Conclusion

In every depiction of heroism, it is always a knight wielding a sword and defeating a vicious beast as shown by the Viking sword, the seal, and the illustrated manuscript. Beowulf goes beyond the regular act of heroism and slays the vicious monster that is Grendel with his bare hands. The poem accurately and effectively displays Grendel's loneliness, wrath, and immoral acts. Grendel is a monster because he shares the blood of Cain, he was never able to choose the path of right and wrong. In the case of Grendel it was easier for him to become the monster every believed him to be because sometimes we do not make our own destiny. Unfortunately, “Grendel is nevertheless the embodiment of radical evil” (Bandy, 241).