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Grendel In Beowulf

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In the epic poem, Beowulf, Grendel is presented as a horrible and vicious monster, who was "spawned in that slime," a reference to the biblical story of Cain, who slayed his brother Abel, which was a horrible sin. In Beowulf, Grendel was never given a chance; his ferocious nature was innately inside of him. But in Josh Gardner’s, Grendel, we are offered a different side of the story as to why Grendel is the way that he is. In the book, Grendel was not born a ferocious killing machine, but instead was shaped by his environment, and as a result was turned into the demon that he has become. An example from the book that proves that Grendel is not distinctly evil can be found at the beginning of Chapter Seven. In that part of the story, Grendel …show more content…

If Grendel were truly destined to be a killer monster, he would not have tried to keep himself from fighting back in the first place. Finally, even after Grendel had finally given in to his urges, and he begins to frequently raid the hall to kill men, he still practices self-control. Grendel knows that he could kill Hrothgar’s entire village in one night, and it would be very easy for him to do so. But Grendel restrains himself, and he even went so far as to kill fewer people during the times when the wars had caused the population of the village to decrease. “The army of the Scyldings was weakened, decimated…He (Hrothgar) couldn’t protect his own hall…I cut down on my visits, conserving the game, and watched them.” (Pg. 94). If Grendel were truly a horrible and vicious monster that was born to kill, he would not care how many people were in the village, he would kill as many as he wanted without giving it a second thought. In my opinion, if a person does terrible things it does not matter what previous events one has experienced, which may have caused them to act in such a way. I believe that everyone has a choice in how the act and just because they may have had a difficult and eventful past, it doesn’t give them an excuse to do horrible things or act in an unpleasant

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