Comparing Beowulf To John Gardner's

Beowulf, England’s first great epic, depicts the story of an Anglo-Saxon hero who defeats a monster, Grendel, who has been terrorizing Hrothgar’s village. Beowulf’s story is told in third person, with bias from the human’s perspective. John Gardner’s Grendel, however, is written in first person from the point of view of the menacing monster. Contrasting viewpoints of the same story make Beowulf and Grendel comparable and contrastable based on point of view, purpose, tone, and the characters portrayed. In Beowulf, Grendel the monster is the antagonist because he continues to terrorize the village and kill its civilians. The Danes fear the monster, so an infamous, “perfect” hero, Beowulf, comes to save them and kill the beast. Grendel is depicted …show more content…
Grendel is the character that is changed the most between the two stories. In Beowulf, he is a relentless monster that raids and kills the people of the village as a sport. Grendel, however, offers a different perspective, told from the “beast’s” point of view, that allows him to be humanized. He is capable of feeling strong emotions of anger, fear, despair, and even intelligence. He is curious about the humans and often watches their actions. The feared and hated beast from Beowulf is evidently different from the monster the reader learns and empathizes with in Grendel. Hrothgar, the King of the Danes, is yet another character that is described differently in the two books. In Beowulf, Hrothgar is depicted as a model king who, despite his old age, is still fairly strong. He is a generous and successful leader of the village people who seems to be nearly perfect. Grendel portrays the King in a different light, though. In Grendel, Hrothgar is flawed and comes across as more human than he is in Beowulf. Grendel sees the King in a different way than the village; the village reveres him for his work he has done for them and are inept to see the flaws that the King possesses. Grendel does not have this bias that the individuals in the village have, so the monster interprets Hrothgar in a different way in his telling of the story. Ultimately, Grendel and Hrothgar are just two characters