Grendal Essay

433 Words2 Pages
Prompt #3 The Monster, Grendel from “Beowulf” is a good example of an epic villain because he possesses power, darkness, and hatred. Which provide the reader with a disgust for Him and to help promote Beowulf the hero of the story. Grendel being a monster from the descendants of Cain, has great powers. One of which is strength, great strength which no man possesses. In “Beowulf” Grendel makes nightly trips to Herot (the dining hall where the Danes pass out from too much mead) and “Slip[s] through the door and there in the silence snatch[s] up thirty men, smash[es] them unknowingly in their beds, and [runs] out with their bodies” (Raffel, pp. 21-22). His strength is feared by the Danes, and even more so by his power to use spells and witchcraft, “for that sin-stained demon [can] bewitch all men’s weapons, [lay] spells that blunt every mortal man’s blade (Raffel, p. 34).” Just to give him an even greater advantage over humanity. Grendel is also a very dark creature, evil in every way possible. He is one of the “monsters born of Cain, murderous creatures banished by God… split into a thousand forms of evil – spirits and fiends, goblins, monsters, giants” (Raffel, p. 21). Born atrocious, born into darkness, “That demon, that fiend, Grendel, who haunted the Moors, the wild marshes, and made his home in a hell” (Raffel, p. 21). To make Grendel seem darker still, the author describes his home as a hell where he was banished to by God, leaving Grendel as a bitter, hating monster. Helping Grendel seem more of an epic villain is his hatred for man. Man knows “how Grendel’s hatred began, how the monster relished his savage war on the Danes, keeping the bloody feud alive, seeking no peace offering no truce… (Raffel, p. 22).” His hate is so strong for man because of what God has done to him. “He never dared to touch King Hrothgars’s glorious throne, protected by God –

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