Compare And Contrast Grendel And Beowulf

Beowulf and Grendel

The epic poem Beowulf is an amazing story about heroism, bravery, and courage of man named Beowulf who rids a town of a monster who has been killing its people for over twelve years. While the author of this poem is unknown, he does an amazing job providing the reader with vivid details and an overall good story of the journey and life of Beowulf whom fights three monster to save the lives of others. The first monster Beowulf fights is Grendel, Grendel is monster who kills just to make others unhappy. While reading the story of the battle between Beowulf and Grendel, the reader learns of many similarities and differences between the two characters.

Throughout the story, Beowulf is described as the perfect hero with a big heart and great courage. Beowulf exemplifies the all the traits for the perfect hero during the three battles he encounters in the story, both in young and old age. During his youth, he is said to have the strength of thirty men and courage greater than any other person alive. A mix of these two traits help to shape Beowulf into the amazing warrior and hero he is in the story. The reader first learns about his strength when the story of the swimming

match between Beowulf and Breca is told. During this swimming match, Beowulf is said to have fought and killed every sea creature that threatened human life; however, this does not validate his reputation for hero. The first time Beowulf is officially validated as a hero, is after his first battle in the story. In this battle, Beowulf ends the life of a monster who has terrorized the same mead hall for over twelve years.
The first monster Beowulf fights is Grendel, who is the anti-hero in the story. He does not exemplify any traits for a hero; however, he does exemplifies the traits for the perfect villain. Grendel is compared to and described as a descendant of Cain, the first murderer in the Bible. This comparison of Grendel and Cain shows just how evil Grendel was in both the eyes of reader along with the eyes of the people of Heorot. He lives in a cave under water and only comes out at night to kill those whom are sitting in the mead hall. Grendel’s motivation for his killings is simple, he is a very selfish monster who kills simply because he wants to end the happy celebration that is occurring in the mean hall. Despite many efforts, everyone who has ever tried to kill Grendel has died. With that being said, Grendel is a very strong monster whom is also protected by a curse that allows no weapon to harm him. So when Beowulf rips Grendel’s arm off in the first battle, Grendel is both shocked a frightened. This fear results in Grendel running back to his cave and leaving his arm in the hands of Beowulf.
After learning about both Beowulf and Grendel, the reader realizes that the two characters have share a lot of similarities and differences.

Grendel being the anti-hero of the story and then Beowulf being the hero of the story. Both are very strong, Beowulf having the strength the thirty men and Grendel being a huge monster protected by a curse. However, Beowulf is a very selfless man whom shares his treasures to the soldiers who accompanied him in his battles. When offered the chance to become king, Beowulf refuses because the heirs of the throne had not served and died. With that being said, Grendel is very selfish monster whose motive was to darken the happiness and stop the celebrations of the people of Heorot. Beowulf is also a very loyal man while Grendel is loyal to no

one.
Despite these similarities and differences, both characters really bring a lot to the story and keep the reader on the edge of their seat. The author of the epic poem Beowulf does a great job and describing his characters and bringing them to life. The author also does an amazing job at providing vivid details for all three battles that Beowulf encounters. In return, the reader is able learn about the details about Beowulf and Grendel. This also gives them the opportunity to compare and contrast the hero and anti-hero of the story.