Memorable Quote Essay

(Lines 151 to 161) “Sad lays were sung about the best king, the vicious raids and revenges 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.”

               In this quote it describes what Grendel had been doing for the past twelve years. He had been coming in at night and killing innocent people whether they were young or old, then refused to pay the “death-price” afterwards. I will now give my thoughts and opinions on this quote and why I believe that it is important.

               The Danes found it especially terrifying that Grendel had no friends or people that he wouldn’t kill, except his mother. This means that he shows no remorse or mercy for anybody which means that if you were unlucky enough to stumble upon him at night he was going to try and kill you. During this time people heavily believed in “death-prices” or compensation for a family members death. Besides killing innocent people, not paying their death-price was a huge social injustice because people did not receive anything to help with their grieving which means all they have is loss.

               “No counselor could ever expect fair reparation from those rabid hands.” This part of the quote says that Grendel has rabid hands which I believe means that he is uncontrollable when it comes to killing and that he does it without even thinking, just like an animal with rabies, he is violent without being provoked.

               “Young and old were hunted down by that dark death-shadow who lurked and swooped in the long nights.” This is another important part of the quote because it shows that his killing wasn’t restricted to any one type of person, it was extended to all age groups, and nobody was really safe. This went on to use the keening “death-shadow” to describe Grendel, which shows that the Danes viewed him as some sort of dark evil presence over all the people in Herot. The narrator also described the nights as long which makes me believe that nobody enjoyed the night time because of Grendel, it was a fearful time that everybody wanted to just get through.

               I found this quote to be important because it gives you a look at how and why the normal people of Herot viewed Grendel the way they do, which was an evil monster that had held their nights captive, and not just a warriors perspective which was that he was just another foe that needed to be defeated.   

Beowulf Setting (Revised)

            There are many settings in Beowulf, but I will be focusing on two settings that parallel each other. Hrothgar’s mead hall and Grendel’s mother’s underwater lair are the two settings I will be comparing. I will start by giving a description of each setting, then compare the two.

The first setting is Hrothgar’s Mead hall in Denmark. The mead hall was built as the result of being successful in battle as well as the building of a great army. It puts out a joyous atmosphere because it’s a place for eating a drinking, it was a refuge for warriors to go to and have a good time. They also sing songs and poems as well as praise god. But it’s clouded by the presence of death and fear because of Grendel’s nightly visits to the hall for twelve years, where he kills any one that he can get his hands on. The mead hall is a large open room with many smaller or one large table(s). It has high ceilings capable of fitting the large Grendel as well as his Mother.

The second is Grendel’s mother’s underwater lair, it takes Beowulf about a day’s swim to reach, and it was a large room that resembled a cave with tree roots hanging down. It was a dark place with a hellish feeling. The lair was a dangerous place for any unwelcome intruders, filled with serpents, monsters, and worst of all Grendel’s mother, all willing to fight in order to protect their home. From what I can gather it used to belong to giants, because of one of their swords displayed on the wall. Many people say that it is a symbol for Hell one reason is that deer will not cross the pond above the cave in order to escape death because of the evil presence there.

The two settings are similar but are also opposites of each other at the same time. Both are large open rooms that provides sanctuary to both parties, the mead hall is influenced by god and is a place of happiness, singing, and drinking. Whereas the underwater lair is dark and evil where “no wisdom reaches such depths” which means god’s influence could not reach the cave which again references its resemblance to hell.

Both settings change in the end for the better into more holy places, first the mead hall was being tormented by Grendel until his defeat making it safe to enjoy once again. Second, the underwater lair was filled with evil and no light, but after Beowulf kills Grendel’s mother light was finally able to shine through and all of the water serpents and monster mysteriously disappeared also god’s wisdom was allowed to reach the lairs depths.

Beowulf Revenge Paper Revised

               One of the central themes in Beowulf is revenge. Revenge is the driving force behind every battle, feud, and raid in this story, so I believe it deserves the most attention. I will now give examples of revenge in Beowulf and how it drives the story. The people of this time were expected to live by an honor code, where they must seek retribution for things others inflict on their family of social grouping.

            Long before Beowulf fights Grendel, there were two brothers named Cain and Abel they both gave an offering to God hoping to please him. But when God favored Abel’s gift over Cain’s, Cain became jealous and vengeful then murdered his own brother. As punishment God put a curse on Cain making it so no mortal could kill him and he was banished.

            Cain fathered a large monster named Grendel, already born with hatred inside him, despised the joyous singing and laughter that came from Hrothgar’s mead hall So he would go every night and kill whoever was in the hall. Hrothgar gets revenge by having Beowulf fight and ultimately kill Grendel by ripping his arm off. Because of this Grendel’s mother goes to the mead hall and kills one of Hrothgar’s friends and takes her son’s arm back. Beowulf then followed her back to her underwater lair, after a struggling battle he manages to cut her head off.

            Many years later after Beowulf returned to Geatland and became king, an unknown man stole a golden cup from a dragons treasure hoard. This causes the dragon to go out in search for the cup and while doing so wreaked havoc on the Geats. Beowulf and Wiglaf killed the dragon and collected its treasure, but Beowulf died in the process.

            What I have noticed from this story is that revenge is not about getting even, it’s about getting back someone no matter what they have done regardless of what either side might have done. The two sides will continue to fight until one side is wiped out. Because of the nobility system during this time no wrong deed went unpunished, even if it made things even. They continue to bunt heads until one comes out ahead. For example Grendel killed many people in the mead hall, so when Grendel died all the people he had killed were avenged. But because his mother came to the mead hall and killed again it was unbalanced, and if they left it at that she would have come out ahead. Beowulf couldn’t let that happen so he killed Grendel’s mother thus ending the feud. 
            The Swedes and the Geats had a long lasting feud from before Beowulf was king. The Swedes never attacked because they were afraid of Beowulf and what he was capable of. After he died the swedes will most likely take over Geatland because it didn't have a leader which made them weak.

            Throughout the story, revenge can be seen, every deed is met with an equal or greater deed until one side is destroyed.