Beowulf is a hero who is constantly seeking fame and desires power. Though he has countless tales, the tale of Grendel and his mother are famous. Grendel and his mother were both monsters born of Cain and were very evil. Beowulf disarms Grendel, who dies from it after running and returning home, and beheads his mother, with Grendel’s mother giving him more of a challenge. During his battles with both Grendel and his mother, Beowulf shows that he grows stronger to meet the challenge and has a nature of seeking challenge to gain fame.
Beowulf in his battle with Grendel overpowers him from the start and does not have much of a challenge against him, because Beowulf is already strong and has no doubt had countless battles before. “Beowulf,
Higlac’s Follower and strongest of the Geats - greater and stronger then anyone anywhere in the world”(46). Beowulf has been hailed as the strongest in all of the world and wants to prove it to anyone and everyone. In order to be able to reach the strongest in the world you have to have a very competitive nature have the true nature of a hero. “Beowulf longed only for fame … fame comes to men who mean to win it and care about nothing else” (58). Beowulf would do anything for fame, even massacre an entire people. This says a vast amount of Beowulf’s character and his nature as a hero, as in he is very unforgiving and will does not care about the means. Beowulf has grown in power between his fights because he is willing to do anything to become more powerful, and in turn fame. Beowulf is a prince who will get what he wants done, or acquire fame, without caring about the means. In his battles he gets stronger because he constantly seeks stronger opponents and will find a means to take them down.
Another instance that Beowulf proves himself to have monstrous qualities is through the shoes of Grendel’s Mother according to Monster Theory. When Grendel’s Mother came to Heorot to avenge her son’s death she crossed territory that was not in her domain. In response, Beowulf killed her. In Thesis V: The Monster Polices the Borders of the Possible, Beowulf was a symbol of limitations of how Grendel’s Mother could act while grieving for the loss of her son.
as men. She has been sleeping down in her dark and dingy cave below the world
“Staring at his grotesquely muscled shoulders--stooped, naked despite the cold, sleek as the belly of a shark and as rippled with power as the shoulders of a horse--I found my mind wandering...He was dangerous” (155). Even from the first day Beowulf showed up at Hrothgar’s kingdom, Grendel knew he was dealing with something worse than a hero. Once they finally start to battle, the monster in Beowulf is fully revealed to Grendel and Grendel sees again the stupidity and meaninglessness in the human’s definition of a hero.“Grendel, Grendel! You make the world by whispers, second by second. Are you blind to that? Whether you make it a grave or a garden of roses is not the point. Feel the wall: is it not hard?...Hard, yes! Observe the hardness, write it down in careful runes. Now sing of walls! Sing!” (171). Beowulf forces Grendel to make a fool of himself and unlike Unferth who longs for a heroic death, Beowulf knows he is going to win and has no desire to die. His mindset of victory, groups him with monsters who have one goal, to kill and never be killed. This shatters the Anglo-Saxon ideals of heroism and in Grendel’s death, when he is surrounded by oblivious creatures who don’t have a purpose, the meaninglessness of it all, including the meaninglessness of heroic deeds becomes evident to the
The battle with Grendel’s mother differ from the battle with Grendel because when Beowulf fought with Grendel he used no weapon “my hands alone should fight for me” line 174. On the day of the battle, when Grendel saw Beowulf he was scared for the first time “ Grendel's one thought was to run from Beowulf, flee back to his marsh and hide there.” line 278 But when Beowulf fought with Grendel’s mother, at the beginning Beowulf was fighting for his live “ For the first time in years of being worn to war it would earn no glory” line 484 Beowulf was losing , she was to fast and “no sword could slice her evil skin.” He needed his weapons fight for him, and Grendel’s mother was not scared of his strength as Grendel
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.
An innocent, joyless, outcast lurks in the depths of the earth. He is feared by all due to his violent behavior and thirst for humans. Stories about this monster stretch across lands, intriguing the one and only Beowulf. In this notorious Epic, Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney, Grendel is the Frankenstein of this poem, the Joker of this time period, the Lord Voldemort of this book. Basically, Grendel is the villain and when there’s a villain there’s a hero. Our hero today is Beowulf, who challenges Grendel and he trounced not only Grendel but Grendel’s mother as well. Not only are Grendel and his mother villains but they also played the role of being the outcast/scapegoat. Symbolically they play the role
Beowulf’s life was truly epic struggle. The monsters he battled made it so. Grendel and the dragon, capable of crushing men physically, stood for evils that could just as easily crush men in spirit. These two beasts represented society’s greatest fears, as well as detriments, and Beowulf fearlessly took them on. Grendel taught the hero a valuable lesson about maintaining one’s humanity in a world dominated by the dogs of war. The dragon, showed Beowulf’s mortality, his imperfection, but the hero eradicates it nonetheless, saving his people from not only physical threat, but sin. Bringing in such spiritual and moral dimensions, these two beasts certainly give the story of Beowulf depth.
Beowulf was a true hero, in the eyes of many, through said traits. He fought a number of battles and was triumphant in all, except his last battle. Beowulf possessed the skills and power necessary to kill Grendel, the monster who had been terrorizing the Danes for over a decade, with his bare hands. While fighting, Beowulf detached Grendel’s arm from his shoulder, which was later hung up as a trophy. Beowulf eventually put an end to Grendel’s life, and naturally, Grendel’s mother had pursued Beowulf. Although Grendel’s mother was an even deadlier monster than her son, Beowulf once again proved his abilities by slaying her, as well. He slashed her neck with a sword that carried unbearable weight. Afterwards, he carried her head with only his own arms, while it took the a...
Throughout the story, Beowulf fights three battles against frightening monsters. Beowulf, the prince of the Geats, was a well known warrior with extreme strength who makes a promise to protect his people under any circumstance. In the poem, his strength is tested, but he uses it to save many people in battles against: Grendel, Grendel 's mother, and a dragon. Before, during, and after each of these battles Beowulf shows many similarities and differences in his actions.
He wakes up and sees all his man hanging from the ceiling, on the flood, all over the place dead, full of blood. Beowulf is not sure of what is happening, until he is told that it could only be Grendel’s Mother. Once again Beowulf wants to fight her, confront her and put an end to all of it. Grendel’s Mother symbolizes revenge, love, weakness, difference. As stated in Jane Chance’s essay “But unlike most mothers and queens, she fights her own battles” (Page 154). Grendels Mother shows us that after all Beowulf is weak. When it comes to fighting Grendel’s Mother, Beowulf wants to wear his
The qualities of the three Monsters in the novel Beowulf, Grendel, Grendel’s Mother and the Dragon are that they all share almost the same image that people would put them or describe them as being. The reason for Grendel and his mother having human qualities are as mentioned in the poem. Grendel is a descendant of the biblical Cain so that means that he shares a common side or connection with human beings. In the poem Grendel also have rational thoughts as well as outbursts of emotions. He gets angry at happiness or when people are having too much fun and making noise. Even though his anger is taken to a not human-like level he portrays violence towards people and then is considered a danger / the enemy. In Beowulf he seems as the people he observes. Other than his nasty eating habits and his
In the epic poem, Beowulf; there were many monsters that Beowulf had to fight off. But, there was three main monsters throughout the epic poem. These monsters consisted of Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the Dragon. Each of these monsters have their own unique characteristics and way of life. Such as, the way the poet made them out to look like and the places they called home. These are the key factors that we want to analyze, to find out why the poet created them that way and what the poet was aiming for when he thought of these unique characteristics.
The hero of Beowulf, one of the oldest written Germanic epics, is a leader of the Geats and a hero unlike all others before him. He is able to conquer foes that no one else can, and he charges into every battle with the full force that he can muster, without any of the encumbrances that others may have. His greatest desire is fame and glory, and he performs whatever difficult tasks he believes will bring him closer to that goal. Beowulf’s quest for power drives him to seek fame by challenging Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and finally a giant dragon that causes his death. Though Beowulf’s strength and courage lead him to power and its accompanying responsibility, the power that he accumulates has negative consequences for those who rely on him. This very thirst for power is Beowulf’s fatal flaw, causing him to ignore his duties towards his people and leave his kingdom unprotected and vulnerable; however, it also serves as the force that allows him to accomplish unbelievable feats.
The story of Beowulf is a heroic epic chronicling the illustrious deeds of the great Geatish warrior Beowulf, who voyages across the seas to rid the Danes of an evil monster, Grendel, who has been wreaking havoc and terrorizing the kingdom. Beowulf is glorified for his heroic deeds of ridding the land of a fiendish monster and halting its scourge of evil while the monster is portrayed as a repugnant creature who deserves to die because of its evil actions. In the epic poem, Beowulf the authors portrays Grendel as a cold-hearted beast who thrives on the pain of others. Many have disagreed with such a simplistic and biased representation of Grendel and his role in the epic poem. John Gardner in his book, Grendel set out to change the reader’s perception of Grendel and his role in Beowulf by narrating the story through Grendel’s point of view. John Gardner transforms the perceived terrible evil fiend who is Grendel into a lonely but intelligent outcast who bears a striking resemblance to his human adversaries. In Grendel, John Gardner portrays Grendel as an intelligent being capable of rational thought as well as displaying outbursts of emotion. He portrays Grendel as a hurt individual and as a victim of oppression ostracized from civilization. The author of Beowulf portrays Grendel as the typical monster archetype as compared to John Gardner’s representation of Grendel as an outcast archetype.
Beowulf’s first accomplishment as an epic hero was his battle with Grendel. Grendel was a huge beast, a descendent of Cain, who ruthlessly murdered innocent Danes because he felt pity for himself. Upon hearing of the Dane’s problem, Beowulf set off to help the Danish without having been called upon. Even though Beowulf had men backing him, He drew battle with Grendel alone and without armor or weapons. Yet, Beowulf emerged victorious with the arm of Grendel as his trophy. Beowulf then went on to kill Grendel’s vengeful mother and a huge fire-breathing dragon who thought it had been done wrong by the Geats. Alas, the killing of the dragon would be Beowulf’s last great battle for the dragon took Beowulf’s life in the struggle for his own.