Who Is Hrothgar's Loyalty In Beowulf

When readers are introduced to Grendel, he is a melodramatic creature who has no one to truly understand him. His emotions contribute to Grendel is caught in situations where he tries to interact but there is a barrier. When he encounters humans they fear him because of how violent he is or seems to be, but they retaliate with the same violence. The irony in this passage is that humans are attacking him because

Grendel, because of his lineage from Cain, was exiled from the human world. This causes Grendel to not be able to fully think through his actions. He kills the Danes and fights Beowulf because of the deep emotion of loneliness that overcomes him. If the reader looks only at Grendel as a monster or demon, he will be considered evil and therefore Beowulf is honored as a great hero. By seeing Grendel more humanely the reader can see him more as a human rather than a monster. The circumstances that Grendel has grown up in has caused him to act out with evil tendencies. “I tried to tell her all that had happened, all that I’d come to understand: the meaningless objectness of the world, the universal bruteness. She only stared, troubled at my noise. She’d forgotten all language long ago, or maybe had never known any.” (Gardner 28) This quote shows how little communication Grendel had with anyone in the outside world. He was not able to express any of his thoughts due to the fact that his mother was incompetent and did not speak. “Why can’t I have someone to talk to? I said. The stars said nothing, but I pretended to ignore the rudeness.” (Gardner 53) Those who believe Grendel is evil do not acknowledge the whole reason that there is a hateful relationship between Grendel and the Humans. The failure to communicate lead to confusion and fear which lead to the attacks made by Grendel or the humans. If Grendel was not as isolated in his

From all of this, the only real explanation for his war on the Danes is this: Grendel is pure evil. “So Hrothgar 's men lived happy in his hall till the monster stirred, that demon, that fiend, Grendel, who haunted the moors” (Beowulf 1: Line 15). Hrothgar 's men, firstly, provoked Grendel simply by being happy. Any demon such as Grendel hates happiness and wants nothing but to steal, kill, and destroy that happiness in someone 's life. Throughout Beowulf, Grendel is called many names, and demon, monster, and fiend are the most frequent. It is no wonder he loved killing. Grendel was born into evil, said to be a descendant of Cain, the world 's first murderer. Grendel 's mother was evil herself, being a sea serpent who did not stray from indulging in evil either. One the fact of Grendel being evil, one piece of evidence stands above them all. “Killing as often as he could, coming alone, bloodthirsty, and horrible. Though he lived in Herot, when the night hid him, he never dared to touch King Hrothgar 's glorious throne; protected by God” (Beowulf 2: Line 80). God is good, and He will always triumph. Grendel knew he could not match the power of God, who loved Hrothgar 's throne. If Grendel were to

For starters, The Dragon becomes a mentor throughout the book for Grendel as he plans his raid on Hrothgar’s meadhall. As you can see, Grendel begins to realize The Dragon has a point, “‘Now you know how they feel when they see you.’ He had a point. From now on I’d stay clear of them,” (Gardner 60). Grendel then is given the advice from The Dragon to seek out gold and to guard it, which he tries to do. Grendel’s self-image changes when he is given a charm placed on him by The Dragon. For instance, he says, “i discovered that the dragon had put a charm on me… my heart became darker because of this,” (Gardner 76). This comes to show that Grendel now is powerful because of the charm, and this has caused him to be able to walk into the meadhall whenever and begin killing every once in awhile as he pleased; however the dragon, being his mentor, influenced him to have no intention of terrifying Hrothgar.

Hrothgar, King of the Danes, did not lead by example thus influencing his followers in a negative manner. His main characteristics include Cowardice, Godliness, and Sadness. When negative characteristics are displayed, those following or looking to the person in question have no choice but to doubt the abilities of those in leadership.

TV cameras have a knack for only picking up the good things world leaders do. These shots are meant to paint someone like the US President in a positive light. It turns out even epics from Anglo-Saxon times would do everything they could to make their kings seem great and generous, but as with everything else there is a side not seen by the public eye. In the epic of Beowulf a king named Hrothgar is seen on the outside as the greatest and most generous king the land had ever seen, but on the inside he is much more human. Hrothgar like all great leaders comes with many flaws. He is very similar to current and past world leaders and brings a new meaning to the word “great.” Despite being thought about in a positive light he certainly has his warts. These include his heavy drinking habit, a lack of self control, and no desire whatsoever to be king of the Danes.

“As now warriors sang of their pleasures: so Hrothgar’s men live happy in his hall”(ll. 14-15). These actions of celebration are what cause Grendel to attack. The people had been celebrating,

Grendel is a horrible beast who massacres king Hrothgar’s people, but he does respect his ability to command his people. Hrothgar is an older man who has grown his empire's wealth and its military. He has no eligible successors and so he must maintain his throne until his two sons Unferth and Hrethric are of age. Hrothgar does this with several methods like marriage, ring-giving, and Beowulf. The choices Hrothgar makes is the reason he is seen as good king and that is why Grendel despises him enough to murder.

As he is described to us, he is portrayed as a descendent of Cain. The association that the monster posesses with the biblical Cain, the killer of his own brother, automatically shows Grendel as an evil creature being. Grendel’s evil nature is being constantly referred to many times throughout the poem, in order to prove his cruel goals. The reader learns that “times were peasant” in Herot until the “fiend out of hell began to work his evil”. The first time Grendel attacks the meadhall, he grabs thirty men and slaughters them in his cave. And the more he came the more he took, the more he took - the more he murdered. Furthermore, not only he is a deadly enemy to Hrothgar and Herot, but to all the living Geats.. Grendel seems to receive pleasure from attacking Herot and killing the warriors inside. He is a bane to all those living under the rule of Hrothgar. They hate him. He is said to be the “enemy of mankind”. The only person who could possibly defeat such a

This statement rings true in the tale. Grendel’s use of violence is just as justified as the men that fought and left all of the cattle to rot in chapter 3. These many similarities tie Grendel and the Danes together. In Grendel’s mind they need each other. He thinks that Hrothgar and himself are now one, and Grendel causes Hrothgar to have a dream about how reliant the two are on each other.

First, Grendel is an angry demon who has been attacking Hrothgar’s Kingdom and hurting the villagers for twelve years. Some people refer Grendel as, “Grim demon”. Beowulf is informed about Grendel destroying the kingdom and hurting innocent people. One night Grendel had struck Beowulf’s men with his brutal strength. After Grendel slaughtered all the men, Beowulf walked up to Grendel tried to grab, but Beowulf grabbed Grendel’s arm and held onto him with a firm grip. Grendel was trying his best to escape Beowulf because of his brute strength. For example, “you could hear Grendel’s claws cracking.” Beowulf through Grendel’s urge to rip Grendel’s whole arm and part of his chest off. Beowulf watched as Grendel died slowly from the amount of blood loss.

Grendel starts out, clearly, as the monster of the story of Beowulf. When first introduced in the story, Grendel is coming out of the hole that he lives in the marsh. He is introduced similarly to a spawn of Satan, “bearing God’s hatred, Grendel came, hoping to kill” (trans. Raffel 393-394). He attacks Hrothgar’s hall, Heorot, often and Beowulf has agreed to take him down, although, it was thought to be impossible. Grendel is cannibalistic and takes pride in his actions of killing King Hrothgar’s warriors. He comes up to the hall and looks in, seeing the warriors scattered and sleeping, “his heart laughed, he relished the sight, intended to tear the life from the bodies” (trans. Raffel 410-414). Based off of this quotation, Grendel is nothing

The idea of Grendel is based on a poem "Beowulf". The story revolves around the fight between good and evil in the life. Beowulf was the hero who faced three monsters and had to fight them. Grendel is categorized as a demon that had some human characteristics. He has qualities of dragons. Thus fighting with Grendel was not like an ordinary fight with a human being since Grendel had some extraterrestrial powers. In the story, Beowulf fought and killed Grendel but it is not known if Grendel's mother took revenge for killing of her son or not.

In the wrath of Grendel, Grendel is said to be a descent of Cain who kills thirty warriors and rules the Danes for twelve years. Hrothgar and his people looked for solutions to drive Grendel out and therefore, turned to the devil for help. In the coming of beowulf, beowulf leaves Geatland to purge evil from the Danes. He convinces Hrothgar to kill Grendel and they come with a plan that involves sacrificing one of Beowulf’s men. In the battle with Grendel, Grendel kills one of Beowulf’s men and the fight between both individuals begins. Beowulf brakes Grendel’s arm and as an act of reparation he hangs it from the rafters for everyone to see. In the battle with Grendel’s mother, Beowulf decides to go down to the lake where Grendel’s mother lives

The decision of the narrator to take out necessary explanatory details from the epic poem does not help the reader to understand why certain situations occurred. In the epic, the narrator immediately depicts Grendel as the antagonist, a person who is actively hostile towards someone, “conceived by a pair of those monsters born of Cain, murderous creatures banished by God,” (Anonymous, 40). The comparison between Grendel and Cain, the oldest son of Adam and Eve who murdered his brother Abel, shows the authors’ perceived tone towards the monster and opens up the storyline. The narrator goes on to tell that since Grendel is merely this horrible creature he goes to Herot, King Hrothgar’s mead hall, snatches up thirty of Hrothgar’s men, smashes them, and then runs out with their bodies dripping of blood without any reason at all. “Smashed them unknowing in their beds and ran out with their bodies, the blood dripping behind him, back to his lair, delighted with his