Grendel In Beowulf
Grendel is one of the three major antagonists in the poem "Beowulf". We are told he is a monster and a descendant of the biblical figure "Cain" early on in the text. "Till the monster stirred, that demon, that fiend/Grendel who haunted the moors, the wild /Marshes, and made his home in a hell./Not hell but hell on earth. He was spawned in that slime/Of Cain, murderous creatures banished/ By God, punished forever for the crime/ Of Abel 's death." (Lines 101-108).
Although Grendel is likely the poem 's most memorable character, we are never given a straightforward description of his physical characteristics. We can only imagine why the author wrote his character in this way, giving us only a few clues as to his nature. One explanation is that they wrote it this way to leave the image of Grendel to the imagination of the reader. This is a trick that writers use to make readers more involved in the story line and character development, and in this case, it works to their advantage. Many …show more content…
"Ents are tree-like creatures, having become like the trees that they shepherd. They vary in traits, from everything to height and size, coloring, and the number of fingers and toes. An individual Ent more or less resembles the specific species of tree that they typically guard."
The hero of the poem, Beowulf describes Grendel as a "Jotun" which we now translate to mean "giant" in modern English. It is hard to relate the term "giant" from an old English meaning into what we refer to as a giant today. This old norse description is from a Swedish encyclopedia: "As a collective, giants are often attributed a hideous appearance - claws, fangs, and deformed features, apart from a generally hideous size. Some of them may even have many heads or an overall non-humanoid shape. With bad looks comes a weak intellect; more than once was their temper likened to that of
Although Grendel is likely the poem 's most memorable character, we are never given a straightforward description of his physical characteristics. We can only imagine why the author wrote his character in this way, giving us only a few clues as to his nature. One explanation is that they wrote it this way to leave the image of Grendel to the imagination of the reader. This is a trick that writers use to make readers more involved in the story line and character development, and in this case, it works to their advantage. Many …show more content…
"Ents are tree-like creatures, having become like the trees that they shepherd. They vary in traits, from everything to height and size, coloring, and the number of fingers and toes. An individual Ent more or less resembles the specific species of tree that they typically guard."
The hero of the poem, Beowulf describes Grendel as a "Jotun" which we now translate to mean "giant" in modern English. It is hard to relate the term "giant" from an old English meaning into what we refer to as a giant today. This old norse description is from a Swedish encyclopedia: "As a collective, giants are often attributed a hideous appearance - claws, fangs, and deformed features, apart from a generally hideous size. Some of them may even have many heads or an overall non-humanoid shape. With bad looks comes a weak intellect; more than once was their temper likened to that of