Grendel: Villain or Victim?

Grendel: Villain or Victim?

From the beginning of the epic poem Beowulf, you’re made to fear Grendel, the story’s main antagonist. The very first stanza begins his description, calling him things like “monster” and “demon.” But what if we consider the events of Beowulf from his perspective? Did he kill all of those men because he was truly evil, or as a result of outside factors? I think it was a combination of the two.

One of the reasons given in the poem for Grendel’s wickedness is his relation to Cain. In the Bible, Cain is Adam and Eve’s first born son, and is banished by God when he kills his younger brother, Abel. Cain is cursed to wander the earth, banished from paradise. But God makes it so that no man-made weapon can kill him. Because he is descendent of Cain, Grendel received this same curse. Therefore, being a killer is just in his blood. He also can’t be injured by man-made weapons, like it says in lines 203-205: “...but their points could not hurt him, the sharpest and hardest iron could not scratch at his skin…”. So, Grendel never had a chance to be good; it was in his blood to be evil.

Another factor that could have caused Grendel to attack the warriors is the simple fact that they were afraid of him. Because the warriors feared him, Grendel needed to fulfill the role and do something worthy of being afraid of. Perhaps Grendel was just proving a point to them, that he wasn’t a threat to be taken lightly. In a way, maybe Grendel wanted to be feared. He wanted their awe and fear, because it was a way to rule over them. Hrothgar’s men being afraid of him might have influenced Grendel to attack them.

The final idea to consider would be that Grendel was just inherently an evil creature, and he killed for the sheer pleasure of killing. One example of this is “The he stopped, seeing the hall crowded with sleeping warriors, stuffed with rows of young soldiers resting together, and his heart laughed, he relished at the sight, intended to tear...