Another image shown is how from Grendel’s point of view he is just seen as a regular living creature being driven to violence, and that his actions are not purposely done for evil. The different sides of the battle between Beowulf and Grendel share similar qualities, but also have differences in another. When Grendel appears in the poem, he is “greedily loping” his way towards killing the men (Beowulf 49). The image of Grendel’s rage when he “ripped open / The mouth of the building” (Beowulf 49), and with his “demonic glee” (Beowulf 49), he is seen as a true demon just waiting for the right moment to attack the men. As for the novel, Grendel grabs “a cloth from the nearest table” and ties it around his neck to portray the image that he is ready to feast on the sleeping men. …show more content…
Now the demonic side is also pictured in the novel as he bites through the man’s “bone-locks and suck hot, slippery blood” (Gardner 168). As he tries to feast on the next man, he finds out that this man is Beowulf himself. The similarity between the two both describe how Grendel loses his arm, but in the novel, Grendel see’s Beowulf with wings, and Beowulf hurls Grendel, making the “wall timbers crack” (Gardner 171). While in Beowulf, the fight between Beowulf and Grendel is short, the novel summarizes a whole chapter of descriptive details of the battle such as how Grendel would have won if he did not slip on the pool of blood, or how Beowulf was whispering in his ear like a demonic creature. At the ending of Grendel, he does not die without his head, but instead he has a broken skull and an arm missing, while in Beowulf he just had to rip his arm off, and Grendel would just hop back to the swamps to die. The imagery of the two battles clearly shows that the novel had a descriptive imagery to the battle as oppose to a short and quick battle in the poem. Finally, the
The first battle in the poem occurs between Beowulf and Grendel because these characters best embody the Anglo-Saxon value of courage. Beowulf is the perfect representation of this value because he is reckless and says, “No weapons, therefore,/ for either this night: unarmed he shall face me” (Heaney 683-84). Thus when Beowulf proclaims that he is not using weapons he displays both honor and courage since it takes guts to go against a monster without an advantage. This quality was respected in his culture and the Anglo-Saxons made sure to make their epic hero a perfect fit for this trait. Grendel however, is the complete opposite
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?
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 meadhalls and kill the drunk, often asleep people. But when narrated through the eyes of Grendel, the true nature of this beast is discovered. The author of Grendel entails that Grendel is a depressed and misunderstood monster, restrained to the confinements of his own underwater cave. He is a lot like the monster in the book Frankenstein. Both Grendel and Frankenstein are born with no real purpose to life, going off of what they hear other people say and taking it as the truth. Both monsters, knowing that everyone detests them for being unattractive and different, retaliate by way of murder and mayhem. From the perspective of the people in the stories itself, Grendel is exactly how the narrator in the poem Beowulf makes him out to be. The people, or the thanes, of Hrothgar’s kingdom see Grendel as a demon from hell, representing all that’s evil in the world. He’s a supernatural creature and in this time period anything supernatural that wasn’t human was considered a spirit, a god, evil or, in Grendel...
Rudd cites various sections of the poem, describing Grendel as a “night-monster of the border lands” (Rudd 3), and the translation of the poem says that Grendel was, “...Conceived by a pair of those monsters born Of Cain, murderous creatures banished By God…” (Raffel 42). Rudd also gives evidence for Grendel being seen as demonic, and reasons that Grendel attacks the Danes out of “...not mere thirst for gore, as we might suspect… but rather… envy of the Danes’ happiness- and envy was a chief characteristic of the medieval devil.” (Ruud 5). He then ties this devilish persona to Grendel’s humanistic aspects, stating Grendel has a heathen soul, and therefore he must be human. Ruud also notes, however, that there are critics who question the validity of portraying Grendel as this three-sided figure, asking questions such as, “How can Grendel be a devil when he has a physical body? How can he be a man when he is so manifestly bestial?” (Ruud 7). Ruud believes that the original poet of Beowulf is doing this for effect rather than consistency, but a more reasonable explanation that encompasses all three characteristics is that Grendel represents the evil in
In the poem, Beowulf, Grendel is depicted as a monstrous, evil villain that possesses a few human-like qualities: such as the ability to walk on two feet. However, his most notable characteristic that occupies his mind and body in the poem is the constant mindset and actions of primitive human tendencies. This quote conveys Grendel’s primitive ways as the humans perceived it. “The monster’s thoughts were as quick as his greed or his claws: he slipped through the door and there in the silence snatched up thirty men, smashed them unknowing in their beds and ran out with their bodies…” (Raffel 8). His lust for blood of the human race, alongside their Christian views, forced Beowulf and others to view
He does not act like the blood hungry beast he is seen as in Beowulf. In
“Staring at his grotesquely muscled shoulders--stooped, naked despite the cold, sleek as the belly of a shark and as rippled with power as the shoulders of a horse--I found my mind wandering...He was dangerous” (155). Even from the first day Beowulf showed up at Hrothgar’s kingdom, Grendel knew he was dealing with something worse than a hero. Once they finally start to battle, the monster in Beowulf is fully revealed to Grendel and Grendel sees again the stupidity and meaninglessness in the human’s definition of a hero.“Grendel, Grendel! You make the world by whispers, second by second. Are you blind to that? Whether you make it a grave or a garden of roses is not the point. Feel the wall: is it not hard?...Hard, yes! Observe the hardness, write it down in careful runes. Now sing of walls! Sing!” (171). Beowulf forces Grendel to make a fool of himself and unlike Unferth who longs for a heroic death, Beowulf knows he is going to win and has no desire to die. His mindset of victory, groups him with monsters who have one goal, to kill and never be killed. This shatters the Anglo-Saxon ideals of heroism and in Grendel’s death, when he is surrounded by oblivious creatures who don’t have a purpose, the meaninglessness of it all, including the meaninglessness of heroic deeds becomes evident to the
Beowulf outlines turmoil between three opponents: Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the Dragon. These separate discords each serve to fulfill different metaphoric purposes. Grendel’s character epitomizes the adverse persona of how an Anglo-Saxon warrior should not be. His mother represents everything that a woman during the time era should seldom be. Lastly, the Dragon embodies all the values that an Anglo-Saxon king should not dare retain. Without a doubt, the symbolic implications of the monsters in Beowulf bring the context to a new level of understanding.
The author creates a realistic picture during the battle between Beowulf and Grendel. Throughout the scene, light and dark portray events according to their corresponding characters. Beowulf, the hero, symbolizes light and goodness while Grendel symbolizes darkness and wickedness. The poem describes him as demonic, “While a baleful light, flame more than light, flared from his eyes” (726-27). Beowulf continues to represent
Beowulf begins with Grendel attacking the Danes out of vengeance and hatred. Grendel is the relative of Cain which means that he is outcast to eternal darkness as punishment for the crime of Cain killing his brother Abel. Therefore, when Grendel hears laughter in the hall named Heorot, he is angry and a little envious, so he goes on a killing spree in order to put an end to the warriors’ happiness. Because of Grendel’s attack upon the Danes, Beowulf arrives in order to put an end to the killing spree: “And now alone I shall settle affairs with Grendel the monster, the demon” (Donaldson, p.8). The author offers no other solution to solving this issue with Grendel but battle, and after the battle is fought and Beowulf wins, Grendel’s hand is preserved as a trophy. Beowulf is rewarded with gifts for his courage, and now the Danes are at peace.
In Both Grendel and Beowulf, there is conflict. The conflict is betwixt the themes of light and dark, Paganism vs. Christianity, and Man vs. Beast. Grendel, the main character in Grendel and the secondary character in Beowulf, faces external battles but the most important battle take place internally. John Gardener recognized the basis for Grendel’s predicament which is “his [Grendel] stubborn cling to skepticism and cold, hard reason. . .” (Grendel’s Geis). Though there are many different themes present in both stories, there is one theme that remains consistent throughout out both. This theme is the lack of acceptance. Grendel’s in-acceptance is rooted in his lack of understanding of the world and its functions. As a result of the many things that have taken place in Grendel’s life, he is perceived as evil yet, not because he wants to be. He is misunderstood and not accepted. Much of Grendel’s evil wrongdoing comes as a result of lack of acceptance, lack of communication, and his ignorance.
Beowulf and Grendel (Gunnarsson 2005) depicts a very different protagonist than the one in the epic (Heaney 2000). The Beowulf in the film learns how to have mercy as the movie progresses, while the epic Beowulf is very flat. This is due to the fact that the modern culture is very different from that of the epic. Our culture isn't content with such characters. We want our characters to have more lifelike characteristics such as emotions and a change of heart.
This is controlled by appetite and impulse, as seen in Grendel 's drastic urges to go on a killing spree in the mead hall killing the drunken Danes. Grendel hides away watching everything and everyone: hiding behind sheds or in a tree. Grendel speaks of his longings for friendships; of his captivity in his mythical role; of his disdain for his roots, as seen in the quote describing is an affinity for his mother. "When I sleep, she presses close to me, half buries me under her thistly fur and fat. Dool-Dool," she moans. She drools and weeps. "Warrovish," she whimpers, and tears at herself. Hanks of fur come away in her claws. I see gray hide." (Gardner 146) Where as, in the poem Beowulf, Grendel is made out to be a savage monster full of evil just looking to kill with no sense of remorse or good qualities. These qualities are seen when the narrator speaks "Out from the marsh, from the foot of misty hills and bogs, bearing God 's hatred, Grendel came, hoping to kill." (285 - 287) Giving the appearance and goals Grendel portrayed in the epic poem
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 reasons for his actions. Some major similarities are the battles. Both epics include the battles between Beowulf and Grendel, as well as Beowulf and Grendel’s mother. The end results are the same, leading to their death, but the journey and process to the two tales are different.
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 reader’s perception of Grendel and his role in Beowulf by narrating the story through Grendel’s point of view. John Gardner transforms the perceived terrible evil fiend who is Grendel into a lonely but intelligent outcast who bears a striking resemblance to his human adversaries. In Grendel, John Gardner portrays Grendel as an intelligent being capable of rational thought as well as displaying outbursts of emotion. He portrays Grendel as a hurt individual and as a victim of oppression ostracized from civilization. The author of Beowulf portrays Grendel as the typical monster archetype as compared to John Gardner’s representation of Grendel as an outcast archetype.