Beowulf

The stories of Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are littered with monsters that have to be dealt with. The monsters range from Beowulf’s Grendel, Grendels’ mother, and a fire breathing dragon to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’s woodwose, forest creatures and the Green Knight. There is also a monster that doesn’t fit the description of a monster, in the way we would see one today; something tangible, something that can be destroyed. This monster is time. Through these works, the authors seemed to pose the following idea. Time is an evil monster that they can not fight. The purpose of the monsters that are faced within these stories, are to act as distinct points in the timelines of the heroes lives. They show the gradual disintegration of the hero’s stamina, willpower and most of all life. As they get older, the monsters they face get stronger and more difficult to destroy, because of the heroes withering lives and sapping strength.

In Beowulf, the first time we are faced with a monster, is when Beowulf faces Grendel. The fight between Grendel and Beowulf is the medium through which the author chooses to express Beowulf’s youth and superhuman strength.

“Grendel is no braver, no stronger /Than I am! I could kill

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Soon it has come time for Sir Gawain to leave the castle and continue his journey to the green chapel, where he will meet his doom at the hands of the Green Knight. On page 101, Beowulf says farewell to his men and followers alike. Within this speech, he shows his youth and his strength. To fight a beast that has been killing strong honorable soldiers for such a long time, with shield and armor and sword alone would be crazy; to do it with no armor or sword would be labeled suicide. His actions though impose a new problem on them. As his inertia to continue traveling, winds down, he stumbles upon a magical castle, built in the middle of the forest. This is when Beowulf’s “super-human” strength begins to wane, and the reader sees that even for a medieval super hero, some thing’s are best done with sword and shield and armor.

The fight between Grendels’ mother is an important turning point in the story. He follows each of Beowulf’s strokes of his sword, and movements of his feet as if they are his own. /

How so? Said the knight speaking urgently/

Such a great man as Gawain is granted to be,/ the very vessel of virtue and fine courtesy/ could scarcely have stayed such a sojourn with a lady without /craving a kiss out of courtesy” ( Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,70)

Sir Gawain out of courtesy succumbs to her plea, and grants her a kiss. But in the end, we will lose as Beowulf and Sir Gawain did, to the monster because nothing can surpass, nor defeat, nor outlive time. They soon end up in small talk and laughter, and before she leaves she bestows a kiss on Sir Gawain. Now by presence of the girdle he has brought sin to Arthurs court. We now are introduced to a force that is little by little weakening Beowulf.

Approximate Word count = 2669
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)

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