Beowulf's Grendel As An Epic Hero

Even though Grendel is depicted as a monster in the story Grendel, his story still makes him an epic hero. An epic hero is described as a character whose heroic actions are central to his/her own culture, race, or nation. Grendel may not be an actual hero like Beowulf, but a monster who endure appropriate trials for themselves. Grendel’s terrifying and violent actions are things that are feared by many people and encouraged by his race. This is what makes Grendel and epic monster.

In the later parts of Grendel, Grendel is shown to continuously wander through the woods seeking for entertainment. As he wanders, the Shapers song that he heard from a distance in Hrothgar catches him. Grendel stops and closely listens to the song the Shaper was

playing until he hears a stick snap from behind him. He notices the group of guardsmen behind him and attacks the group who just attempted to kill him. Grendel fights back killing the guards with ease and even snatching one guard and bites his head off while walking backwards with a laugh. Grendel killing the guards is part of his epic quest as a monster. Grendel’s attack on the guards begins the twelve-year war against Hrothgar. These twelve years will allow Grendel to gain more strength and magnify the terror of the people of Hrothgar have towards the monster.
Grendel also falls in love with a woman by the name of Wealtheow. Like many other epic stories, the person who is on the journey usually meets another individual that the develop strong feelings for. In this case, Grendel develops feelings for Hygmod’s sister, Wealtheow, and this causes him to refrain from attacking Hrothgar hall because of her presence. Grendel was even told to have visiona of Wealtheow, which caused him to lose the truth of what he was told by the Dragon earlier in the story. Grendel is so enraged that he cannot stop thinking about Wealtheow, that he storms down to Hrothgar to kill her. Grendel almost accomplished his goal as he holds her down to the floor just before he kills her, but he still cannot manage himself to do it. An epic story usually involves an intervention from another being that distracts the hero from their destined goal. In Grendel’s story, Wealtheow was the cause of Grendel’s refrainment from attacking Hrothgar hall for a period of time.
Around the end of the story, Grendel finally meets Beowulf, which is the climax of Grendel’s epic.

Grendel is excited when he first notices Beowulf, someone that will give him a challenge against his killing spree. Grendel decides to attack the meadhall when darkness falls to overcome his boredom. When Grendel tries to kill everyone in the meadhall later that night, he quickly encounters Beowulf himself as he chooses his victims just before he begins his feast upon their bodies. Grendel and Beowulf shortly have a small confrontation seconds after. Beowulf begins by twisting Grendel’s hand, causing him a great deal of pain. Later Beowulf throws Grendel to the wall to break his forehead open. When Grendel finds himself close to death after Beowulf’s violent assaults, he escapes to the cliff that leads to the bottomless pit down below and willingly jumps down into it. Grendel’s defeat and him jumping off the cliff into the bottomless pit or abyss, is the equivalent of an epic hero’s tragic descent into hell or the underground world at the end of their

journey.
Many epic stories as if today are usually told with a human being the one who endures the difficult journey. Instead Grendel is an epic monster and he follows his own unique quest that is similar to an epic hero, but still has it own variations. One variation is when Grendel caused havoc upon the people of Hrothar by terrorizing and eating the citizens of the area. Grendel is eating and killing people instead of saving the ones in need of help. A monster is going to kill other living creatures for its own personal gain or protection and cause havoc wherever it goes. Grendel causes a great disturbance towards the people of Hrothgar and this caused the people to fear Grendel himself and for what he is, monster. Grendel brought more awareness of monsters to the people and caused monsters to be more feared as a by all the people of the country. This was the benefit of Grendel’s quest as an epic monster hero.

3) Dante has included many crimes in his floor plan, but he still lacks some important crimes as of today.

Dante’s hell was based around society of the year 1320, and since then crimes have become more advanced and more severe. Dante’s hell does not account for many of the crimes today, such as forgery. Forgery is a serious crime that exists during this present time period.

The first crime I believed that should is domestic violence. I strongly believe that it is wrong for anyone to physically hurt his or her intimate partner out of anger. Domestic violence is an act that is greatly frowned upon and it deserves a great deal of punishment. I believe that domes violence belongs in the eighth circles. The punishment for the abuser is that they are trapped in an abusive relationship for the rest of eternity. The abuser will not be able to defend or fight back from the beatings nor will they be able to speak up about being abused by their intimate partner. The abuser shall experience the pain that they have caused their own partner and without a way to escape

torment.
Another crime that should be a circle in hell is rape. For someone to physically force another person to have sexual intercourse with him or her, while against his or her will, is a mentally scarring and violent act. A crime such as this one deserves to be in the ninth circle. The punishment for the crime is the actor will be subject to continuous violent rape by the victims themselves for eternity. The actor will also be completely restrained and silenced, allowing the victim to have total control. The actor will also be forced to watch the torment happen over and over again without any relief.