Beowulf Character Sketch
Grendel
Quote #1
"He was of a race of monsters exiled from mankind by God--He was of the race of Cain, that man punished for murdering his brother. From that family comes all evil beings--monsters, elves, zombies. Also the giants who fought with God and got repaid with the flood"
"The Adventures of Beowulf." Lone Star Technologies: Austin Web Design and Ruby on Rails Software Development. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2015.
Quote #2
"Came then striding in the night the walker of the darkness"
"The Adventures of Beowulf." Lone Star Technologies: Austin Web Design and Ruby on Rails Software Development. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2015.
Quote #3
"That was bad enough, but the following night Grendel killed more--blinded by sin, he felt no remorse"
"The Adventures of Beowulf." Lone Star Technologies: Austin Web Design and Ruby on Rails Software Development. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2015.
Description of Grendel
A descendent of Cain whom is the evilest of all spirits. Jealousy possessed his control and helped murder his brother. His name Grendel, menaced the people of Danes for twelve years. He kills with no remorse, faulting God himself for blessing mankind over him. The joyous, harmonic music that escapes from the halls awakes his inner demons. He snacks on the skeletal remains of men like a starved beast. Though god would never allow such a sinful ghoulish creature to run free leaving a trail of mayhem and terror, who was to stop him?
The people of Hrothgar became resigned, reclusive and relinquished their extreme caution as they went about their day to day lives. Songs of Grendel's dirty deeds distributed throughout the world. They sang of his armor-like skin and razor sharp nails.Though he formed, the features of human, with two arms, two legs and a head, his size and strength was incomparable to that of a man. Except Beowulf, of course. Beowulf, "the strongest of men alive in that day, mighty and noble" (Beowulf 2) heard of Grendel's doings in Hygelac.
With the intention of pure destruction, Grendel storms into Heorot as he did days before. Famished, he immediately grasps a Geatish warrior and devours him whole, the crunch of his bones echoes through the quiet hall. Beowulf carefully observes, eyeing Grendel's every move. Companied by greed, Grendel reaches out yet again to another warrior.This time, Beowulf. He stops short, A men with power he never knew possible had taken hold of his arm. Paralysed by terror, Grendel longs for escape. Missed by none, Grendel had died after facing with Beowulf. Talk of Beowulf's heroic actions replaced the songs of Grendel's sinful doings. After numerous souls of warriors Grendel had stolen, he paid the price with his very own.
Figurative Language
I purposely used a figurative language within the first few sentences to help engage the reader. The usage of personification in the sentence, "Jealousy possessed his control and helped murder his brother", reveals the reason behind why Grendel committed such crime. I feel as though describing one's feelings with human traits gives further impact in a writing. If you are unable to control your feelings, it could potentially lead to an action. In Grendel's case, a negative one.
Once again, I included another personification in the first paragraph. I prefer personification over other figurative language because I feel as though providing human characteristics to anything from a sky to a piece of machinery immediately encourages the reader to relate to the thing being described, thus evoking emotions such as concern or sympathy. In other words, personification helps to make the text more spirited and alive. Rather than writing, " the music from the halls angered him", I wrote, "The joyous harmonic music that escapes from the halls awakes his inner demons", because it gives more descriptive details and simply helps to create a superior image in a reader's head.
My intention in using a simile in the sentence, "He snacks on the skeletal remains of men like a starved beast", is to make the reader realise how evilly spirited Grendel is. Comparing him to "a starved beast", gives an example of who and what Grendel acts like, therefore, plotting an image of a beast-like monster.
In the second paragraph, I made use of alliteration. Repetitively using words that start with "d" draws attention to that specific line of text. I used alliteration to describe Grendel's dirty deeds because repeated letters signifies that these words are important. I sincerely wanted the reader to catch on to the fact that Grendel's bad doings were widely spread and that is why I used alliteration is that particular description.
Lastly, "paralysed by terror" does a great job of describing the amount of fear Grendel experienced when Beowulf tightly grasped onto his arm. Through this sentence, we can acknowledge the irony of the new position Grendel faces. That being, the one who experiences terror. My intention of writing this way was to propagate a clear image of Grendel's horror struck face.