Related Characters: Hrothgar , Grendel. Related Symbols: Gold, Treasure, and Gifts. A Feast at Heorot Lines — Quotes. Grendel is no braver, no stronger Than I am! I could kill him with my sword; I shall not, Easy as it would be. This fiend is a bold And famous fighter, but his claws and teeth Beating at my sword blade, would be helpless.
I will meet him With my hands empty-unless his heart Fails him, seeing a soldier waiting Weaponless, unafraid. Related Characters: Beowulf speaker , Grendel.
The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance. Grendel Attacks Lines 86— But the monster Grendel , a descendent of Cain and therefore an outcast from society, hears the singing from his That night, Grendel visits Heorot as the Danes are sleeping.
Grendel seizes thirty warriors and carries them to The narrator notes that unlike men, Grendel has no desire to end the feud, or to pay compensation for those he kills Beowulf Arrives Lines — With fourteen loyal men, Beowulf sails to the land of the Danes.
Beowulf says the Geats, having heard of Grendel 's attacks, offer help. The watchman lets them pass. Beowulf greets Hrothgar, and says he has heard that because of Grendel , Heorot stands empty and useless after nightfall.
Beowulf boasts of the great deeds of his Because Grendel does not use weapons, Beowulf says that he will fight Grendel with his bare hands A Feast at Heorot Lines — Breca won. Unferth says he now expects Beowulf to fail to fulfill his boasts regarding Grendel. Beowulf says that Grendel would never have overcome Heorot if Unferth were as brave as he claims to be. Beowulf again promises to fight Grendel with his bare hands. He says, "may God, the holy Lord, assign glory to the Beowulf vs.
Grendel Lines — Grendel approaches Heorot and tears open the doors. He grabs a sleeping Geat, Hondscioh, and eats Grendel 's fierce cries and the sounds of their epic struggle wake the warriors.
Heorot shakes with Celebration Lines — Neanderthal, no. That does not explain Grendel's "mother". But, perhaps there were other strains of humanoids, and perhaps there were groups that were cannibals.
It's all conjecture, PJ Reichenbach. Was she as horrible as the epic suggests? Or did the storyteller choose to make her more horrible to justify her demise? Cannibalism isn't unusual in the natural world, either. Thanks for the thoughtful comment. Since I am a middle school teacher who loves travel and history, it should come as no surprise that many of my books are middle grade historical novels set in beautiful or interesting places.
But not all of them. I hope there's one title here that will speak to you personally and deeply. What I love most: that "ah hah" moment when a reader suddenly understands the connections between himself, the past, and the world around him.
Those moments are rarified, mountain-top experiences. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser.
Click the character infographic to download. Grendel is a man-eating demon never a good sign that lives in the land of the Spear-Danes and attacks King Hrothgar's mead-hall, Heorot , every evening. The narrator of Beowulf claims that Grendel's motivation is hearing Hrothgar's bard sing songs about God's creation of the world, which rubs his demonic nature the wrong way.
Whatever the reason, every night Grendel slaughters more Danes and feeds on their corpses after tearing them limb from limb. Although he can't be harmed by the blade of any edged weapon, Grendel finally meets his match when the Geatish warrior Beowulf takes him on in a wrestling match. The poet explains that Grendel and his mommy are the descendants of the Biblical Cain , which suggests not only that they are part of a larger religious or supernatural scheme of evil, but also that they are connected with one of the worst things possible in tribal culture— fratricide, or the killing of a brother:.
Grendel was the name of this grim demon haunting the marches, marauding round the heath and the desolate fens; he had dwelt for a time in misery among the banished monsters, Cain's clan, whom the creator had outlawed and condemned as outcasts.
For the killing of Abel the Eternal Lord had exacted a price: Cain got no good from committing that murder because the Almighty made him anathema and out of the curse of his exile there sprang ogres and elves and evil phantoms and the giants too who strove with God time and again until He gave them their reward.
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