What Is Grendel's Vision In Beowulf

Hrothgar told Beowulf after the second battle, the one with Grendel’s mother “you have made yourself immortal by your glorious action”. According to Tolkien’s vision, humans create circles of light as is reflected in the poem by Hrothgar Mead Hall in which there is laughter, music, and fellowship. And outside those circles are all the forces that want to destroy it. The very fact of building the Mead Hall calls Grendel into existence. Therefore, we were backwards in the poem from a more nearly human to the less human, towards a deeper and more pervasive evil that surrounds people in the world where they live. Towards the end of the poem, the dragon killed Beowulf, replicating the pattern of Northern mythology in which in the final battles the gods and the humans line up against the monsters. Hence, in the last battle, men and the Gods will lose to the monsters and the world will be destroyed. This means that there are no ultimate winners according …show more content…
This could lead to our understanding that the poet is aware that nothing lasts including the Geats tribes that were bound to disappear from history.
The poet made use of some figures of speech to stress this pessimistic vision. One of the devices used is understatement i.e. using negatives to make a positive statement when Grendel is killed and the poet told us that “the people who lived in Hrothgar kingdom don’t regret Grendel’s death too much” or again describing the lake where Grendel’s mother lived saying” that was no good place to live” and that’s why Tolkien says that
Beowulf is essentially a pagan poem and that we don’t have to pay attention to the Christian elements in it since they really don’t affect the texture as well as the fiber of the entire poem.
Another interpretation to the poem is the one suggested by John C. Mc Galliard and Lee

Patterson who were the editors of the text in the Norton Anthology of world literature