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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page research paper/essay that analyzes the epic poem Beowulf and contrasts it with John Gardner's novel Grendel, which is a modern retelling of the saga from the viewpoint of the monster. Bibliography lists 4 sources
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khgrebeo.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
of how Beowulf killed the monster Grendel, thus releasing the great hall Heorot from the monsters attacks. It is a classic myth in which the hero fights for the survival
of society and succeeds against the forces of evil. However, in 1989, novelist John Gardner applied this mythic material to the creation of a novel, Grendel, which presents the modern
reader with an altogether different take on what is basically the same tale. An examination of these two works is revealing, not only to the nature of myth, but
also in how Gardner shapes the nonlinear truths or values that myth encompasses into a modern form that speaks to the reader through symbolism. In the epic poem,
Grendel is the stuff of pure myth. He is the amorphous evil that has no shape, yet is deadly. The monsters sole purpose is to provide a worthy adversary against
whom, Beowulf can prove his prowess, and his ability to rule by the ethos of a warrior culture. Grendel is presented as simply evil incarnate. He was "The creature of
evil, grim and fierce, was quickly ready, savage and cruel" (Anonymous, 1996, p. 25). The first night that Grendel attacks, he kills thirty thanes, and then retreats to his home,
"proud of his plunder, sought his dwelling with that store of slaughter" (p. 25). Beowulf is written in Old English and set sometime in the history of the British
Isles. The people in Beowulf are not the English, as we think of them, but rather the Germanic forebears of the English. There is lip-service to Christianity in Beowulf,
but a pagan orientation to the world is also quite evident. Although the poem is English in its language and origin, the characters in the poem are not Englishmen, but
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