Let us look at the fight with Beowulf and Grendel. Hrothgar left the mead-hall with his queen Wealhtheow. Beowulf had his entire trust in the strength he has to overcome Grendel. He started to take the equipment he had on like his iron breast-mail, a helmet, and a patterned sword which he kept guarded. As he lay down, Beowulf greatly commented, “When it comes to fighting, I count myself as dangerous any day a Grendel. So it won’t be a cutting edge I’ll wield to mow him down, easily as I might. He has no idea of the arts of war, of shield or sword-play, although he does possess a wild strength. No weapons, therefore, for either this night: unarmed he shall face me if face me he dares. And may the Divine Lord in His wisdom grant the glory of victory to whichever side He sees fit.” Beowulf lies down beside his sea-rovers that accompanied him. Everyone knew that the Danes had before become victims at the mead-hall. Among the strength of one, they will all prevail in victory, they would destroy their enemy. “Almighty God rules over mankind and always has.” As the night progressed, Grendel stealthily appeared among hall-guards that were asleep except one which was Beowulf. He was awake in a mood to fight. Grendel approached the mead-hall in search for easy prey. He moved toward the mead-hall under a cloudy, dark sky, but this wasn’t the first time he has overlooked the grounds of Hrothgar’s dwellings. He continued ahead with his search of prey. He placed his hands on the iron-braced door and with rage tore open the door of the mead-hall, in tastes for blood. From the look in his eyes, he glimpsed a fire of men asleep in the mead-hall all around. “And his glee was demonic, picturing the mayhem: before morning he would rip life from limb and devour them, feed on their flesh; but his fate that night was due to change, his days of ravening had come to an end.” The creature did not wait and started the mayhem. “He grabbed and mauled a man on his bench, bit into his bone-lappings, bolted down his blood and gorged on him in lumps, leaving the body utterly lifeless, eaten up hand and foot.” Grendel came closer in attacking Beowulf where he laid on the bed. He attacked but Beowulf surprised him in a handgrip that he has never encountered before with any strength from a man. Grendel felt the strength of Beowulf and became desperate to escape. He was becoming weaker as Beowulf overpowered him slowly. Grendel’s scream echoed off the wall in a strain of catastrophe. Beowulf’s warriors began to attack the creature with their swords. “When they joined the struggle there was something they could not have known at the time, that no blade on earth, no blacksmith’s art could ever damage their demon opponent. He had conjured the harm from the cutting edge of every weapon.” Beowulf continued his handgrip on Grendel as his body was in pain. Grendel’s shoulder busted as the bone split. He was driven away from the place he came from as Beowulf held Grendel’s shoulder and arm, marking his days of life left.
Now, change to a view from Grendel’s eyes. Grendel touched the mead-hall door and it bursts into pieces. He stepped into the silent mead-hall where men laid across. “I am swollen with excitement, bloodlust and joy and a strange fear that mingle in my chest like the twisting rage of a bone-fire.” He couldn’t believe his luck as they were all asleep as he stepped into the shining mead-hall floor. He planned to move from bed to bed eating them all. For his own joy he grabbed a table cloth and tied it around his neck to make a napkin. “I delay no longer. I seized up a sleeping man, tear at him hungrily, bite through his bone-locks and suck hot, slippery blood. He goes down in huge morsels, head, chest, hips, legs, even the hands and feet. My face and arms are wet, matted. The napkin is sopping.” He becomes shocked as he notices that one man’s eyes are open and watched him at work. He’s eyes are locked with that man and screams at him, dramatically shaking. The mead-hall becomes alive. He notices that he has wings but can’t believe it. He believes it’s just an illusion but out from the man’s shoulders appear wings. He gives a kick but slips on blood falling to the ground. The man grabs his arm and twists it behind his back as he’s on the ground. The man’s companions surround us and point their swords. He whispers to the man, “If you win, it’s by mindless chance. Make no mistake. First you tricked me, and then I slipped. Accident.” He is keeps thinking of what just happened of the incident of him slipping on the blood and by accident he has his arm behind his back. He looks down and as the man torn of his arm at the shoulder making blood pour from his shoulder. He begins to cry with pain. “He stretches his blinding white wings and breathes out fire. I run for the door and through it. I move like wind. I stumble and fall, get up again. I’ll die. I howl.” He stumbles making his way back where he came from. He no longer feels any pain as animals gather around him to watch him die. “They watch on, evil, incredibly stupid, enjoying my destruction. Poor Grendel’s had an accident.”
Both the fight with Grendel and Grendel’s perspective have the fighting scene in which Grendel torn the mead-hall door. Grendel catches everyone asleep except Beowulf which he only is laying down wide awake. This is the way Grendel ate the sleeping men. “He grabbed a mauled a man on his bench, bit into his bone-lappings, bolted down his blood and gorged on him in lumps, leaving the body utterly lifeless, eaten up hand and foot.” “I delay no longer. I seized up a sleeping man, tear at him hungrily, bite through his bone-locks and suck hot, slippery blood. He goes down in huge morsels, head, chest, hips, legs, even the hands and feet. My face and arms are wet, matted. The napkin is sopping.” He got his arm torn off from the shoulder the mostly the same way. The things that are different and stuck out come from Grendel’s perspective. Grendel sees wings on Beowulf. “He stretches his blinding white wings and breathes out fire.” Grendel assumed that Beowulf was a worst creature than he was with overcoming strength. After reading the scene from Grendel’s perspective, my opinion of Grendel being a horrible creature stay the same because in his perspective he makes it seems like his the victim rather than him doing all the harm. “They watch on, evil, incredibly stupid, enjoying my destruction. Poor Grendel’s had an accident."
Chapter 12 from Gardner’s Grendel. 167-174
David, Alfred, and James Simpson. The Norton Anthology English Literature: W. W. Norton & Company,
Inc. New York, 2006. 47-51. Print.
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