Beowulf/Grendel

Janell Touchette Period D 3/6/05 Beowulf/Grendel Test

1. An anti-hero is the opposite of a hero. It is the character that goes against all the traditional values of society. Grendel has strong traits of the average anti-hero. He lives in a cave with his mother in the middle of no where. Everybody in the land refuses to accept him, even as the lowest of their kind, and they are constantly trying to kill him. He is deprived the rules and consequences of society by not being allowed to join men, he rejects the values and rules of political establishment by terrorizing Hrothgar's kingdom, and he is often angry because when the shaper sings he falls into the trance of possibility, but then remembers the dragon.He cannot figure out what he wants for himself.

2. We first meet Beowulf when he goes to the land of the Danes. He had been known for his strength and courage. In the book Beowulf, he has three major battles. The first battle took place in Herot, against Grendel. Grendel was the only reason Beowulf had gone to the land of the Danes. He wanted to further glorify his name and prove he could really defeat anyone or anything. Beowulf decided to fight without wreapons and in the end he came out victorious. He had severed Grendel's arm to give to the kindgom as a sign of his power and so that they would always remember him. The killing of Grendel led to his second battle, which took place at Grendel's cave, at the bottom of the sea. Again he was motivated by need to glorify his name, but this time also by necessity. Beowulf killed Grendel and now his mother was going to avenge his death. It was kind of Beowulf's fault that she was now a problem. So Beowulf was armed and went into the water with a goodbye to his Geats and the Danes. Nobody expected him to come back, but when he did, carrying the sword that killed Grendel's mother and Grendel's head, he was honored with more treasures than anybody had ever been honored with and Hrothgar's love. Hrothgar confided in him that after ruling for so long, you really do become preoccupied with the safety of your people and yourself. Ruling becomes more of a task than an honor. You feel as though nothing you do will be enough. So Beowulf, who had arrived with nothing more than the idea of glorifying his name, had left with the wisdom of a king. Beowulf's last battle took place in his homeland. He wasn ow king and was not fighting for glroy, but for the safety of his people. He knew that his fight against the dragon would probable be his last, but he was not aftaid of dying. He was afraid he wuold not be bale to kill the dragon. In the end both him and the dragon died. It only makes sense that the greatest man of all time should defeat the greatest beast of all time. The aftermath of this battle was somewhat different but also the same as all the rest. Beowulf was given the treasure, but not for his own glory, it was more out of respect from his people. Everybody mourned him and a temple was built in his honor so that everybody would b able to see it when the came to the land of the Geats. This was the glory and legacy of a real hero. The suggested path of the human condition for the early Anglo-Saxons was just like that of Beowulf. They lived life always trying to be a heron, until they realized that that was not what life was all about and somehow changed that in the end they were honored beyond any reward a regular hero could have gotten.

3. In the book Grendel, there were three main ideas