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Grendel: The Evil Monster In Beowulf

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Recommended: The religious portrayal of beowulf

At the beginning, we are introduced to Grendel ─ the evil monster ─ described as a powerful monster growing in pain as there is music in the Mead Hall. Hence, one wonders whether Grendel should be pitied, as some Danish fellows were playing loud music bothering him. Grendel is also referred to as demon from hell. Besides there is also an allusion to Cain ─ the oldest son of Adam and Eve who murdered his brother Abraham. That is why he is described as a violent creature. It is important to know how destructive he is since he managed to slaughter 30 people with nearly no effort at all. In fact, he is extraordinally violent. However, this mighty monster is not protected from everything for he cannot touch the throne. In addition, this is where divine intervention lies because it is protected by God, which …show more content…

Beowulf epic poem has been touched by Christianity. Some of the questions that were raised by critics are: Was this a pagan poem that had some Christian additions in it? Do these Christian additions change the poem?

In 1936, JRR Tolkien wrote an article called “Beowulf: the monsters and the critics”. Tolkien ’s findings lend support to the claim that Beowulf is centrally a pre-Christian poem with a few Christian details since the poet who wrote this epic was a Christian who was looking back on pre-Christian past with admiration and some nostalgia. Instances of this evidence is when he called Grendel a descendant of Cain, the story of Noah’s flood is inscribed in the sword with which he intended to kill Grendel’s mother, and in the Mead Hall a scop sings a song of creation that seems to have been taken from the book of genesis. Some other evidence to support this view, is the one described by Tacitus in his book “Germania” 1st century

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Passed down through various societies for multiple generations, the poem Beowulf is a true literary masterpiece. While first spread by word of mouth, the work was later transcribed, translated, and transformed into numerous forms of literature and media. Due to this, we know that their is not one true Beowulf. As Professor Martin Foys once said, “each generation gets the version of Beowulf it deserves”. These various adaptations led to differing tales of the conquests of Beowulf, as is the case with the first of the three agons, Beowulf’s clash with Grendel.

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The obvious monster which dominates Part I of Beowulf is Grendel. This “fiend out of hell” (Heaney 100) represents everything nasty about

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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”

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“Merciless Grendel struck again with more gruesome murders” (Beowulf 11) shows that Grendel is a wicked murder. The Danes see Grendel as a monster who is “insensible to pain and human sorrow” and “never showed remorse” (11). Notably, the Danes think of Grendel as a creature who has no emotions, but just as one of Cain’s descendants who goes around killing people for his own fulfillment of joy. Grendel’s actions of violence can also be seen from Gardner’s Grendel, “I tore off sly old Athelgard’s head... here I killed the old woman with the irongray hair.”

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1. What exactly makes Grendel a monster? The story of Grendel promotes both sympathy and empathy to the reader, instead of the idea of him being a monster from the perspective of Beowulf. With Grendel narrating the story, his behavior and thought processes can be logically explained and justified.

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Grendel is the villain so many people through history were told about. He was the monster that haunted their nightmares. Then a powerful demon, a prowler through the dark, nursed a hard grievance. It harrowed him to hear the din of the loud banquet every day in the hall, the harp being struck and the clear song of a skilled poet telling with mastery of man's beginnings (Heaney 86-91).

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Complete isolation is not the only contributing factor to Grendel’s savage raids and aggressive behavior. The label and detestation that he receives from the humans themselves prove this. Ironically, the society who dubbed Grendel “evil” is the same society that tormented him to the point of consuming humans. The reason that Grendel is even debated to be evil is because of the humans that showed him hatred and brutality. At their first meeting, Grendel narrates, “Darts like hot coals went through my legs and arms and I howled more loudly still,” (Gardner 27).

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The cultural influences of Christianity can be traced to the presence of monsters in Beowulf. The depiction of the monster Grendel is a reflection of demons in Biblical nature. His existence itself “among the banished monsters, Cain’s clan, whom the Creator had outlawed and condemned as outcasts” (David and Simpson 44) prove that as Grendel is a descendant of Cain, who killed his own brother Abel, he is an evil figure that stems from a Christian symbol of evil. Nonetheless, as Grendel is a spawn of Cain, Goldsmith argues that the poet wants to show the battle with Grendel “is part of the uncompoundable feud between God’s people and the race of Cain”(Goldsmith). Furthermore, while the battle to defeat Grendel is one to protect home and hearth by banishing evil, it is also an inevitable battle that will be forever connected between Christians and Cain’s offspring.

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Beowulf and Grendel can be compared and contrast in many ways. Beowulf is a prince and more like a hero. Grendel is a monster, he is mean and selfish. They both are strong and very powerful. Also, both of them are a murder.

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Critically assess the extent of Christian and Latinate influence on Beowulf. When first reading Beowulf it would appear that the Christian references within it superimpose onto the essentially pagan view that makes a huge body of the poem. Therefore, within this assignment, there will be investigations of inconsistencies. Sources clearly show that Beowulf was written by Germanic pagans that had been debauched by some leftist ecclesiastic wordsmith , to the insistence that the author designedly created the Christian allegory along the lines of Book 1 of The Faerie Queen. It is know that Germanic traditions and techniques were used by Anglo-Saxons to frame Christian literature, just as it was with the poet of Beowulf.

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It is later mentioned when Beowulf fights the dragon, which leads to his own demise because he went against wyrd, or his destined path. Christianity may have adopted several ideals from paganism so it can be stated that there are aspects of Christianity that existed in Paganism. The original story is told the story is told in late medieval Anglo-Saxon Britain, which has been Christianized, but it's about early medieval Scandinavia, which is pagan. The narrator of the poem compromises by making constant references to God's decrees in general terms, but never discussing Jesus or the specific tenets of Christianity. Although the poet can't get away from the fact that his hero, Beowulf, would have been a pagan, he can suggest that Beowulf's trust in God translates easily into a Christian context.

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The Beowulf poem and the Poetic Edda A comparison between Norse and Anglo-Saxon literature There are some texts that have changed and formed our view on literary history, and two of the more notable pieces are The Beowulf poem and the Poetic Edda. The two have redefined our view on the literary past of both England and Scandinavia and have laid the foundation for what we acknowledge as literature. J.R.R Tolkien wrote in his Essay Beowulf: The monsters and the critics ”Barely all the censure, and most of the praise, that has been bestowed on The Beowulf has been due either to the belief that it was something that it was not — for example, primitive, pagan, Teutonic, an allegory (political or mythical), or most often, an epic; or to disappointment at the discovery that is was itself not something that the scholar would have liked better — for example, a heathen heroic lay, a history of Sweden, a manual of German antiquities, or a Nordic Summa Theologica.” He continues to debate for the poems importance as literature, instead of as a historical document.

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Being an epic hero, Beowulf was very brave and battled many immortal creatures. One monster he came across was Grendel. “Conceived by a pair of the monster born of Cain, murderous creatures banned by God..,”(44), Hrothgar’s men would say. This is a reference from the Bible, showing the evil portrayed in the monster Grendel. This monster went to Herot and killed thirty men just because he was hungry.

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The Christian influence in Beowulf’s epic adds certain meaning and connotations for the events that are happening within the story. Without it, many implications written would hold no meaning, and instead appear to be completely random and without any reason. In Beowulf’s fight against Grendel’s mother, Beowulf managed to survive a fatal blow due to miracles created by God (Seamus, pg 107). If Christianity is taken out and God is removed from the story, Beowulf’s survival would’ve been very unlikely or he was truly lucky. A moment after, however, Beowulf stumbled upon a lucky encounter once again; a godsend sword that is able to slay Grendel’s mother was just hanging around the cave walls (pg. 107-108).

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His main goal is to cause harm, yet he is never satisfied with the cruelties he

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