Beowulf, An Adventurous And Bold Account Of The Trials And...

The epic-poem, Beowulf is an adventurous and bold account of the trials and tribulations of an Anglo-Saxon hero. The main character in the poem, Beowulf, encounters three monsters throughout the poem that are enraged for three different reasons, which cause them to wreak havoc on society. First, he faces Grendel who is an angered social outcast of the Heorot community. Next, he defeats Grendel’s mother who is out to avenge her son’s death. And lastly, he faces his death when he fights the Dragon who awakens from his deep sleep very angry from being burgled. In this epic-poem written in the eighth century, Beowulf is portrayed to be an extremely heroic figure to the people of the Heorot and Hygelac societies because of his braveness to†¦show more content†¦Grendel is considered a monster because of his inhuman like strength; however, Beowulf’s strength matches, if not exceeds the strength of Grendel, therefore, its only right that Beowulf is a monster as well. Eventually, Grendel discovers that he is losing the fight and he tries to get away, which then allows Beowulf to rip off Grendel’s arm. When Beowulf defeats Grendel, he takes his right arm and keeps it as a trophy, which is so cruel that only a monster would do it. Grendel shows human-like qualities in his struggle and his fear of Beowulf when he tries to flee from the fight. In this fight, â€Å"both Grendel and Beowulf are relatively close to nature† (Kardaun) with each of them showing monstrous and human qualities. The next battle that Beowulf encounters is with Grendel’s vengeful mother. After he defeated Grendel, his mother is infuriated and is out for revenge. She, too, possesses the same repulsive and violent features as her son. She is described as a â€Å"swamp-thing from hell† (line 1518) but has fewer humanistic characteristics than Grendel. However, she goes out to seek vengeance for her son’s death, which clearly is a human motivation. Beowulf hungers for this battle, and fights mainly for the joy of winning because he is his own type of monster as well. Ready and eager to receive glory for his heroism, Beowulf tracks his way to Grendel’s mother home, underwater, and decides to go in and face the beast alone. Beowulf spends hours in this fight underwater