The mead hall “Heorot” is a reoccurring setting within the poem, novella, and movie. Heorot serves as a palace, barrack, bar, and cafeteria. Although the events that took place there could only arguably be a surprise, with heorot translating to “hall of hart” and hart translating to male deer. A widely popular hunted animal foreshadowing Grendel’s future invasions. It was no surprise that the mead hall was an architectural symbol when it comes to this story. Representing comradery and unity as well as serving as a place for the king to display his gold, jewels, armor, overall wealth and power. The mead hall is a place to gather weather that be for a formal, feast/ wild party, or even a barrack for soldiers. Overall the mead hall whether it …show more content…
In the poem/book Beowulf trails Grendel 's mother through a lake dressed in armor and armed with Unferth 's sword. During the battle the sword breaks and Grendel 's mother strikes Beowulf, but thanks to his armor he wasn 't punctured."The Troll-Hag wailed and screamed, slashing out with knife-sharp claws, leaving three indentations running down along the side of Beowulf 's blood stained helm. The fiery eyes of the serpent on the golden helm blazed out as the mighty warrior turned once more to face his foe, the blood now running hot within his veins seeping still from the four holes that had punctured through his helm"(Beowulf,line1500). …show more content…
In the literary works he becomes king of Geatland when their king hygealac and his son die (Beowulf,lines2250). In the works he returns to his homeland after liberating the Danes from Grendel and his mother. He does this and takes the thrown as a noble, respectable, and faithful king. Although in the film Hrothgar is obviously affected by the recent events, and when he leaves makes Beowulf his heir, then commits suicide by walking off a ledge in the mead hall, making Beowulf king of Denmark. It is not exactly a noble or respectful way to take power especially when Hrothgar had faithful
Beowulf is called upon again to defeat this monster. Beowulf puts on his armour and takes the sword Hrunting and descends into the monster’s lair. Grendel’s mother quickly grabs Beowulf and takes him to the battle arena. Once there, Beowulf fights and finds his sword cannot pierce the monster’s hide. So once again, Beowulf throws his sword aside and fights hand-to-hand. Yet, he could not defeat her with his hands alone. Then Beowulf sees, “hanging on the wall, a heavy, Sword, hammered by giants, strong And blessed with their magic, the best of all weapons.” Taking the sword and holding it high above his head he strikes the monster in the neck cutting deep into the skin, breaking bones and all. Thus ending his second heroic battle with a mythical beast and proving that he is indeed worthy of praise. Yet, this is not the greatest of his deeds.
The passage that I analyzed spans the action when Beowulf returns to the halls of Heorot after a harsh battle with Grendel’s mother. He returns to king Hrothgar in the great hall of Heorot to say that he has successfully completed his boast and killed Grendel’s mother. Beowulf states that it has been a very difficult underwater battle and that he has barely escaped with his life, “The fight would have been ended straightway if God had not guarded me” (Donaldson, 29). Beowulf mentions this due to the fact that the sword given to him by Unferth, called Hrunting, was powerless against Grendel’s Mother. Hrunting is useless against Grendel’s mother due to the fact that she has the same charm upon her as Grendel did, which is that no normal sword can pierce her skin. Then, by chance, Beowulf finds an ancient sword on a wall during the battle and uses it against the monster. This sword, which was crafted by the giants, is able to pierce the monster's skin and after one swing, the monster was cut in half. After using this ancient sword to murder the monster, Beowulf watches the blade of the sword melt away due to the toxicity of the monster's blood, until only the hilt was left. A hilt is the handle of a weapon or tool. The hilt is decorated with runic symbols and was given to King Hrothgar of the Danes as proof of Beowulf’s exploits. The King is also given the severed head of Grendel as further reassurance that their troubles at the great hall of Heorot is over.
Beowulf is one of the most bravest legends. He has no fear! This man will go and fight whoever needs to be fought, with or without help. As soon as Grendel's mother came to get her son’s arm back, Beowulf immediately set out to go find and kill her. He went to the place where she lives and after he plunged into the water, Beowulf swam all the way down to her lair. After he reached the lair, “Beowulf got ready, / donned his war-gear, indifferent to death; / his mighty, hand-forged, fine-webbed mail / would soon meet with the menace underwater” (1442-1445). This task also seems to be a death sentence written all over it, but Beowulf looks death in the face, and goes after his mother. He knows that they are immortal, but right next to Grendel’s mother, is the only sword that can kill them. Beowulf is brave enough to grab that powerful sword, and kill both Grendel and his mother. Men today would not do that. Beowulf does not just stop at Grendel and his mother: he continues to fight more monsters to defend what is his. He then took a break and now decides to come home to Sweden. The son of Ecgtheow bids Denmark farewell, and has a moment with Hrothgar. Hrothgar says, “You are strong in body and mature in mind, / impressive in speech. If it should come to pass / that Hrethel’s descendent dies beneath a spear, / … and you are still alive, then I firmly believe / the seafaring Geats won’t find a
Beowulf sees Grendel's mother in a cave. He tries to hit her with his sword, Unferth's Hrunting, but it fails to pierce her skin. So he throws the sword away and attacks the mother with his bare hands. He trusts "in his strength, his mighty hand-grip." Beowulf manages to throw Grendel's mother down; however, she quickly retaliates and is soon sitting on top of him. She tries to kill him with a dagger, but Beowulf's armor protects him this time. Beowulf managed to throw her off of himself and sees a sword of enormous size, which he immediately grabs.
Throughout his reign as the ruler of the Geats, Beowulf is a benevolent leader - bringing peace and power to his nation as Hrothgar instructs him to after the great warrior defeats Grendel's mother. Hrothgar relates to him a story about the Heremod, King of the Danes, who "brought little joy to the Danish people, only death and destruction" (1711-1712), and that "suffered in the end for having plagued his people" (1720-1721). That is, Hrothgar claims that one cannot be a successful leader unless one is virtuous ruler. Furthermore, he tells Beowulf to "learn from this and understand true value" (1723-1724). Therefore, Hrothgar's intends that this information be carried on with Beowulf. During his final moments, after he kills the treasure hording dragon, Beowulf reflects on his reign over the Geats, and those reflections demonstrate that he understands the importance of virtue and honor. He claims that he "cared for and stood by things in [his] keeping, never fomented quarrels, never swore to a lie" (2736-2739). His goodwill and righteousness is highly regarded by the warrior, for he continues, "the Ruler of mankind need never blame me [.
Beowulf went to the dark lake where she had been dwelling. He was suited up with a helmet, armor, together with his own sword. However, he then found it to be useless against the mother. While in the battle hall, Beowulf spotted a superior sword on the wall. With this sword, he ended the life of Grendel’s mother. After this battle, Beowulf took Grendel’s head as a “trophie”.
After, Hrothgar became king of the Danes, their kingdom enjoyed a period of peace and prosperity. Hrothgar had a mead-hall, Heorot, constructed as a monument to the kingdom’s success, there the men gather with their lord to drink. But one night, a demon, Grendel, descends upon the hall and slaughters the men inside because of their celebrations,
After his battle with Grendel, Beowulf has to battle the more arduous Grendel’s mother. Grendel’s mother comes out of her swamp to avenge her son, and kills one of Hrothgar’s most trusted advisors. As a result, Beowulf and other soldiers travel to the lake to fight Grendel’s mother, which makes the battle against Grendel 's mother more difficult. This is because Beowulf is not on his own turf, and does not have the element of surprise that he had during his fight with Grendel. Before the fight, Beowulf dresses in
First of all, Beowulf came to help Hrothgar on his own free will. Hearing of the troubles that Hrothgar was having with a monster terrorizing Herot, his mead hall, Beowulf bravely offered his help not knowing what he was up against. When he arrived, Beowulf did not ask the king for either money nor fame. The only favor that he asked of Hrothgar was that he and his men were to fight the monster, Grendel. Coming away from one's homeland to help get rid of a man-eating monster and asking for nothing in return takes much courage and is an extremely brave deed.
In the Anglo-Saxon poem Grendel’s mom is described as a giant swamp like monster and could not be penetrated by a regular sword. According to Beowulf the Anglo-Saxon, “it was then he saw the size of this water-hag, damned thing of the deep…He dashed out his weapon, not strinting the stroke, and with such strength and violence that the circled sword screamed on her head a strident battle-song. But the stranger saw his battle-flame refuse to bite or hurt her at all; the edge failed his lord in his need.”(Ln.1517) In the movie Beowulf Grendel’s mother is a very seductive monster that appears to be very beautiful, Beowulf’s sword goes right through her skin. They then engage in sexual intercourse. One could assume Grendel’s mom is anything but a “hag.” According to Beowulf Gets a Modern Makeover. “In the film, Angelina Jolie plays Grendel 's monster mom as a babe, not a hag.” In the movie Beowulf Grendel’s mother kills Beowulf’s men before he fights the dragon. However in the poem it never happened because she was dead. According to Georgette Lewis-Brown, “The wrath of Grendel’s mother is more pronounced in the movie as she slaughters many of the men while Beowulf sleeps and has a nightmare about
8. Based on Beowulfs opening address to Hrothgar my first impression is that he is very confident and perhaps even self obsessed. He brags about his success and his strength. He says “of my youth have been filled with glory” and also states “my people have said, the wisest, most knowing, and best of them, that was duty was to the Danes’ Great king. They have seen my strength for themselves, have watched me rise from the darkness of war, dripping with my enemies blood. I drove five great giants into chains, chased all of that race from the earth.” And also to continues to list all of his world changing achievements that he accomplished all on his own. To me personally, he comes off as self conceded and feels as if he is untouchable.
As the battle began Beowulf was dripping with sweat, he knew he had a difficult task ahead but he was ready for what ever happened. Grendel’s mother and Beowulf stood for a moment and looked to each other’s eyes and imagined the battle that was ahead of them. She swung her sword at his waist but he quickly moved out of the path. He swung his sword aiming for her neck, but she was quick and blocked the swing. Beowulf swung again and again nervously trying to kill the beast. Beowulf slowly became mad with himself for taking so long to slay her, so he began to try even harder. His heart was pounding and the sweat was dripping from the tips of his hair down to his face. He swung the sword with perfect precision and hit Grendel’s mother in her throat. Nothing had happened, she was not injured. This greatly confused Beowulf as he began to swing as hard as he could and stab her with every chance he had. Still he was not injuring her at all. Beowulf had discovered that his man made weapons were of no match for Grendel’s witchy mother.
Hrothgar’s pride caused him to fail to protect his kingdom, and make his people vulnerable. His biggest accomplishment as king was the building of Heorot Hall. Heorot distracted him from his people and he was not able to protect them from Grendel. When Hrothgar came up with the idea of Heorot Hall he wanted something that was “meant to be a wonder of the world
Beowulf’s responsibility differs from a warrior to a king. As a young fighter he has responsibility to his Geatish king as well as to Hrothgar. His king, Hyglac, relies on Beowulf to represent him and the Geats; Hrothgar depends on Beowulf to save his people from the aggressor Grendel. Beowulf professes to Hrothgar “To heighten Hygelac’s fame and gladden his heart, I hereby renounce sword and the shelter of the broad shield,” (435-448), which shows his dedication and responsibility for the reputation of his leader. As he grows older and wiser, his responsibilities change from warrior to king.
Anglo Saxon’s history is well known for their loyalty, courage and bravery. Beowulf our protagonist is symbolized as a hero, who represents the Anglo Saxons at the time. Beowulf earns his fame and respect through battling creatures nobody else would want to face. These creatures symbolize the evil that lurks beyond the dark. Beowulf’s intense battle with these creatures’ symbolizes the epic battle of good versus evil. In the end good triumphs over evil but one cannot avoid death. Beowulf’s death can be symbolized as the death of the Anglo Saxons. Beowulf’s battle through the poem reflects the kind of culture that the Anglo Saxons had. The youth of a warrior to his maturity then the last fight which results in death. Beowulf wanted to be remembered and be told in stories that are passed on from generation to generation after his death. These story tellers relate to the Anglo Saxons time when they told stories about their great heroes.