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Monsters In Beowulf, Grendel, And The 13th Warrior

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Stories about monsters appeal to humans because they provide the right amount of fear and danger, pushing on the boundaries of comfort. There are examples of monsters in literature as old as The Odyssey of Homer which includes monsters such as the sirens, and as new as the Harry Potter series which includes the monstrous Voldemort. In these stories, as well as others such as Beowulf, Grendel, and The 13th Warrior, the monsters in each are critical to the storyline. The monsters in Beowulf, Grendel, and The 13th Warrior are determined by the perspective of each story, and represent the main characters’ fears. The obvious monster which dominates Part I of Beowulf is Grendel. This “fiend out of hell” (Heaney 100) represents everything nasty about

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