Examples Of Kennings In Beowulf

236 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Beowulf compare and contrast movie and book

Old English and Old Norse poetry are known to commonly use kennings, which are compound expressions with metaphorical meanings. This is no exception in the epic poem, Beowulf. The 2007 movie based on the famous story took a similar approach, using metaphors, comparable to kennings, albeit slightly different, to describe the important events and characters within the story. Examples of these similarities are most evident in the scenes involving Grendel and his mother. Throughout Beowulf, both the poem and the movie, Grendel is portrayed as a gruesome creature who causes havoc on Heorot and its people. In the text, during his battle with Beowulf, Grendel is described as terror-monger (line 765). Along with being a terrifying beast, he is also

Show More
Related

  • Grendel Compare And Contrast Essay

    1268 Words  | 3 Pages

    Grendel in the Epic of Beowulf is portrayed as a monster, a creature that has no thoughts on who he kills.While in the movie Beowulf and Grendel(Gunnarsson 2005); he is much more human-like. In parts of the movie, thoughts are led to believe that in fact he is not out to kill random people he only harms those who have “hurt him”.This, in fact, leads to believe that Grendel from the film really wasn’t the bad guy:it shifted towards the fact that Hrothgar was the bad guy for killing Grendel 's father This ties to the fact that as we modernize we tend to need a reason to do things, most people will not endure things if in the end the end result they won 't benefit from it. Nevertheless, the film has changed the perspective and/ or natural view that one as a reader would have taken from the

    Read More

  • The Epic Poem, Beowulf - A Jungian Reading of Beowulf

    778 Words  | 2 Pages

    The epic poem, Beowulf, depicts the battles and victories of the Anglo-Saxon warrior Beowulf, over man-eating monsters. The noble defender, Beowulf, constantly fought monsters and beasts to rid the land of evil. The most significant of these monsters, Grendel, represents Beowulf's shadow, the Jungian archetype explored in the essay collection, Meeting the Shadow.

    Read More

  • Grendel And Beowulf: Humanizing The Monster

    833 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Elements Of Evil In Beowulf

    702 Words  | 2 Pages

    In times before printed books were common, stories and poems were passed from generation to generation by word of mouth. From such oral traditions come great epics such as England’s heroic epic, Beowulf. In Beowulf, the monster Grendel serves as the evil character acting against the poem’s hero, as shown by his unnatural strength, beast-like qualities, and alienation from society.

    Read More

  • Beowulf And Grendel Comparison Essay

    712 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the poem, Beowulf, Grendel is depicted as a monstrous, evil villain that possesses a few human-like qualities: such as the ability to walk on two feet. However, his most notable characteristic that occupies his mind and body in the poem is the constant mindset and actions of primitive human tendencies. This quote conveys Grendel’s primitive ways as the humans perceived it. “The monster’s thoughts were as quick as his greed or his claws: he slipped through the door and there in the silence snatched up thirty men, smashed them unknowing in their beds and ran out with their bodies…” (Raffel 8). His lust for blood of the human race, alongside their Christian views, forced Beowulf and others to view

    Read More

  • Theme Of Cruelty In Beowulf

    1407 Words  | 3 Pages

    Grendel, the monster terrorizing Heorot, is introduced as being estranged from the rest of the world. He is described as an outsider, a descendant of “Cain’s clan” (107). Grendel’s outcast status leaves him living in darkness, his envy growing the more he hears the celebrations of the Danes. Envy and social status motivate Grendel’s cruelty, filling him with anger towards those who are human. When Beowulf and the Geats arrive, it is not solely out of honor that Beowulf vows to kill the beast. Beowulf’s father, Ecgtheow, had an unpaid debt at the time of his death. Beowulf’s pledge that he would kill Grendel was a repayment, as well as an honorable feat. However, as Beowulf is introduced, the boasts he makes of his heroic feats and his “awesome strength” (29), only prove his barbarity. He boasts that “they had seen me boltered in the blood of enemies when I battled and bound five beasts, raided a troll-nest and in the night-sea slaughtered sea brutes” (419-422). He goes on to blame the enemies for the vengeance that he wrought upon them. Beowulf dehumanizes his enemies, states that they were foul beasts who tainted the land, and he purified it. This is a sadistic view of life and battle, contrasting cruelty for the

    Read More

  • Grendel Criticism

    1031 Words  | 3 Pages

    However, this stranger is unlike any human Grendel has ever met before. When Grendel attacks the mead hall that night, he discovered that this stranger is not only much stronger and smarter than he imagined, he is also much more cruel. “He’s crazy. I understand him all right, make no mistake. Understand his lunatic theory of matter and mind, the chilly intellect, the hot imagination, blocks and builder, reality as stress” (Gardner 172). This insane man is actually the hero Beowulf. However, in this story, Beowulf is portrayed as one of the worst humans of them all. He cannot just kill Grendel, he has to see Grendel suffer up to his death. He forces Grendel to sing and humiliates him in front of the other men. This unearthly cruelty is what finally took down Grendel. But it also shows that even though Grendel was physically the monster, that he was not the worst creature on earth. Grendel was not as cruel as Beowulf; in the end, man becomes the monster and the monster becomes the

    Read More

  • Discrepancies In Beowulf

    1069 Words  | 3 Pages

    Several differences exist in the Modern day movie Beowulf and Grendel (Gunnarsson) and the Old English Epic Beowulf (Heaney). These differences can largely be attributed to the discrepancies in cultural values that exist between the medieval mind and that of the modern man. One of the main differences between them involves the characters’ personalities and attitudes. We can see this characteristic, particularly in Beowulf himself, mainly because in the epic his perspective reflects his limited understanding regarding the relationship between evil and good. Likewise, in the movie Beowulf and Grendel, the viewer sees a Beowulf who learns to possess an outlook on life that suggests a more complex

    Read More

  • Grendel Is Evil Analysis

    1095 Words  | 3 Pages

    He is evil not because he was born evil, and not because it was destined that he would become evil, but because the world told him he was, and eventually he believed. Grendel resigns to a mode of being that is the easiest for him- and that may be just what make him so intriguing. It is not the fact that Grendel is Bad that makes him a compelling protagonist; that alone would almost surely not be enough. He is an engaging, almost likeable, main character precisely because he lapses into evil like a habit, like a role to be filled, like any number of the habits and roles the book’s audience might fulfill themselves. Grendel is important because he is, by the book’s end, purely evil. He is malevolent, chaotic, maniacal, and violent. He is everything a storybook antagonist should be, yet the reader still feels for him. It is there that the power of Grendel’s story lies- in his complexity. The novel’s refusal to accept the simple themes and characterization in Beowulf makes it refreshing, and, in a sense, more real; Grendel is not a tale that allows readers to escape the world, but one that forces them to vividly examine its most gruesome realities, and to imagine that even the worst of monsters

    Read More

  • Comparing Grendel and Cyberbullies: Modern Monsters

    890 Words  | 2 Pages

    “...A powerful monster, living down/ In the darkness…” (Beowulf, lines 2-3). Throughout the epic poem Beowulf, Grendel was portrayed as a malicious creature with characteristics of an Anglo-Saxon monster. Grendel is envious, angry, and resentful toward mankind. Grendel is the main monster in this epic, which many of the people in Herot feared. By killing many people at once Grendel created a fear that lived in people because of his cowardice, greedy, and inhumane attacks, much like social media and cyberbullying. Many people who sit behind their computer or phone screen posses many of the same traits as Grendel.

    Read More

  • What Are The Effects Of Grendel's Self Image

    679 Words  | 2 Pages

    The stars said nothing, but I pretended to ignore the rudeness” (Gardner 53). No matter where Grendel is, he always finds himself feeling alone with noone to talk to. Grendel went from being a scary creature that everyone was scared of and then ended up being a creature that was mellow and had feeling and emotions. He would get scared and was always lonely. “...I will move from bed to bed and destroy them all, swallow every last man” (Gardner 168). Grendel came to hate the humans and would do anything to end them all. He had changed majorly from how he started. The first character that has affected Grendel’s personality is Beowulf. Beowulf is the only one who can deliver pain or physical harm on Grendel. Towards the end of the book Grendel has a vision of Beowulf growing wings and breathing fire. “...lit by the flickering fire in the stranger’s eyes. He has wings” (Gardner

    Read More

  • Sympathy in Beowulf

    1361 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first opponent Beowulf must face in the land of the Danes is Grendel, textually described as “a fiend out of hell … [a] grim demon / haunting the marches, / marauding round the heath / and the desolate fens” (Beowulf, line 100 – 104). The author also provides us with a moral description, explaining how Grendel is “merciless … malignant by nature, he never showed remorse” (line 135-137). As we can see here, the author’s physical and moral portrayal of Grendel is rather unforgiving. We also resent Grendel further once we learn that he has wreaked havoc upon the Heorot hall for twelve years, “inflicting constant cruelties on the people / atrocious hurt” (line 165).

    Read More

  • Depictions of Grendel in Beowulf by Seamus Heaney

    548 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the story Beowulf by Seamus Heaney, Grendel is a slimy green swamp monster that has human emotions but is portrayed as a hideous beast and an outcast of the Anglo-Saxon society.

    Read More

  • Beowulf Vs. Grendel

    551 Words  | 2 Pages

    Grendal is known as a monster and portrays one of the many villains in the poem. He is referred to as the "guardian of his sins". Grendal depicts a heathen the physical image of man estranged from God. Basically, Grendal reflects a physical monster, an ogre who is hostile to humanity. Grendal’s constant visits to Hrothgar’s mead hall for bloody feasts made him feel powerful over God’s humanity. Unfortunately, the night Beowulf lies in wait for him, he assumes that his bloody feasts will continue and Grendal gives no attention to his method of attack. Grendal is then killed.

    Read More

  • A Comparison of Beowulf and Grendel

    947 Words  | 2 Pages

    The author of Beowulf demonizes Grendel by depicting him as being purely a monster as compare to John Gardner who depicts Grendel not as a savage monster but as an intelligent being who has human like qualities and characteristics. In the traditional story Grendel is depicted as a blood-thirsty fiend driven by his greedy animal instincts. ...

    Read More

More about Examples Of Kennings In Beowulf

Open Document