grendelbeo Who is the Monster - Beowulf or Grendel? Essay -- Epic Beo

Who is the titan - Beowulf or Grendel? My first impression of Beowulf was that of an enigmatic, several(prenominal)what esoteric work, a needed evil on the way to reading the more important works. after a closer reading of the much-celebrated epic, I had a revealing. And what a revelation Beowulf is wonderful perchance it was the translation, or it might have been the basic join of the work itself, but I found myself devouring the poem. I find devil specific argonas of appeal 1) The fundamental attraction of the archetypical super- wedge heel and 2) the more contemporary trend in modern culture to attempt to retake the experience of this particular era via popular fiction and film. The ideal of the hero is a concept so completely integrated into the kind top dog as to be virtually built-in. From Homers Ulysses to Nietzsches Ubermensch, we as a race of beings are fixated on the individual who makes things happen, who gets things d 1, preferably with a healthy dose of bravado. Perhaps this is attributable to an innate sense of vulnerability in each of us, that unsettling slim voice which whispers to us that, despite all our efforts, we have overlooked some crucial factor which will lead to our ultimate demise. The hero has no such insecurities he is invincible It is interesting to note that not unless has the hero figure continued to thrive in the collective human consciousness, but, in our own western culture, the Beowulf-prototype has come full circle in that respect is a whole genre of fantasy novels which center on one form or another of the Anglo-Saxon warrior tradition, as well as a veritable plethora of movies. Fleet upon fleet of ring-prowed ships sail ever-onward on the seas of our imagination, on qu... ...pand the characters, making them more whole, more three-dimensional. Looking at the two works side by side, a question arises Who is the true heller? Beowulf fans will, no doubt, assert that their hero is the undisputed g ood guy, and that Grendel was a venomous bastard who got what he deserved. But the Gardner perspective offers an interesting twist Beowulf was excited An unbalanced, obsessive weirdo babbling bizarre gibberish into Grendels ear as he rended the unfortunate creatures arm from his torso. This latter interpretation is not as far-fetched as one might think the police departments of every major(ip) city in this country contain a certain calculate of these so-called "heroes," men so mired in violence that their perceptions gravel distorted, that they ultimately become the very thing theyve fought so hard to defeat.