2/10/23

Name: Juan Manuel Aguilera Quiceno

Page 31
The Text
Point #1

I. In this passage, the author tells us one of the final parts of the battle of Beowulf
with the evil monster Grendel. He says that Grendel started to cry and scram.
Beowulf was winning the battle, and with his noble warriors started to injure him
seriously to finish the fight and kill him finally – the screams of the monster were
because of that -. We can read the actions that Beowulf was doing in severous
lines, like the twenty sixth and the twenty seventh, “There Grendel suffered a
grievous hurt, a wound in the shoulder, gaping and wide.”
II. Beowulf, as it says in the text, is one of the strongest men in the whole world,
not only because he dared to challenge the terrible monster Grendel, who
previously killed so many warrior and broke a lot of swords, but also because he
needed only a few armors to defeat him, something that was almost impossible,
because the monster was considered the most terrible enemy of God. By simply
reading the text between the seventeenth and the twenty fourth lines of the
passage, we can understand the incredible strength of our hero: “ On every sword
he had laid a spell, on every blade; but a bitter death was to be his fate, far was the
journey the monster made to the home of friends, then he who had wrought such
wrong to men, with grim delight as he warred with God, soon found that his
strength was feeble and failing in the crushing hold of Hygelac's thane.
III. Beowulf, as the text between the nineth and the eleventh lines said, was not
fighting alone against Grendel. He was accompanied by some warriors that were
loyal to him and always attend him into battle, though many died in the attempt
because of the terrible deeds of the monster. The author said: “Many an earl of
Beowulf brandished his ancient iron to guard his lord, to shelter safely the peerless
prince.”
IV. The Beowulf’s companions could not injure Grendel, because he has an
incredible strength, and he laid a spell in every sword that he felt and was very
skillful. “On every sword he had laid a spell, on every blade; but a bitter death was
to be his fate, far was the journey.”
V. The twenty third and the twenty fourth lines said, “Soon found that his strength
was feeble and failing in the crushing hold of Hygelac’s thane”, referring to
Grendel. In these lines we can see that Grendel started to be injure by the simple
strength of our intelligent hero, Beowulf. The author also tells us “There Grendel
suffered a grievous hurt, a wound in the shoulder, gaping and wide, sinews
snapped and bone – joint broke” (two lines after), never mentions a sword, so we
can reaffirm that it was Beowulf himself who wounded Grendel.
VI. As the text between the twenty seventh and twenty nineth lines said, “There
Grendel suffered a grievous hurt, a wound in the shoulder, gaping and wide,
sinews snapped and bone – joint broke, and Beowulf gained the glory of battle”,
Beowulf severely hurt Grendel, so that the monster is helpless, and Beowulf finally
wins the battle.

Point #2
In the text, Christianity is continuously mentioned. The part in which God is most
highlighted, in the fourth line, Grendel is considered the “enemy of God”, an epithet
that tell us the incredible strength of Grendel and the presence of the Christianity of
the author’s culture. I think that this epithet is a metaphor, because for Christians
God is the most powerful divinity (and the unique) in the Universe, but they used
his name for describe the apotheosis power of Grendel.

Point #3
The author described the fight of our protagonists with such intensity and is easily
understandable but at the same time disturbing for the reader, the author does not
strive to continue the scenes quickly but stops each event and describes it in
sometimes macabre words. This sentence can be a great example of this:
“Continuous tumult filled the hall; a terror fell on the Danish folk as they heard
through the wall the horrible wailing, the groans of Grendel, the foe of God” (text
between the first and the fourth lines).

Point #4
I consider that this scene of “Beowulf” isn’t a modern scene, because the modern
scenes that I analyze in the movies or in the modern books, don’t describe so
perfectly describe the scenes of the story, which does not generate as much
intensity bur more emotion because you don’t have to read as much in order to
continue with the story and – in the books – you can imagine a lot of the scene
yourself.