Premium Essay

Beowuld vs. Grendel's Mother

In: English and Literature

Submitted By seadudelee
Words 609
Pages 3
The passage I chose was Beowulf's fight with Grendal's mother, which to me was the most exciting. During this underwater fight, the second of his three fights, Beowulf and his adversary continually battle throughout her home. Although the conflict seems unrealistic because of the location, it makes the battle even more thrilling and suspenseful. For this and several more reasons, the battle between Beowulf and Grendal's mother is the most exciting episode in this brilliant epic.

The battle begins when Beowulf travels for many hours underwater to take revenge against Grendal's mother the day after she carried of one of Hrothgar's men. Beowulf and she proceed to fight until her miserable death in her own home. When Beowulf was almost to the point of death, he grabbed a giant sword of the wall and slew Grendal's mother. To me, this entire fight is very unrealistic. The sword, supposedly a massive sword created by giants, could never have been lifted by a normal person. The fact that he took several hours to get to the bottom of the lake makes the episode seem very unlikely, but it is also very useful in creating suspense in this poem.

This entire episode is filled with excitement, suspense, and imagery. Suspense and imagery were hand-in-hand during this fight. Not only did suspense keep the reader's attention; it also created the mood of this episode. The most exciting point was when Beowulf took the giants' sword off the wall and killed Grendal's mother. When Beowulf took the sword down, I could actually see the sword in my head. As I thought of it, I could just see the blood dripping of the razor-sharp blade.

To me, this episode was extremely emotional. The entire time I was reading this I had several different emotions. While Beowulf was making his long journey underwater and using the giants' sword, I was very skeptical that he could do those things, but

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