Grendel And Beowulf Similarities

Heroes triumphing over monsters is a major theme in Beowulf, with characters being clearly one or the other. Often, however, heroes and monsters share characteristics, making the distinction between what makes someone good or evil more blurred. They share similarities to show how thin of a line there is between being a hero and a monster, and how easy going down the wrong path is. In Beowulf, the word fire is used to draw the similarities between Grendel and Beowulf, as well as to highlight what makes Grendel a monster and Beowulf a hero. Fire first appears to describe the death of Grendel and emphasizes the characteristics that make him a monster. After being defeated by Beowulf, Grendel, dying, flees to his den, and sinks into the nicor pool. When he enters the pool, the “surges boiled with…fiery blood” (29). Grendel’s blood is so hot, it is boiling the surrounding water, making it fiery and turbulent. The fire represents Grendel’s hate towards men and his anger at being defeated …show more content…
However, instead of the fire representing anger, the fire Beowulf is cremated in represents his heroic achievements. Beowulf is cremated on a funeral pyre, which is described as having “received him” (90), similarly to how Hell “received” Grendel. During Beowulf’s funeral, “the sound of weeping/ rose with the roar of the surging flame” (100). The word surge is also used when describing the water that Grendel is surrounded by during his death, introducing another parallel between Beowulf and Grendel’s deaths. But instead of the surging flames representing anger, they represent Beowulf’s greatness. His pyre is described as being “the greatest of funeral fires” (100), emphasizing that even in death, Beowulf is peerless among men, that his glory is still great. The similar uses of fire juxtapose Grendel and Beowulf, showing how similar they could have been, but how different they are in