Grendel Analysis Beowulf

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Grendel Analysis
Grendel, a large ugly beast, plays the antagonist in the legendary story, Beowulf. His actions towards the townspeople are directly affected by his appearance. The size of Grendel is almost unimaginable. When Grendel dies, four men must carry his skull because of his extremely large build. During one of his raids on the mead-hall, Herot, Grendel picks up thirty men at once. The story portrays Grendel as being larger than life in order to show the supernatural aspects of the poem. The whole village considers Grendel to be a savage. He lives under a swampy lake in a cave. The villagers have little interaction with Grendel because he lives in an isolation in the swamp. Rarely do the townspeople see Grendel which leads them to

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    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.

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