Beowulf is eagerly confident in his pledge to Hrothgar, and it seems almost certain that he will defeat Grendel’s mother. However, once he penetrates the dangerous waters of her home territory, Beowulf no longer has the upper hand and he begins to understand his predicament: Then once she touched bottom, that wolfish swimmer carried the ring-mailed prince to her court so that for all his courage he could never use the weapons he carried; and a bewildering horde came at him from the depths, droves of sea-beasts in a ghastly onslaught (ll. 1506-1511).
Beowulf is slowly starting to be overpowered by Grendel’s mother’s, who seems to be stronger than ever now that she is in her own territory; however, we can see Beowulf completely lose his
He says that their lives are guided by the heroic code. Then Beowulf proclaims that he will go fight Grendel's mother and Grendel in an underwater battle and then he sets off. On his way, he is captured by Grendel’s mom and taken. But, when he tries to fight back with his sword the sword does nothing to her causing him to start fighting with his bare hands. Then he discovers a weapon that could help him defeat his enemy and it is a great sword.
Years, later after fighting Grendel and his mother, Beowulf is brought to his lowest point. This is when he fights a dragon that had terrorised the Geats. During the battle “None of his comrades Came
Beowulf took on both Grendel and his mother with the intentions of saving the Danes, whether he survived or
The fight with Grendel’s mother is much more violent than the fight with Grendel, for she is stronger than the previous enemy, so Beowulf changes his battle tactics to compensate for her
Grendel's mother went to Hrothgar and began antagonizing the people that lived there because they killed her son and she was very angry. Beowulf went after her to the lake and killed her, even with the disadvantage of being underwater. After Beowulf kills Grendel's mother, he says "if God had not helped me" (Seamus Heaney, Line 1657), which means that he could have possibly not been successful if God had not been there to support him during the battle." Fifty years later, Beowulf reaches success again as a king by defeating a greedy dragon that lived underground and started burning houses because someone went into his lair and took some of his possessions (Seamus Heaney, Line 2220-2334). The Seafarer reaches success by completing his voyages across the ocean and getting a better life.
How does Beowulf’s faith and confidence change as these battles unfold and what might these changes signify? In each battle with Grendel, Grendel’s mother and the dragon, Beowulf had shown different strength, motivation and goals. Beowulf’s faith and confidence changes when he fights these three characters and these signify changes means Beowulf is getting old which means he didn’t have the same strength as he had during the fight with Grendel. In the battle with Grendel, Beowulf’s strength is so strong that Grendel has a hard time fighting him.
The continued honor shown in Beowulf’s character shines through when Beowulf never mentions that Unferth’s trusted sword was no match for Grendel’s mother. Beowulf could have simply boasted how the sword was useless and ineffective against the female beast, yet he was silent out of respect for Unferth. Finally, during Beowulf’s time as ruler (fifty winters), another beast arrives: a dragon. This time, Beowulf is much older and is in a much weaker state than when he first defeated Grendel and his mother. However, that does not deter Beowulf from going out and defending his kingdom.
Beowulf not only willingly risks his life for the Danes against Grendel and his mother (his first
Grendel believes Beowulf cheated and him being defeated was an accident. He shouts out, “If you win, it 's by mindless chance. Make no mistake. First you tricked me, and then I slipped. Accident.”.
Beowulf: A New Translation for Oral Delivery, translated by Dick Ringler, utilized the dark and the ominous to foreshadow or to portray the impending savagery of mankind. Darkness could be defined either by the absence of light or by the lack of intellectual enlightenment. The monstrous creatures are shrouded within the darkness or associate with the ominous. Throughout Beowulf the theme of violence and darkness are intertwined, which is manifest by correlating the darkness with the unknown through Grendel. The unknown generate fear among the mass through their inability to control and understand the existence of inhuman beings.
The effects of leadership throughout our timeline in this world have had a major toll on how we shape our lives today. We have many types of leadership like democracy, theocracy, and many more. We see these types of leadership in the poem Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney. In the epic the main kings are Hrothgar who is a generous and a natural leader of the Danes, and Beowulf who is known as a noble and loyal king of the Geats. Both of these kings went through many events that had many different impacts on them and they succeeded.
As Beowulf has a bond to Hrothgar because of his relationship to his father Ecgtheow, he chooses to journey to her realm which is under gloomy monster-infested waters and face her. Beowulf is a warrior who is bold, brave, and unafraid of challenges. In this grueling battle Beowulf comes close to perishing, as his sword Hrunting fails him. However he finds an ancient sword in the cave and uses it to kill her. He was setback by the loss of the sword but he prevailed and defeated the troll-dam.
Beowulf went through so much to prove he was worthy enough to protect their kingdom and defeat Grendel. The story Beowulf was a great story to read and a great movie to watch; however, the battles were very eye catching and had a lot of extravagant and heroic doings of Beowulf. The first scenario that I’m going to discuss in the movie and story of Beowulf is The Battle with Grendel. In the movie Grendel attacked Beowulf in the Heriot while everyone was dancing and singing.
Before each battle, Beowulf makes it clear that he is not afraid of the outcome of his fight. Whether he comes out as the victor or perishes, Beowulf knows that he is not the one in control, nor is his enemy. Instead, before his battle with Grendel, Beowulf announces that “it will be, a life-and-death fight with the fiend. Whichever one death fells must deem it a judgment by God” (31) and asks that “the Divine Lord in His wisdom grant the glory of victory to whichever side He sees fit” (47). Beowulf then braves the battle, knowing that God will be the one to either protect him and lead him to victory, or let him die by the hand of the other.
He killed the monster, as God had meant him to do” (126). Beowulf once again is in need of God’s help while fighting Grendel’s mother “Our only help, again, lies with you” (126). Though Beowulf is about to be defeated he is able to stand back again because “God has sent him victory, gave judgment for truth and right, Ruler of Heavens, Once beowulf was back on his feet fighting” (130). Lastly Beowulf claims that even though he is leaving forever he is content “knowing that the Lord of all life has never watched me wash my sword in blood” therefore, his “death will be softer”(137). Beowulf culminates his journey by thanking God for all the treasure he has earned by sacrificing his life “For this, this gold, these jewels, I thank Our Father in heaven, Ruler of Earth.