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canterburytales
canterburytales
Student

Describe Grendel physically using quotes from Beowulf.

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Posted by canterburytales on Saturday March 28, 2009 at 1:48 AM and tagged with beowulf, characters, description, grendel.

Answers:

  1. mshurn
    mshurn Teacher
    College - Freshman

    Grendel, as described in Beowulf, is horrible indeed. A clawed monster of great strength and cunning, he can move quickly and quietly in the night, as he did when he invaded Herot to carry off thirty warriors:

    The monster's

    Thoughts were as quick as his greed or his claws:

    He slipped through the door and there in the silence

    Snatched up thirty men, smashed them

    Unknowing in their beds and ran out with their bodies,

    Grendel's eyes reflect his evil nature as they "[g]leamed in the darkness, burned with a gruesome Light." He has "swift hard claws," "powerful jaws," and "great teeth." Furthermore, Grendel's skin was impenetrable in battle: "[T]he sharpest and hardest iron / Could not scratch at his skin."

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/beowulf/beowulf-epic
    http://www.enotes.com/beowulf/character-analysis
    http://www.enotes.com/beowulf/summary-analysis

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    Posted by mshurn on Saturday March 28, 2009 at 3:46 PM