Beowulf assignment 1

While I liked the concept of the story, Beowulf seemed one dimensional as a protaganist. The monster Grendel attacks, he kills it, another monster, Grendel's mother attacks, he kills her as well. I find him dull for the same reasons I never really liked superman. He's like the little kid on the playground who comes up with new super powers for himself every five minutes; except in this case he had already claimed them all at the start. No one really expects him to fail, his victory is inevitable until he arrives at his fatal last battle in his old age; at which point his death is likewise inevitable. Becuase of the this it sometimes becomes a bit dull waiting for his inevitable success. Even so, the original can't really be considered clich'e, as it created the clich'e.

Some of Beowulf's reasoning is odd, particularly when he decides to fight Grendel without a sword or shield. I guess the idea behind this is that it would be less honorable, or at least less noteworthy, to kill an unarmed monster while armed. Even though this turns out to be beneficial, it seems that the question of honor is less important against a monster which was eating innocent people. He could have potentially failed against Grendel by refusing to use a sword, allowing the monster to continue feeding on the townspeople; which in my opinion would have been more dishonorable than using a sword. I also find it kind of funny that he allows Grendel to eat several of his sleeping men before challenging him.

The text gives the impression that the people in these regions were almost constantly involved in bloody fuedal wars over issues of honor or property. This being the case, it's ironic that Grendel was considered a major threat. Even though he was obviously unpleasant and malicious, his rampages seemed to be limited to eating a few unfortunate individuals sleeping in the mead hall. It may be more the intrusion of on the mead hall that caused the indignant reaction, as this was considered a major cultural icon, symbolizing the wealth and power of their kingdom.

The multiple religious references were interesting to find here; most of these have an orthodox Christian tone, especially since God is always refered to in the singular. This seems inconsistent with the beliefs of the region in the time the story takes place, Christian doctrine was probably still being introduced to the region and was not widely accepted, or at least not promoted as it is here. On the other hand some elements such as the ambigious view of Beowulf's afterlife are contrary to the church at the time; this makes you wonder who was writing down the story.