Grendel Influences

A detailed Summary of Grendel Influences

Throughout Grendel's life he meets many characters that have an impact on him. Every person he meets teaches him more about himself whether it was on purpose or not. Grendel first sees the Shaper in the village. Wealtheow was a gift for Hrothgar to prevent war and turns out to be Grendel's first infatuation. Ork the priest shoes Grendel that someone else in the village has other thoughts than those of the Shaper. The Dragon has the biggest impact on Grendel and is with him tell his end.

Grendel's first clear memories seem to begin as humans arrive in his area. His mother seems to have no history but a thing half-made only existing to produce Grendel. Grendel becomes clearer on this thought when he sees the mother telling the daughter about the evils of the forest. There really is not any purpose to Grendel tell he sees the Shaper, and Grendel's name for the harpist (Shaper) is probable the strongest evidence for this. Grendel thought's on the Shaper were:

"What was he? The man has changed the world, has torn up the past by its thick gnarled roots and had transformed it, and they, who knew the truth, remembered it his way -and so did I. ...Thus I fled, ridiculous hairy creature torn apart by poet

"I thought all at once about what he said: "Now you know how they feel when they see you." He had a point. From now on I'd stay clear of them from overpopulating, maybe starving to death, come winter - but it was another thing to scare them, give them heart attacks, fill their nights with nightmares just for sport."

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The village receives the help of Beowulf to kill Grendel. When Beowulf and Grendel have their confrontation, Grendel sees the dragon in Beowulf but is this an illusion or the dragon? During the fight Grendel starts to hallucinate: "...out of his shoulders come terrible wings. I jerk my head, trying to drive out that illusion. The world is what it is and always was. That's our hope, our chance...Grendel, Grendel, hold fast to what is true!" (169) Was Beowulf the dragon or sent by the dragon, prepared by the dragon for Grendel as Grendel was prepared for and sent after the Danes? If Beowulf killed the dragon, Beowulf would not be the dragon, even if the dragon were prepared for death.

ry - crawling, whimpering, streaming tears, across the world like a two-headed beast, like mixed-up lamb and kid at the tail of a baffled, indifferent ewe - and I gnashed my teeth and clutched at the sides of my head as if to heal the split, but I couldn't" (43-44)

Consider Grendel's initial resolution when he realized how he must frighten the humans:

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Approximate Word count = 1284
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English