One dark night there crept an evil, hideous looking, monster whose parents were a pair of monsters born of Cain. This evil monster was called Grendel; he was strong, with big long claws that could cut like a knife and teeth that were razor sharp. Grendel that night was going to Hrothgar's immense hall. Hrothgar's hall was a gold shining hall, also known as Herot hall. Herot was a beautiful magnificent hall that was made out of ivory, wood and iron and whose walls were artfully decorated. Grendel arrived at Herot and started to murder King Hrothgar's men until he had his fill. Once Grendel had his fill he went back to his slimy hideout. When the morning came all of the soldiers saw what Grendel had done and were afraid. The king fell into deep despair …show more content…
The King knew that the killings were not over and that Grendel would come again. Beowulf, a strong, brave and giant man heard of the Kings despair and decided that he would take some of his bravest, strongest and best men of the Geats and come kill Grendel the murderous beast himself.
One cloudy night Grendel decided to visit Herot hall again, to see if he could feast on more humans. He crawled out of his slimy hideout and crept silently like a snake, toward the great hall, but little did he know that this nigh would be his last. In the great hall Beowulf waited with his courageous men, for Grendel to arrive. When Grendel arrived he ripped open the gates of Herot, he was angry, only desiring one thing, and that was to feast on human flesh. As he rushed in he saw something that pleased him much. On the floor lay young men sleeping nice and peacefully. Immediately Grendel saw his chance, he snatched one of the men up and tore him to pieces, with his sharp teeth and claws. Then Grendel reached for another man, but this time Grendel was not prepared for what happened next. As Grendel snatched his next victim he was instantly surprised when the man seized him and bent back his claws. His
Nobody dared to stop the bravest man in all the land known as Beowulf. Beowulf is the strongest warrior from Geatland. When Beowulf hears about the Danes and Hrothgar’s struggle to keep his men safe, he offers to help. The Danish king, Hrothgar, accepts Beowulf’s request to kill Grendel and his mother. Beowulf proves his strength and becomes famous when he defeats Grendel in a battle using nothing but his bare hands in Herot. He keeps Grendel’s arm as a symbol of his victory. Grendel’s mother looks for revenge, but she is also killed by the brave warrior. Beowulf becomes the King of Geatland after the king’s son, Heardred, is killed. Beowulf rules for 50 years and he is very successful in keeping peace across the land and Geatland becomes very prosperous. Beowulf later dies after a final fight against a dragon. The Geats build a tower strong and tall just as Beowulf requested so that sailors could find it from far and wide. Beowulf perfectly embodies the Germanic heroic ideal.
The story begins with Grendel taking the lives of countless innocent men. It seems to all that there is no one who can face this great monster who lives down in the swamp. The king, Hrothgar, becomes concerned for the health of his country and seeks out help from someone of great strength. In hearing this, Beowulf sees it as an opportunity to increase his popularity and fame. Upon arrival, he is anxious to come face to face with the great beast. In addition, he declares that he will fight Grendel without any weapons to prove who is truly the strongest. After his victory, Beowulf gets his fame and becomes king of another land for fifty years.
In times before printed books were common, stories and poems were passed from generation to generation by word of mouth. From such oral traditions come great epics such as England’s heroic epic, Beowulf. In Beowulf, the monster Grendel serves as the evil character acting against the poem’s hero, as shown by his unnatural strength, beast-like qualities, and alienation from society.
“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
However, this stranger is unlike any human Grendel has ever met before. When Grendel attacks the mead hall that night, he discovered that this stranger is not only much stronger and smarter than he imagined, he is also much more cruel. “He’s crazy. I understand him all right, make no mistake. Understand his lunatic theory of matter and mind, the chilly intellect, the hot imagination, blocks and builder, reality as stress” (Gardner 172). This insane man is actually the hero Beowulf. However, in this story, Beowulf is portrayed as one of the worst humans of them all. He cannot just kill Grendel, he has to see Grendel suffer up to his death. He forces Grendel to sing and humiliates him in front of the other men. This unearthly cruelty is what finally took down Grendel. But it also shows that even though Grendel was physically the monster, that he was not the worst creature on earth. Grendel was not as cruel as Beowulf; in the end, man becomes the monster and the monster becomes the
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.
Beowulf wants to fight Grendel, a monster wreaking havoc, and is boasting that he is more powerful and courageous.
Beowulf has no doubt in his mind that he is more than able to kill the wretched Grendel. But because of his overconfidence and populari...
In this epic, Beowulf is a young and famous hero who is seeking fame so that his name will continue on even after his death. Beowulf is not the average man, he has super strength and unique abilities that allow him to battle and achieve many goals and accomplishments. “To sail the swan’s road and search out that king” (Beowulf 200). When Beowulf hears of Grendel’s attacks on the Danes, he takes this as an opportunity and seeks out the king to fight the descendant from Cain and gain fame
Beowulf had an epic battle with Grendel. Grendel was an extraordinarily powerful, murderous monster. When night fell, he went to Herot. He grabbed men in Herot and smashed them in their bed. Then, Carried their bloody bodies back with him to feast on. He terrorized the people in Herot. At this point, Beowulf heard about the violence
In the events of Beowulf Grendal, the sin-stained demon whom was terrorizing the kingdom, came out each night to feast on the sleeping bodies of Herot. He sunk his teeth into the bodies of his victims. Tasting the red hot blood flow through his body, Grendal had a very simple motivation: blood and hate. Nothing and no one stood in his way when he came tearing through the
This story is about a Danish Kingdom that was ruled by a King, named Hrothgar. Hrothgar was a great King, admired by people everywhere. One day Hrothgar decided to build a hall to which no other was greater, and named this hall Heorot. Heorot was made of gold and fine jewels, and people from many kingdoms traveled to see it. Hrothgar and his Queen Wealhtheow would sit inside Heorot and give away gifts to the people that came to visit. The Noble Earls (Danish Warriors) would also sleep in the great hall at night. All was well until an Ogre named Grendel, a fiend from hell, and a Satan who ruled over the swamps, went inside Heorot and killed the earls while they slept. No one found them until morning and this happened many times afterward. Soon Heorot was seldom occupied, and no one came to visit, for everyone feared the ogre Grendel would devour them as he did the others.
The hall in Beowulf is essentially one such, as is described in the Old English poetry, but it has its own mystique. It was the sound of merriment and the praise of God in the hall that annoys Grendel, and came there every night, he won't go near the King's high seat, which seems to have some holy association. As the hall stands useless and empty because of Grendel, it also was a symbol of vanity. And the passing reference, in the description of its building, to the fact that it would one day burn is one of many examples in the epic of the theme of transitoriness that pervades the work.
It is no question that Beowulf was one of the b est, if not the best, warrior of his time. His skills of being a tremendous warrior are not to be questioned, but his position as a king could use a closer look. While the qualities of being a great warrior and a great king can be similar, there are some differing qualities to keep in mind. There is an extensive comparison to be made between Beowulf and Hrothgar, as a warrior and as a king and the qualities that each of them bring to the table. On lines 17 00-1739 of Beowulf, Hrothgar gives his famous speech to Beowulf on what it means to be a successful king. Hrothgar feels the need to give Beowulf this advice because he knows that Beowulf will one day need to know how to more than a warrior.
Beowulf’s first accomplishment as an epic hero was his battle with Grendel. Grendel was a huge beast, a descendent of Cain, who ruthlessly murdered innocent Danes because he felt pity for himself. Upon hearing of the Dane’s problem, Beowulf set off to help the Danish without having been called upon. Even though Beowulf had men backing him, He drew battle with Grendel alone and without armor or weapons. Yet, Beowulf emerged victorious with the arm of Grendel as his trophy. Beowulf then went on to kill Grendel’s vengeful mother and a huge fire-breathing dragon who thought it had been done wrong by the Geats. Alas, the killing of the dragon would be Beowulf’s last great battle for the dragon took Beowulf’s life in the struggle for his own.