grendel “discovered himself / in a handgrip harder than anything / he had encountered in any man / on the face of the earth” (Beowulf 749-752). Immediately after, Grendel “was desperate to flee to his den and hide” (Beowulf 754), but Beowulf does not permit Grendel to flee so easily, and rips off his arm as a punishment. This moment when Beowulf decides to rip off Grendel’s arm rather than let him flee can either be interpreted as Beowulf attempting to stop the monster from ever attacking the city again, and also it shows how Beowulf is collecting the blood price of the deaths of the many Danish citizens that Grendel had killed. After the battle, Grendel returns home to die a slow painful death and his mother seeks revenge for her son’s pain and

Beowulf plunges Hrunting into Grendel’s mother, but the sword “would not bite, [nor] harm her life” because “the edge failed” (27, Beowulf). Not wasting anytime, Beowulf quickly seizes “an old sword made by the giants” and slays Grendel’s mother (28, Beowulf). The Giant’s sword is depicted as possessing magical characteristics because it slayed a monster “too poisonous”(28, Beowulf). After Beowulf tells of his great defeat another celebration is held at Heorot in honor of him. At the celebration, Beowulf is given weapons to reward his victory. Many years later, once Beowulf is King, he learns of the horrible deeds the dragon committed. He bravely ventures with his men to slay the dragon. All except for one of Beowulf’s men flee when the see the dragon. However, Beowulf does not cower and run away, instead he begins to battle the dragon. Beowulf draws his sword, Naegling, and stabs it through the dragon, but the sword “failed in the fight” (47, Beowulf). Hence, demonstrating how the outcome of the sword foreshadows the Fate of Beowulf in this fight. The sword breaks because it is

After defeating Grendel Beowulf enjoys the celebration and rewards that Hrothgar has treated him to. Beowulf earns the respect of the whole kingdom of Heorot. A few nights later Grendel’s mother learns that her son was killed by a human. She comes angrily back to the mead hall where she will take vengeance for her son. “But now his mother had sallied forth on a savage journey, grief-racked and ravenous, desperate for revenge” (pg. 89). Grendel’s mother is another stage in Beowulf’s step toward an older warrior. Before the great battle with Grendel’s mother, Beowulf was a little bit more mature and was not as confident. “Beowulf got ready, donned his war-gear, indifferent to death; his mighty, hand-forged, fine-webbed mail would soon meet with the menace underwater.” (pg. 101) He needed armor because he feels that it wasn’t the kind of battle he would face without his necessity to survive. After a long fight Beowulf finds the strength in him to grab the weapon that would kill Grendel’s mother. Once again good has defeated evil. Beowulf comes through as a hero one more time before his departure from Heorot.

Throughout the story Beowulf fights three monsters; Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and a dragon. Beowulf fights the creatures for reasons that are different, but share common ground.

He tears off the monster's arm at the shoulder, but Grendel escapes, only to die soon afterward at the bottom of his snake-infested mere. The Danish warriors, who have fled the hall in fear, return singing songs in praise of Beowulf's triumph. Hrothgar rewards Beowulf with a great store of treasures. After another banquet, the warriors of both the Geats and the Danes retire for the night.

The major battles in Beowulf are: Beowulf and Grendel, Grendel’s mom and Beowulf, and Wiglaf and Beowulf against the dragon. I think the most important battle was with Grendel and Beowulf because Beowulf defeated the demonic creature no one could defeat. Beowulf, a well-respected Geat, was the strongest man (represents good) and he was destined to kill Grendel. Grendel was a monster that represents evil. In the poem, a main theme was between good vs. evil. For example, the book states, “Grendel, who haunted the moors, the wild marshes, and made his home in a hell not hell but Earth” (Raffel 102-04). This represents how Grendel made the Danes life hell and it also describes how Grendel’s home is a “hellish place.” This was the most important

Throughout the story of Beowulf, Beowulf fights many different monsters to help protect the people of Herot. Showing off just why he is considered to be an epic hero; with his incredible strength, bravery, and respect for the king. From his first encounter with Grendel, to fighting Grendel’s mother while she was on a path of revenge, to eventually fighting a dragon. Every battle was hard fought and had Beowulf fighting until the very end. All of these battles helped develop Beowulf's character by starting off as a young confident soldier all the way to being an old but strong king.