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Battle with grendel's mother questions
Battle with grendel's mother questions
Grendel symbolism
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She’s Without a Name
Grendel’s mother was fierce, combative, monster that had to seek revenge on Beowulf for her son’s death. Grendel’s mother was never given a name. She was referred as the other one, “and now this powerful other one arrives, this force for evil “, spoken from the mouth of Beowulf. In this character analysis, I will describe to you Grendel’s mother appearance, her personality, as well as how other characters in the work view or interact with her. Her nasty appearance will be described by the other characters. But her personality will be described off of her actions. Finally, the way other characters view and interact with her will be through her reason for being a part of this epic.
First, Grendel’s mother appearance, “Grendel’s mother, monstrous hell-bride, brooded on her wrongs” stated in the text. She was described as a “swamp-thing from hell, the tarn-hag in all her strength”. The term “tarn” is a small lake. She is a water monster. This monster was strong compared to her son Grendel. She was so strong; she broke the first blade that Beowulf
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Grendel’s mother was an outcast. For example, “She had been forced down into fearful waters, the cold depths.” Grendel’s mother was not like the human like people. Grendel’s mother name was never mentioned. She was treated as an outcast the entire time even in battle. For example, “Then this roaming killer came in fury and slaughtered him in Heorot”. Still there has been no name stated even though her significance shows strongly. The people in the hall describe Grendel’s mother and her son as “two such creatures prowling the moors, huge marauders from some other world.” But Stated in the text, “they are fatherless creatures, and their whole ancestry is hidden in a past of demons and ghost”. From this Grendel mother is viewed just as Grendel but not as important to mention her
as men. She has been sleeping down in her dark and dingy cave below the world
The presence of a bull prompts a shift in Grendel’s purpose in life from remaining obedient to his mother as a young child to being the creator of the world as he transitions into adulthood. As a young monster, Grendel motive’s coincide with his mother since she is the only person who Grendel is able to communicate with. He feels “Of all the creatures I knew, only my mother really looked at me...We were one thing, like the wall and the rock growing out from it… ‘Please, Mama!’ I sobbed as if heartbroken” (Gardner 17-19). His emotions demonstrate that as a child, he doesn’t consider himself as an individual but rather as embodying the same identity as his mother, which is further emphasized by the use of the simile. Additionally, Grendel’s use
Grendel’s first impression was to ask his mother about the meaning of life and what was his part in it. After Grendel’s first encounter with man, he immediately told his mother what had happened. “I tried to tell her all that happened, all that I had come to understand: the meaningless objectiveness of the world…She only stared troubled at my noise”. However, she had lost her ability to speak years ago and only responded with gibberish, not once giving him an answer. Instead when he said, “the world is all pointless accident…I exist nothing else”, she hurried over and seized him pulling him close to her. Realizing that his mother probably doesn’t understand, Grendel was forced to turn to some one else for the answers he needed, so he turned to man.
Throughout the novel Grendel by John Gardner, the monster Grendel has many different encounters that change his view on the world. Whether it was through nihilism, existentialism, or idealism Grendel was influenced in many ways by all of them. The monster Grendel starts out as an existentialist, but morphs into a nihilist after he talks to the most nihilistic character in the book, the dragon. Influenced through nihilism, existentialism, and idealism Grendel is reshaped and sculpted into a new thing entirely.
Grendel's mother, unknown to the Danes or Geats, is plotting to avenge the death of her son. After the celebrations are over in Heorot and everybody is asleep, Grendel's mother appears out of her dwelling place, the swamp.
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.
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
In Chapter 5, we meet the Dragon for the first time. Prior to seeing the Dragon, Grendel's mother was the only thing he had seen that was more powerful than him.
The fact there is no mentioning of Grendel’s mother’s name implies that she is valuable insofar as her son is alive. This is could not further away from the truth because Grendel’s mother saved his life, and she is more powerful (Hala 39). Grendel acknowledges when he mentions “a shriek tens as loud as mine came blaring off the cliff. It was my mother!” (Gardner 27). While Grendel situates himself in danger, his mother comes along to save him from the situation that he placed himself into. Even though she has her own identity and persona, the novel never mentions her as something other than him. She is more powerful and dominant than Grendel physically, but because of the nature of her role, she becomes as subservient mother whose only function in life is to serve her son. She does not know anything besides her role as a mother, implying that mothers have no other role in life even they are talented or powerful. The novel is eroding the worth and value that comes from a mother because she has played an important role in raising Grendel. Because the book Grendel is trying to mimic the same world from when Beowulf is written, there are apparent contradictions when Gardner writes the mother “had forgotten all language long ago, or maybe never had never known any. I’d never heard her speak to the other shapes.” The mother is powerful and influential, but Grendel’s mother is continually portrayed is an unintelligent, useless being that has no independent worth beyond her
Despite her evil actions, it is evident that there is less malice in her than Grendel and she is less of a symbol of pure evil than he is. For example, her attack on Heorot is somewhat appropriate and could be considered honorable by the standards of warrior culture, as it marks an attempt to avenge one’s son’s death. In fact, the motive for her attack is similar to Beowulf’s motive for his attack on her: avenging the death of a loved one. One of the most interesting aspects of Grendel’s mother’s attachment to this vengeance-demanding code that the warriors follow is that she is depicted as not entirely alien or monstrous. Her behavior is not only comprehensible but also justified. In other ways, however, Grendel and his mother are indeed portrayed as creatures from another world. One aspect of their difference from the humans portrayed in the poem is that Grendel’s strong parental figure is his mother rather
In the poem “Beowulf,” Grendel’s mother, a monstrous creature, is one of the three antagonists Beowulf, the main character, fights against. The battle against Grendel’s mother appears to be the strangest of the three battles. The main reason for its strangeness is that Grendel’s mother is the mother of the monster Grendel, who was killed by Beowulf in the first battle. Another reason for its strangeness is that Grendel’s mother is the only female-type creature. An alternative reason for this strangeness in the battle is due to the fact that Grendel’s mother is not a true monster, aside from her physical form. Through the explanation of kinship, the understanding of the missing words from the original text, and the comparison of Grendel’s mother to other mothers in the poem, specifically Welthow and Hildeburh, it can be established that the intentions of Grendel’s mother are not monstrous even though she has the appearance of a monster.
Grendel exhibits human feelings and characteristics in many ways. Although Grendel is a monster “forced into isolation by his bestial appearance and limited imagination” (Butts) he yearns to be a part of society; he craves companionship while he is isolated. With his “ear pressed tight against the timbers [of Hart]” (43), he watches and listens to the humans and what goes on in Hart, the meadhall of King Hrothgar, to feel like he is a part of civilization. He also has feelings in relation to specific humans. Just like the citizens of Denmark, he is extremely affected by the Shaper and his songs that are “aswim in ringing phrases, magnificent, golden, all of them, incredibly, lies” (43). Grendel is profoundly “moved by the power of the Shaper’s poetry” (Butts). Queen Wealtheow shows Grendel the feminine, sweet, and kind side of life. “She had secret wells of joy that overflowed to them all” and her peaceful effect on those around her is a main cause of Grendel’s almost obsessive fascination with her and in turn, drives Grendel to feelings of rage. Grendel’s humanlike feelings show that his personality is similar to that of a human, helping those who read his story to relate to him.
... campaign was against a Welsh king who killed a Mercian abbot. The sole reason she sought to kill this king was to avenge the abbot from her people. This greatly relates to Grendel’s mother in the sense that she became a warrior as well as someone who seeks revenge.
Grendel’s mother exhibits the most pure form of revenge out of all of Beowulf’s enemies. She is never heard from or seen until Beowulf kills Grendel and keeps his talon as a token of victory. “... It became clear,/ obvious to everyone... that an avenger lurked and was sti...
The movie Beowulf desires equality and compassion. In the movie, Beowulf’s compassion towards Grendel represents that views Grendel as a human like figure and this is supported because of the evidence that Grendel has a son. Grendel’s death ceremony contains the same respect as that of a human’s death ceremony would. Beowulf expresses his compassion when he tells Grendel’s son, “Be proud”, as Grendel lied there dead in his mother's underwater cave. (Gunnarsson 2005) His love and admiration towards the witch are expressed deeply, which eventually is discovered to be the mother of Grendel's