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Grendel: The Real Monster In Beowulf

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Monsters, hideous ferocious beasts, or just things that bring us down , are obstacles everyone encounters in life. Times have changed since the almighty Beowulf fought Grendel, the evil hairy monster. In modern times, evil hairy beasts are not so easy to come by. The term monster has changed with the times, becoming more of a symbol than anything. It was easy to believe in such a beast as Grendel in the times of Beowulf. Back then, there were so many mysteries in the world. There was little hard evidence to prove what was fact and what was a belief. Story-telling was a big form of entertainment for the people of these times. Imaginations roamed wild with mythical creatures. A prime example of a monster to the Anglo-Saxons is Grendel. 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).
Grendel, encompassing all of the bad in …show more content…

It was easy to see black and white, bad and good. There wasn't much gray area to them. They believed what they believed and didn’t consider alternatives. They were, as we view it now, strict and traditional. "Behaviour that's admired / is the path to power among people everywhere" (Heaney 24-25). It is easy to say Grendel's behavior as they knew it was not admired. They did not consider Grendel's side of the story or try to understand him. They saw their side and their side only. If they considered someone a monster, they were a monster no questions asked. They would do anything to destroy the monsters and protect their families. A monster to them had no good in it. Guilty until proven innocent, only they didn't give the monsters a chance to prove

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