Grendel As An Epic Hero In Beowulf

An epic is a long narrative poem, in which heroic characters do tremendous deeds and go on great adventures. These poems represent something very special for nations or a people, as the actions that take place in the narrative are very important to them. The classic epics that will be discussed will be of Anglo-Saxon time, and this was the era where England housed Germanic tribes up until the conquest of the Normans. A very crucial part of these long poems is the epic hero. The epic hero is the central figure that reflects the values and heroic ideals of a particular society. In the three classic epics of Beowulf, “Gilgamesh”, and “The Iliad book 22”, a pattern of three specific literary elements can be seen, a conflict of man versus nature,

There are two instances of revenge in Beowulf, “Grendel’s mother is hidden in her terrible home, in a place you’ve not seen. Seek it, if you dare!”(Beers 25), and “The hoard-guard recognized a human voice, the time was over for peace and parleying. Pouring forth in a hot battle fume, the breath of the monster burst from the rock” (Beers 34). These two quotes show revenge as in the first one, Grendel’s mother has sought out revenge for the killing of her son on the people and in the second one, the dragon seeks revenge as a slave stole some of its treasure so it rains terror on the people of the land. “I will defeat him in his cedar forest. The youth of Uruk need this fight” (Mason 48), shows the first instance of revenge in “Gilgamesh”, as it shows that Gilgamesh has a desire to end the control that Humbaba has had on the people and seek revenge for all those years. Ishtar, the goddess of love and war, is seeking revenge also in this epic as she develops feelings for Gilgamesh without him returning the favor so she is out to get him back (Mason 52). This highlights revenge well, as she is successful in her plot and is the one who leads to the conflict between Gilgamesh and Enkidu, which results in Enkidu receiving the death penalty from the gods. Lastly, the two parts of revenge from “The Iliad book 22” can be seen here, “No more escape for you-Athena will kill you with

“He twisted in pain, and the bleeding sinews deep in his shoulder snapped, muscle and bone split and broke”(Beers 24), and “Men at arms, remain here on the barrow, safe in your armour, to see which one of us is better in the end at the bearing wounds in a deadly fray”(Beers 33), both come from Beowulf. The trait of high physical strength can be seen in the first quote as Beowulf takes down Grendel on his own and the second quote shows the epic hero quality of a strong leader as Beowulf wants his men to stay behind and be safe. From the epic Gilgamesh, the traits of battle skillfulness, and the desire to succeed can be seen through the quotes “And then he raised his ax up higher and swung it in a perfect arc into Humbaba’s neck” (Mason 53), and “I want to prove him not the awesome thing we think he is and that the boundaries set up by gods are not unbreakable. I will defeat him in his cedar forest” (Mason 48). The first quote shows the epic hero’s remarkable skill in battle which is important to an epic hero on his or her adventures and the other quote shows the passion that Gilgamesh has to achieve something, and this type of drive is needed in an epic hero. In the last of the last epic, “The Iliad book 22”, epic hero traits can be seen as well. The first quote “No more running from you in fear, Achilles! Not as before.