Comparing Beowulf And Grendel

John Gardner author of Grendel and an Unknown author of Beowulf wrote these to compare one another into one mega story. Grendel is about a "monster" who has been at war with humans for over 12 years. Over time he became fascinated by the way that humans live. At the end, Beowulf fights Grendel, and Beowulf pulled his arm off, and then runs away. Beowulf is about how the Danes built a great mead hall to gather and Grendel came and ruined it, killing a lot of the Danes in the process. Beowulf accepts Hrothgar's favor to fight Grendel, and Beowulf goes off and boasts about his accomplishments. He fights Grendel and wins! Towards the end, Beowulf dies due to a dragon bite. Grendel does not deserve sympathy because he invaded the Mead Hall, killed humans, and was irredeemable. Grendel invades the Mead Hall unwelcome by the humans. Gardner writes, "...I was Grendel, Ruiner of Mead Halls, Wrecker of Kings!" (80). Before Grendel entered the Mead Hall he bit the head off of a Scyldging guard. That marked the beginning of his 12th winter war with Hrothgar's Danes. Grendel is showing off his power to make sure the Danes know he is powerful and dangerous. The unknown author says, "Till the monster stirred, that demon, that

Listening to two opposite sides of a story is crucial. Paying close attention to what each other side has to say about the other, and connect the things that match and to find the truth buried in between the gaps in each side. Being a mediator for both sides helps everybody find out what went wrong on both sides why someone thought what they thought. Overcoming a fight with someone where the reader had little to no detail about why the characters [Grendel and Beowulf] are fighting. Open to growth shows the reader that even in one book there are still many more sides in another one, and it is up to the reader to find out what is going