FINDING CONNECTIONS BETWEEN BEOWULF AND GRENDELUsing Diction, Tone, Theme/Motif and Figurative Language

TWO COMPANION EXCERPTS: ONE FROM BEOWULF, ONE FROM GRENDEL

Beowulf excerpt:That shepherd of evil, guardian of crime,Knew at once that nowhere on earthHad he met a man whose hands were harder;His mind was flooded with fear—but nothing Could take his talons and himself from that tight Hard grip. Grendel’s one thought was to runFrom Beowulf, flee back to his marsh and hide there:This was a different Herot than the hall he had emptied.But Higlac’s follower remembered his final Boast and, standing erect, stoppedThe monster’s flight, fastened those clawsIn his fists till they cracked, clutched GrendelCloser. The infamous killer foughtFor his freedom, wanting no flesh but retreat,Desiring nothing but escape; his clawsHad been caught, he was trapped. That trip to HerotWas a miserable journey for the writing monster!

Grendel excerpt:It was just here, this shocking green, that once when the moon was tombed in clouds, I tore off sly old Athelgard’s head. Here, where the startling tiny jaws of crocuses snap at the late-winter sun like the heads of baby watersnakes, here I killed the old woman with the irongray hair. She tasted of urine and spleen, which made me spit. Sweet mulch for yellow blooms. Such are the tiresome memories of a shadow-shooter, earth-rim-roamer, walker of the world’s weird wall.

READ THE EXCERPT AND LOOK FOR SIMILARITIES IN DICTION, TONE, THEME/MOTIF AND FIGURATIVE

LANGUAGE

LOOK FOR SIMILARITIES IN DICTION, TONE, THEME/MOTIF AND OTHER FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

Beowulf excerpt:That shepherd of evil, guardian of crime,Knew at once that nowhere on earthHad he met a man whose hands were harder;His mind was flooded with fear—but nothing Could take his talons and himself from that tight Hard grip. Grendel’s one thought was to runFrom Beowulf, flee back to his marsh and hide there:This was a different Herot than the hall he had emptied.But Higlac’s follower remembered his final Boast and, standing erect, stoppedThe monster’s flight, fastened those clawsIn his fists till they cracked, clutched GrendelCloser. The infamous killer foughtFor his freedom, wanting no flesh but retreat,Desiring nothing but escape; his clawsHad been caught, he was trapped. That trip to HerotWas a miserable journey for the writing monster!

Grendel excerpt:It was just here, this shocking green, that once when the moon was tombed in clouds, I tore off sly old Athelgard’s head. Here, where the startling tiny jaws of crocuses snap at the late-winter sun like the heads of baby watersnakes, here I killed the old woman with the irongray hair. She tasted of urine and spleen, which made me spit. Sweet mulch for yellow blooms. Such are the tiresome memories of a shadow-shooter, earth-rim-roamer, walker of the world’s weird wall. KenningsDiction, Using conventions of Anglo-Saxon Poetry

Images of death—Tone, the tone in Beowulf is triumphant while the same imagery is used to create a desolate, mechanical tone in Grendel