Literary Passage
The chosen passage is from Beowulf lines 144-169:
“So Grendel ruled in defiance of right,
one against all, until the greatest house
in the world stood empty, a deserted wallstead.
For twelve winters, seasons of woe,
the lord of Shieldings suffered under
his load of sorrow; and so, before long,
the news was known over the whole world.
Sad lays were sung about the beset king,
the vicious raids and ravages of Grendel,
his long and unrelenting feud,
nothing but war; how he would never
parley or make peace with any Dane
nor stop his death-dealing nor pay the death-price.
No counselor could ever expect
fair reparation from those rabid hands.
All were endangered; young and old
were hunted down by that dark death-shadow
who lurked and swooped in the long nights
on the misty moors; nobody knows
where theses reavers from hell roam on their errands.
So Grendel waged his lonely war,
inflicting constant cruelties on the people,
atrocious hurt. He took over Heorot,
haunted the glittering hall after dark,
but the throne itself, the treasure-seat,
he was kept from approaching; he was the Lord’s outcast”
This passage occurs near the beginning of the poem in order to introduce one of the main monsters; Grendel. Grendel is described as a “powerful demon, a prowler through the dark” that enjoys the pain he inflicts on the Danes (Beowulf, line 86). This passage depicts the actions of Grendel and the suffering he caused, while also providing one of the many motives Beowulf had to slay him. While this passage effectively portrays Grendel as a “dark death shadow”, “malignant by nature, [who] never showed remorse”, it goes a step further characterizing him as the “Lord’s outcast” (Bewulf, lines 160, 137, 169). Throughout the passage Grendel is constantly said to be alone, “Grendel waged his lonely war”, “one against all” and is hated by the Danes: “No counselor could ever expect fair reparation from those rabid hands” (Beowulf, lines 164, 145, 157-158). Therefore, it begs the question whether or not the people provoked the evil in Grendel. Cain is introduced along with Grendel near the beginning of the poem and while he is not a character in the poem he is an important explanation as to how the monster in Grendel was created. Cain is from the biblical book of Genesis, he and his brother, Abel were the children of Adam and Eve. Out of jealousy Cain murders his own brother eventually being condemned and punished by God. Grendel is the descendent of Cain and is said to be apart of “Cain’s Clan”, meaning he is accursed from God and is destined to be evil, resulting in the same fate as his ancestor (Beowulf, 106). Being associated with Cain only exemplifies the evilness in Grendel and the reasoning behind his ultimate defeat. Grendel had no reason to fear death because no weapon could kill him and man was terrified of him. Cain received his death-price and eventually Grendel will too, because despite the fact that it was never his choice to be evil, good will always prevail. The passage is about Grendel “inflicting constant cruelties on the people” without a sense of regret or remorse, and, yet, the question remains, is it evilness or is it anger for being punished for the atrocities that his ancestor committed that fuels Grendel’s immoral acts? “As the heir of Cain, Grendel is as much a man as a beast” (Bandy, 236)