Grendel, Beowulf and the Relationship Between Nihilistic and Christian Archetypes
The Wisdom god, Woden, went out to the king of trolls…and demanded to know how order might triumph over chaos.
“Give me your left eye,” said the king of trolls, “and I’ll tell you.”
Without hesitation, Woden gave up his left eye.
“Now tell me.”
The troll said, “The secret is, Watch with both eyes!”
Woden’s left eye was the last sure hope of gods and men in their kingdom of light surrounded by darkness. All we have left is Thor’s hammer, which represents not brute force but art, or, counting both hammerheads, art and criticism…
The philosophies expressed in the Beowulf epic complement the exploration of existentialism throughout the modern work, Grendel, by John Gardner. Both works portray different perspectives of the same story, involving the same characters; Beowulf, the ancient Anglo-Saxon hero who destroys Grendel, and Grendel, the monster who terrorizes Hrothgar’s hall. Beowulf and Grendel act as archetypes that explore humanity’s perception of the world. In the Anglo-Saxon epic, Beowulf and his companions represent good, and the monsters, including Grendel, represent evil. When Beowulf kills Grendel, the world is less evil, but since Beowulf’s companions die in the struggle, the world is also less good. Ultimately, the two forces of good and evil will destroy each other, but the story maintains that God will interfere and save mankind from destruction. In Gardner’s story, the progression of society begins when mankind creates a monster and then creates a hero to fight the monster. Once the greater power of the hero had been established, once the conflict’s resolution strengthened society’s power, than a greater monster developed ...
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...fact, it is the saving grace of mankind: the hope that God will save society and establish harmony and justice. The modern story takes the opposite view; it shows what happens when hope is lost, when society has nowhere to turn: it is a more pessimistic, more complicated view of humanity’s progress.
[Throughout this paper, G after a character's name refers to Gardner; AS to Beowulf the poem.]
Works Cited
Gardner, John. Grendel , New York: Vintage Books Edition, 1989.
Gardner, John. Moral Fiction. New York: Basic Books Inc, 1977.
Heany, Seamus. Beowulf: A Modern Translation. New York: Farrer, Straus, and Giroux, 2000.
Sources Cited
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome. Monster Theory. George Washington University: www.upress.umn.edu/Books/C/cohen_monster.html, 2001.
Johnson, Tim. Grendel. New York: www.panix.com/~iayork/Literary/Grendel/grendel2.html, 2001.
For ages, humanity has always told stories of the classic struggle between man and monster. The battle between Beowulf and Grendel is a prime example of this archetype, but is Grendel only purely a monster? In his article “Gardner’s Grendel and Beowulf: Humanizing the Monster”, Jay Ruud makes a point that Grendel is a hybridization of both monster and man, particularly in John Gardner’s novel Grendel. In the poem Beowulf, Grendel is depicted as a purely evil monster who terrorizes Hrothgar and his people, but the novel provides a more humanistic backstory to the fiend. Throughout the novel, Grendel tells of his internal struggle between his thoughts of filling the role of the monster versus attempting to make amends with the humans. This conflict
He does not act like the blood hungry beast he is seen as in Beowulf. In
While the classic battle between good and evil forces is a major theme of the medieval epic Beowulf, one may question whether these good and evil forces are as black and white as they appear. Scholars such as Herbert G. Wright claim that “the dragon, like the giant Grendel, is an enemy of mankind, and the audience of Beowulf can have entertained no sympathy for either the one or the other” (Wright, 4). However, other scholars such as Andy Orchard disagree with this claim, and believe that there is “something deeply human about the ‘monsters’” (Orchard, 29). While Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon are indeed portrayed as evil and violent foes, there are parts within Beowulf that can also lead a reader to believe that the “monsters” may not be so monstrous after all. In fact, the author of Beowulf represents the “monsters” within the poem with a degree of moral ambivalence. This ambivalence ultimately evokes traces of sympathy in the reader for the plight of these “monster” figures, and blurs the fine line between good and evil within the poem.
Ethics is a wide field of philosophical study to which the core of every question within falls to one side of a blurred line. On the right, is good; the value which is popularly believed to be the correct alignment for which a person should live their life according to. On the left, is evil; that which is the cause of most human misery, and prevents peace on earth. In John Gardner’s book Grendel, the retelling of the ages old story Beowulf, further blurs the line between good and evil. Circumstance and perhaps a confused view of reality allow the monster, Grendel, to conceivably defend his evil beliefs. In order to better understand evil, using Grendel as a guide, I intend to attempt to justify it.
John Gardner’s Grendel is the retelling of the heroic epic poem Beowulf; however, the viewpoint has shifted. Grendel is told from the viewpoint of one of Beowulf’s antagonists and the titular character of Gardner’s work—Grendel. In Grendel, Gardner humanizes Grendel by emphasizing parallels between Grendel’s life and human life. Through Gardner’s reflection of human feelings, human development, and human flaws in Grendel, this seemingly antagonistic, monstrous character becomes understood and made “human.”
Women burning bras in the 1960’s became a sign of the Women’s Liberation movement. However, this was not the beginning of the women’s movement. This began many years earlier in the late 1800’s. In Marge Piercy’s poem, “What’s That Smell in the Kitchen,” she gives a description of what the women in the 1980’s are doing to be a part of the women’s movement. According to Bell Hooks, "Feminism is a struggle against sexist oppression. Therefore, it is necessarily a struggle to eradicate the ideology of domination that permeates Western culture on various levels, as well as a commitment to reorganizing society so that the self-development of people can take precedence over imperialism, economic expansion and material desires" (26). Piercy argues that women do not have the single goal of being servants to their husbands whether they are in the kitchen or the bedroom.
...tory over Satan to play a central part in the spread of Christianity among the Vikings, whom looked to Odin and Thor for such attributes.
Everyone has a body and we must take care of everything that is consisted in it. Your skin is a reflection of your overall health. It is the first thing that a person sees, and can give away your age and your lifestyle. Consider your skin as your body’s canvas and it is not just considered but is one of the most valuable assets of your body. And the skin that you have now, is the only only skin you’ll ever get, so your daily behaviors to keeping it healthy are immensely important.
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When it comes to washing your face, it comes down to 2 options, either using the traditional water and soap wash or using the facial care products that come as a range. The facial care products include (but are not limited to), lotions, oils, wipes, scrubs,
It’s tangible, elastic, and extremely crucial to the human body. Skin, the largest organ we possess, works as a defending agent against certain pathogens and microbes from entering. Dermatology, also known as the official study of the skin, has led to several advancements in health, science, and even in the way we look in terms of physical appearance. Drawing all the way back to the Ancient Egyptian civilization, they were the first group of people to study Human Anatomy and Physiology as well as recognizing that people were suffering from skin problems and diseases. During this early era, beauty was also a virtue; this might explain why the Egyptians devoted a little bit of their time studying and practicing skin care. With blemishes, beauty
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