Beowulf -- a Tale of Term Paper

Total Length: 421 words ( 1 double-spaced pages)

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When Grendel is slain, a triumphant and bloody ritual is made of his body that is anything but respectful in tone. "It was a task for four to hoist Grendel's head on a spear and bear it under strain to the bright hall." (113) Beowulf tells the tale of Grendel's slaying to the court both as a tale of good vs. evil, and as a spectacle of his military prowess. And when the mother of Grendel takes revenge, this creates a sense of an earlier, matriarchal order of revenge that is ultimately succumbed to Beowulf's greater military might and strength.
At the end of the tale, heroics and heroic rewards are fused with fighting with a cause of Christian good, while bestial threats to the community are not simply frightening in a pagan sense, but evil and immoral as well. Although the pagan and Christian elements of the text at times seem to exist in a state of tension, ultimately they are thematically fused, as battles become moral struggles as well as military ones.

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