Literary Analysis Beowulf

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Abbey Hagen Mrs. Delong Honors British Literature and Composition 20 October 2011 Are the Supernatural Characters Really Monsters? *In the epic, Beowulf, Grendel is perceived as a vital killing machine, as well as his mother and the dragon: however, their actions are not necessarily based off of wicked thoughts or pure evilness. Grendel is a disgusting, evil, and cunning monster that resides in the lands of Denmark. In the epic, Grendel is described as, “ A powerful monster, living down / In the darkness, growled in pain, impatient ” (Raffel 40). This part of the epic is starting to describe the torment and badgering that Grendel receives from the Danes in Herot. *Grendel’s motive for killing a portion of the Danes is not what one would normally think. In addition, this is what is what Grendel hears everyday from Herot,“ As day after day the music rang / Loud in the hall, the harp’s rejoicing / Call and the poet’s clear songs, sung / Of the ancient beginnings of us all / … Conceived by a pair of those monsters born / Of Cain, murderous creatures banished / By God, punished forever by the crime / Of Abel’s death ” (Raffel 40). The songs of Herot in which they call him a felon, torments Grendel day after day, by calling him the most dangerous and disastrous monster there is. Grendel had never disrupted the Danes or done anything to make them hate him so much. The jokes and songs causes Grendel to break and attack Herot in a vicious way. Furthermore, his intentions are strictly because he was hurt and his anger rather than his sense of being evil or from the devil. However, Grendel’s actions are not necessarily justifiable. *An important character in the epic, Beowulf, is Grendel’s mother. She is also described as a hideous evil creature that lurks around the swamplands of Denmark with Grendel. In comparison to Grendel, his mother is stronger and more

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