Beowulf: the Epic Tale of Two Evils
            
             According to Ron Rosenbaum, the author of "Degrees of Evil", there is a hierarchy of wickedness; thus, evil can be assorted in different degrees of its nature: "There is evil and there is evil-distinctions to be drawn..."(Rosenbaum, 63). Specifically, the consciousness of the crime and the scale of the crime are the two defining variables that determine a particular evil's magnitude; moreover, they are what differentiate one evil from another evil. Therefore, the nature of evil has many faces for each evil has its specific motives and degrees As a result, evil needs to be approached and categorized subjectively. Two separate types of evils are exhibited in Burton Raffel's translation of the Anglo-Saxon epic, Beowulf. "Malignant wickedness" is the first evil which Grendel exemplifies, and then there is "conscientious wickedness" which Beowulf represents. Beowulf's use of "malignant wickedness" and "conscientious wickedness", which is portrayed through the actions and thoughts of Grendel and Beowulf, suggests that the nature of evil is based on the justification of the evildoer's motives as well as the scale of his crime.
             Grendel, the epic's murderous creature who enters Herot Hall to feast on the bodies of the Danes for nearly twelve years, symbolizes a "malignant wickedness" through his savagery tactics and translator's description of him. Malignant wickedness, according to Rosenbaum, is when one is "doing evil for evil's sake" (Rosenbaum 63). From the onset of the epic, Grendel is described as malignant.
             He was spawned in that slime,
             Conceived by a pair of those monsters born
             Of Cain, murderous creatures banished
             By God, punished forever for the crime
             Of Abel's death. The Almighty drove
             Those demons out, and their exile was bitter,
             Shut awa...