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Beowulf vs. Grendel

Beowulf vs. Grendel. Here’s what happens: Beowulf vs. Grendel. Hrothgar entrusts Beowulf with Heorot Hall, which is the first time he’d ever done that so he’s really putting some faith is Beowulf. Then, Hrothgar leaves the hall and leaves Beowulf to it.

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Beowulf vs. Grendel

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  1. Beowulf vs. Grendel

  2. Here’s what happens:Beowulf vs. Grendel Hrothgar entrusts Beowulf with Heorot Hall, which is the first time he’d ever done that so he’s really putting some faith is Beowulf. Then, Hrothgar leaves the hall and leaves Beowulf to it. Beowulf says Grendel had better watch out because he “counts [him]self as dangerous” as he is. Then, he swears off the use of any weapons and lies down to rest and wait. Grendel sees all of Beowulf’s men asleep in the hall and he is disgustingly excited, and when he finally breaks in, he gobbles up a Geat.

  3. Here’s what happens:Beowulf vs. Grendel Grendel approaches Beowulf, who is still lying down, and Beowulf puts him in the armlock of all armlocks, “a handgrip harder than anything he had encountered in any man.” Beowulf holds his handgrip and eventually it rips Grendel’s arm clean off, which forces Grendel back to his lair to die. Beowulf hangs his big monster arm trophy up in Heorot Hall as a sign of victory.

  4. It’s poetry Here are a few lines from the battle against Grendel that I think are poetic and powerful: “In off the moors, down through the mist bands/ God-cursed Grendel came greedily loping.” Beautiful and scary imagery. I love the idea of a monster greedily loping. It seems a very monster thing to do. The alliteration of moors and mist bands and God-cursed and Grendel is nice, too. It’s fun to say if you read it aloud, and that’s part of what makes it poetic. “Fingers were bursting,/ the monster back-tracking, the man overpowering.” So awesome! The parallelism of bursting, back-tracking, and overpowering makes these lines stick in your head. Plus, it’s pretty much the best, most poetic way ever to tell the audience that the evil monster is at the point of defeat.

  5. It’s poetry One more… “Clear proof of this/ could be seen in the hand the hero displayed/ high up near the roof: the whole of Grendel’s/ shoulder and arm, his awesome grasp.” This is kind of like the first one with the imagery of a monster hand nailed to a roof beam and the alliteration of hand, hero, high, arm, and awesome, but there’s some extra special about these lines. That last phrase “his awesome grasp” encompasses the fight and Beowulf’s power. I think it’s really beautiful, too, ending the line and stanza that way.

  6. There’s Seamus Heaney, and there’s everybody else. Beowulf’s been around for forever. Who said it the best for us in the year 2012? My vote, of course, is for Seamus Heaney. Maybe it’s because I know a lot of his other poems and I think he’s brilliant, but I don’t think that’s all. There’s something very real and very poetic about this ancient story and text translated by SH, and I have to believe that and go by how contemporary poetry reads and feels, and this version reads and feels like modern poetry. That’s why I like it and teach this version.

  7. Retelling…

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