Grendel let’s the animals know that his fate will soon happen to him and he knows this, but the animals are not understood they are just looking at him slowly die. “Overcome by both terror and joy, Grendel whispers to them, “Poor Grendel’s had an accident. . . . So may you all” (Gardner 12). Grendel whisper’s the quote and is overcome with joy because he never knew that the animals were so calm and that they wouldn’t attack him for unexplainable reasons and he is terrified because he remembers all the times that he was attacked or spooked off by the animals. Finally, Grendel is done with life he get’s to the cliff and sits there thinking about what’s going to happen in his life flashes before his eyes and he thinks of how Beowulf got him and claims it was an accident because she slipped on blood, so he runs out of the hall.
Nevertheless, I don 't recall hearing any glorious deeds of yours, except that you murdered your brothers. You 'll prowl the stalagmites of hell for that, friend Unferth—clever though you are" (Gardner 162). This clearly justifies the fact that Grendel is not a devious and destructive creature. In the quote Beowulf is boasting and smack talking and Grendel doesn 't do this much at all. So this is clearly conveying in my opinion that that Beowulf has a chance to stop the fighting and madness but he continues to boast and stir Grendel up.
Grendel’s story is not only from his perspective, but it also starts far before Beowulf enters the picture. Grendel does not even know of man’s existence before he encountered Hrothgar whom he starts to fear when he says “I knew I was dealing with no dull mechanical bull but with thinking creatures, pattern makers. The most dangerous things I’d ever met” (pg 27). His first encounter with these men left him wanting more. He spent most nights watching them in the shadows, trying to make sense of their actions.
He is portrayed in the poem as a horrendous beast with human characteristics, but looking closer to the text, he is a human out-casted and raised to be a monster. Although Grendel is written as a monstrous villain who kills with no remorse, he is actually a complex human with a repressed anger exploding in bursts. Grendel is often described in a negative way. He is reffered to as a demon in the text “from Beowulf”
When Grendel is battling Beowulf he thinks that he can escape and that he is no match for Beowulf . For instance , “ His syllables lick at me, chilly fire.” (Grendel 170) . Grendel
In lines 432-438, “That shepherd of evil, guardian of crime, knew at once that nowhere on earth had he met a man whose hands were harder; his mind was flooded with fear-but nothing could take his talons and himself from that tight hard grip. Grendel’s one thought was to run from Beowulf, flee
The Beowulf poet doesn’t describe Grendel and his mother’s appearance because it makes people imagine how the giant monster is supposed to look like. Yes, the poet should have left a brief description of their appearance. When people can imagine the monster’s looks they can make it look scary by their standards. People have different ideas of what they would find scary, and if they get a detailed description of a monster they might not find that monster’s image as scared as it could be. They can imagine if Grendel’s claws are strength and sharp like a knife or are curved and thin like a cat’s claws.
In the epic poem it says, "Grendel's one thought was to run from Beowulf, flee back to his marsh and hide there" (Beowulf 314-315). This quote explains that the people at Meadhall believed that Grendel was startled by the way the people responded back on his attack. This makes the readers think that Grendel was not confident enough to take the people at Meadhall down because of his fearful view. In this attack from Grendel, in the novel he not viewed as if he was terrified but in the epic poem he was, however, this part of the stories was then lead by his
All until “a hero” came to defeat him. One of the main things that lead people to believe that Grendel could be a human rather than a monster is the way that he reacts to Beowulf coming after him. There are many stories of the hero defeating the monster, but in nearly all of those tales the monster stood his ground, did not cower at the thought that he may die. This was the complete opposite of how Grendel
This is the beginning of Grendel falling directly into the role that the dragon said he would need to fill. Grendel’s murderous tendencies completely reflect the monstrous side of his personality and the more he kills the more he grows insane, separating from rational, humanistic thought. “I am swollen with excitement, bloodlust and joy and a strange fear that mingle in my chest like the twisting rage of a bone-fire... I am blazing, half-crazy with joy” (168). It is clear that, by the time Beowulf arrives, Grendel has embraced the fact that he is required to be evil, despite the fact that he previously claimed he would oppose that destiny.
Compare with his encounter with the dragon. Beowulf treated Grendel as an equal by facing him his bare strength alone. “The prince of the Geats was putting his trust in his great strength and in God's favor. Off came the hero's iron mailcoat and hard helmet; he handed over his trusty sword to an attendant thane and asked him to safekeep all that war-gear (X)”. Beowulf’s confidence comes from his belief that he not matters how monstrous Grendel was, he isn’t invincible.
He states, “A shock goes through me. Mistake!”. Grendel realizes he has been tricked because Beowulf’s eyes were open. What disturbs Grendel most is when Beowulf whispers to him “spilling words like showers of sleet, his mouth three inches from my ear. I will not listen.
Grendel attacks the Danes because he is an evil creature, and hates the happiness of the Danes in the Heorot hall. All the noise that the men make causes Grendel to become very irritated and does not want them to be celebrating and partying at all. Grendel's attacks kills many Dane warriors. Grendel wants to kill every single warrior that is the Heorot hall. The only thing that can help the men stay alive is if they are not in the Heorot hall.
At this point in the poem, it has been fifty years since Beowulf crushed Grendel and Grendel’s mother; therefore, Beowulf is now fairly old. However, despite his age, he insists on fighting the dragon. He says, “I feel no shame, with shield and sword/And armor, against this monster: when he comes to me/ I mean to stand, not run from his shooting/Flames, stand till fate decides/Which of us wins.” (page 57, lines 635-639).
Knowing Grendel he will die before having his community slaughtered by the humans who locked them away. Grendel tell the men how they will have to go to war soon with Beowulf and they would have to be ready for any foul play. As a leader Grendel had an abundant amount of composer, but on the inside he was filled with fear. He knew what he had to do, he had to train his army because he knew he could not do it alone. Grendel dismisses the meeting and goes into hiding in his secret lair.
