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Literary Elements In Beowulf

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Impending Doom The language and usage of various traditional Anglo-Saxon literary elements in “Beowulf,” translated by Charles W. Kennedy, help the reader to understand the purpose of the folk epic. When Beowulf arrives to kill Grendel’s mother in an underwater hall, he and his men see “on the rocky sea-cliff,/…slaughtered Æschere’s severed head./ The water boiled in a bloody swirling/ With seething gore as the spearmen gazed” (931-934). The included phrases create an atmosphere of grave danger, which emphasizes the intensity leading up to the battle with the mother seeking revenge for the death of her child. Even though the image of a decapitated man’s head would scare off an ordinary man about to go into battle, it only works to fuel Beowulf’s

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