wait for the monster and then fight him without weapons, just as Grendel does his killing; and that is what he does. Grendel arrives at Heorot, not knowing what is ahead for him.

Higelac’s hardy henchman and kinsman
Held him by the hand; hateful to other
Grendel is sorely wounded.
Was each one if living. A body-wound suffered
The direful demon, damage incurable
His body bursts.
Was seen on his shoulder, his sinews were shivered,
His body did burst. To Beowulf was given
Glory in battle; Grendel from thenceward
Must flee and hide him in the fen-cliffs and marshes,
Sick unto death, his dwelling must look for
Unwinsome and woful; he wist the more fully
The monster flees away to hide in the moors.
The end of his earthly existence was nearing,
His life-days’ limits.

Grendel is described as a very large, very strong, bloodthirsty, and cannibalistic creature. Beyond that, we get little physical description. He has been attacking Heorot, the mead hall, for twelve years, and nobody has been able to stop him as he kills and eats the men. The text tells us the following about Grendel:

that demon, that fiend / Grendel who haunted the moors, the wild / Marshes, and made his home in a hell. / Not hell but hell on earth. He was spawned in that slime / Of Cain, murderous creatures banished / By God, punished forever for the crime / Of Abel's death

The description above others Grendel as inhuman and monstrous. It is significant that he lives in the moors and "wild marshes" outside of the civilized order. In contrast, Heorot symbolizes all that is human and civilized, a place of order, warmth, light, sociality, and hospitality. Grendel is clearly placed outside of that boundary. He is the threatening animal, the savage, malevolent beast who threatens, ultimately, to destroy civilization. He is also depicted as a descendant of Cain. This emphasizes his outsider status, for Cain was forced to wander the earth without a homeland—without a mead-hall—for the crime of murdering his brother. Grendel likewise lives outside the ordered religious realm of the mead hall. He is associated with darkness and slime.

Grendel is also described as enjoying violence for the sake of violence. He is an inherently dangerous, murderous creature, bent malevolently on harm. The text states the following:

the monster relished his savage war / On the Danes, keeping the bloody feud / Alive, seeking no peace, offering / No truce, accepting no settlement, no price . . .

In other words, though he could decide otherwise, Grendel chooses to stay outside of the boundaries of civilization.

The Beowulf poet does not provide a physical description of Grendel, other than allusions to his size and strength. Most of the descriptive language in the poem concerning Grendel focuses more on his nature and his actions, as well as the fear he generates, than his physical traits. The lone section where the reader is given some idea of Grendel’s form comes after his death and after his mother visits Heorot in the night and kills one of Hrothgar’s advisers.

In telling Beowulf about Grendel’s mother, Hrothgar also discusses Grendel with respect to his physical nature. This brief and vague description is found in lines 1345 to 1353. In those lines, we learn that the Danes have heard stories of two massive creatures who haunt the fens. One is in the form of a woman, and the other is in the form of a wretchedly shaped man. Hrothgar tells Beowulf that the male monster‘s name is Grendel and that Grendel was larger than any other man.

Other than that he was male, wretchedly shaped, larger than any other man, and strong, the poet provides no physical description of Grendel. But what little physical description the poet does provide, along with the descriptions of Grendel’s monstrous actions and nature, is more than enough for the audiences to form an idea of what horrors Grendel embodies.

Grendel is a supernatural villain, the first of three monsters that Beowulf must fight in the epic poem. He is first described as "a fiend out of hell" who "began to work his evil." He is said to be descended from the biblical Cain and is so "condemned as [an outcast]" along with others of his race. Grendel is angry at being an outlaw and at the noise coming from celebrations inside Heorot, Hrothgar's mead hall. He decides to go to the hall every night and feast on Hrothgar's men. On the first night, "he grabbed thirty men" to take back to his lair. Clearly, he is massive and must be very strong in order to be able to hold thirty warriors and to win so easily.

Once Beowulf hears about Grendel, he decides to go to Denmark to fight the beast. When Grendel arrives in the mead hall and is surprised by Beowulf, we hear more about his appearance. As he approaches, Grendle is described as "greedily loping" toward Heorot, with "his rage boil[ing] over." We learn that he has "talons" during the fight with Beowulf and approaches Beowulf "with open claw." The so-called "hell-serf" tries to destroy Beowulf but is overpowered.

The hero rips Grendel's arm from its socket, and the monster runs off to his lair to die. When Beowulf goes to the lair later to fight Grendel's mother, he sees Grendel's body and cuts off its giant head as a trophy. It takes four very strong warrior men to carry the head back to Heorot. The "horror" of Grendel's head is visible to all in the hall, as his monstrous arm was to those who came to Heorot to see it after Beowulf bested the monster.

I have always found Grendel an interesting character, because he isn't described with a huge amount of imagery in regard to his physical description. I believe it was the responsibility of the original listeners to use their imaginations to help flesh him out. Still, though, there are some descriptions of him throughout the text that help the reader to develop his own more individualistic views of him. 

When Grendel is first introduced, he is called a "fiend of hell" and his lineage is traced back to Cain, the evil young man who killed his own brother and was cursed by God for his sins. Later, Grendel is described as a "dark death-shadow" who "lurked and swooped" about. Once Beowulf arrives, Grendel is again described, this time as a "shadow-stalker, stealthy and swift," "greedily loping," as having "talons" and "claws." When Beowulf presents the gift of Grendel's arm to the kingdom, it is described as " brutal and bloodcaked." Through these well-placed details, the listener or reader can create an individual, imagined picture of Grendel. 

In Beowulf, Grendel’s ferocity, which is expressed through physical description, sets the stage for Beowulf’s heroism. As an epic hero, Beowulf has exceptional strength and courage. Where dozens of men are unable to defeat Grendel, Beowulf can, even without the use of weapons.

The post above shows how Grendel is physically characterized before his battle with Beowulf. It is also important to look at how is described near the end of this encounter, as Beowulf gains the upper hand and begins to defeat the monster.

The monster’s hatred rose higher,
But his power had gone. He twisted in pain,
And the bleeding sinews deep in his shoulder
Snapped, muscle and bone split
And broke.

This vivid imagery (look at the verbs: twisted, bleeding, snapped, split, broke) brings Beowulf’s power to the forefront. By describing Grendel’s defeat in such detailed and painful terms, the reader sees that Beowulf has an unmatched ability to defeat evil and make life safe for humanity, at least in Herot. Grendel is no longer fearsome; he is broken.

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."

Grendel, the ferocious monster in the Old English epic poem titled Beowulf, symbolizes many of the worst passions that can exist, either in human beings or in monsters. In fact, one way to think of Grendel is as an embodiment of the monstrous passions that plague human hearts. As the poem develops, Grendel is associated with evil in a wide variety of ways, including the following (see the very literal translation cited below):

• He is said to execute “atrocities,      a fiend in hell” (101) – language that associates him with the infliction of pain and with Satanic motives.
• He is called one of the “kin of Cain” (107), not only the first murderer in human history but also the first person ever to kill a member of his own family (indeed, his own brother). Grendel is thus associated with extreme evil.
• Later he is called a “damned creature, / grim and greedy” (120-21), language which associates his with excessive self-indulgence and materialistic desires.
• Similarly, he is also called “savage and cruel” (122) – a phrase in which the second adjective is in some ways worse than the first.  It is bad enough to be “savage”; it is even worse to be “cruel,” which implies a perverse delight in causing pain and suffering to others. Indeed, later on the poet comments that it “grieved him not,

violence and viciousness,   he was too entrenched in these" (136-37)

In other words, Grendel is repulsive not only for the evil acts he commits but for the evil pleasure and utter lack of remorse he feels about those acts. Often, in the times depicted in this poem, feuds could be settled in honorable ways, but Grendel seeks no such settlement and refuses any such settlement offered to him (151-58). Little wonder, then, that he is called “the dark death-shade” (160) and is also called “hellish” (163) and a “foe of mankind” (164).

• When Grendel approaches the hall in which Beowulf is waiting to surprise him, the poet refers to the monster by various other epithets, including “the shadow-wanderer” (702), the “vile ravager” (712), and an “enraged” creature “plotting evil” (723). He is a “cruel killer” (737), who attacks, slaughters, and devours sleeping men (740-43), thus showing that he deserves no mercy from Beowulf. Most significantly, however, he is associated with pride, which Christians then considered the root of all sin:

Then his heart laughed:  / he intended to deprive,      ere the day came, / the cruel beast,      from each one / life from body . . . . (730-32)

No sooner does the poet describe Grendel’s confidence, however, than he immediately makes clear that Grendel will lose the fight with Beowulf. The poet is not interested here in cheap suspense; rather he is interested in letting us focus on the different characters and different motives of the two combatants. Grendel’s fighting is motivated by pride, envy, and evil; Beowulf’s fighting is motivated by altruism, generosity, and – most important – devotion to God.

• When Grendel realizes that he has met his match in Beowulf, he is eager to escape in any way, even if doing so means seeking “the devils' concourse” (756). Appropriately enough, when we last hear of him, Grendel is described as “God’s adversary” (786) and “Hell’s prisoner” (788).

What is an epic poem without a villain? Grendel is the main antagonist in Beowulf, the oldest poem in the English language. Grendel is the monster that haunts King Hrothgar's hall night after night. Hrothgar is an old king, too weak to slaughter Grendel himself. He urges his young warriors to kill the beast, but none manage the task. Every night, the men are killed. Despite Grendel's nightly raids, the warriors still get drunk in the mead hall. Mead is a honey fermented beverage. Grendel demonizes and destroys the court until Beowulf finally heeds the king's plea for help and travels to the land. He slays Grendel, but Grendel's mother then seeks vengeance.

Grendel's ancestry traces all the way back to Cain, the first murderer, according to biblical tradition. In the Book of Genesis, Cain is the firstborn child of Adam and Eve. Jealous of his younger brother, Abel, whose offerings from his flock are more favored by God than Cain's offerings from his harvest, Cain kills Abel. As punishment, God condemns Cain to a life of wandering, though Cain is given a mark to protect him from anyone who might wish to kill him; God even claims Cain will be avenged "sevenfold" should anyone hurt him.

In the lore of Beowulf, Cain's progeny become monsters due to his sin. The following description makes it appear as though they are all evil by their very nature:

For that bitter murder,
The killing of Abel, all-ruling Father
The kindred of Cain crushed with His vengeance;
In the feud He rejoiced not, but far away drove him
From kindred and kind, that crime to atone for,
Meter of Justice. Thence ill-favored creatures,
Elves and giants, monsters of ocean,
Came into being, and the giants that longtime
Grappled with God; He gave them requital.

Even apart from the common blood between them, Grendel shares many similarities with Cain. Both are murderers. Both are social outsiders, with Grendel existing apart from the humans in Heorot Hall just as Cain is made to wander "east of Eden." Like Cain, Grendel is driven by jealousy—the text suggests that Grendel longs for the warmth, light, and community of Heorot Hall, but because of his monstrous status, he is fated to be an outcast. This exclusion warps Grendel's loneliness into a bitter rage, just as Cain's own envy grew murderous.

The poem also mentions various and sundry other undesirables such as giants and monsters, but Cain is the most ominous ancestor.  This is ancestor is chosen to make more clear the Anglo-Saxon loyalty to family and kings.  Those to whom you are related and to whom you pledge your life are bonded...however, Cain is considered the most evil because he rebuked that bond.  Anyone who commits this crime in Anglo-Saxon times and literature is usually considered an outcast...therefore, Grendel, being descended of this murderer, is the ultimate miserable outcast.  And so, the setting/background info is laid for the remainder of the poem.  Good Luck, and happy reading!

Cain. The Bible refers to Cain being \'marked\' as punishment for killing his brother, Abel. Over time many people have interpreted this \'mark\' as different things. The monk writing \"Beowulf\" down from the ancient oral epic wanted to incorporate Christian elements into the original pagan story. So he obviously added this element to make Grendel an agent of the devil. The play, especially the scenes with Grendel, are filled with Christian allusions.

For an interesting view of Grendel check out Ben Gardner\'s novel \"Grendel,\" which tells \"Beowulf\" from Grendel\'s point of view.

According to the Christian doctrine of original sin, humankind is sinful on account of man's first disobedience, when Adam and Eve defied God by eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, as described in the Book of Genesis. Yet thanks to God's freely bestowed grace, humans are saved by the sacrifice of Lord Jesus Christ, His only begotten son.

Such saving grace does not apply to Grendel, however. He is a monster, an outcast from human society, and therefore beyond redemption. He is the direct descendent of Cain, the son of Adam and Eve, who murdered his brother, Abel, in the first ever act of murder.

It would appear, then, that evil is an intrinsic part of Grendel's being; it's part of what he is. Even if he didn't descend on Heorot every evening and murder the Danish warriors there, he would still be regarded as the living embodiment of all that is dark and malevolent.

Nevertheless, his regular attacks on the Danes serve as an effective illustration of his unremitting evil. The Danes don't mean Grendel any harm; all they do is sing and laugh and enjoy themselves in their mead hall. But because Grendel is evil, because he is a perpetual outcast, he cannot refrain from disturbing the peace and undermining the stability of society.

Because Beowulf is essentially a Christian poem despite its mixture of Christian and pagan elements, the first mention of Grendel, which would certainly have been fearsome to the poem's listeners:

That fiend from Hell . . .was called Grendel,/notorious bush-roamer, at home on the moors. . . since the Shaper [that is, God] had condemned him/as Cain's kinsman. (ll. 102-106)

The poet, in order to place Grendel in the Christian world and make his outcast status understood, must describe him as the descendant of Cain, who killed his own brother, Abel, and was cast out of Adam's family by God.  Grendel, therefore, falls into the category of an unnatural killer and enemy of mankind.

Shortly after his introduction into the poem, we see Grendel attacking the Danes in Heorot, described in even more horrific terms:

The sinful creature,/grim and greedy . . . savage and spiteful, and seized at least thirty thanes; thence he went back,/ exulting in plunder, to tramp home. . . . (ll. 120-124)

This scene depicts Grendel's first attack on Heorot, and immediately following this description, the poet makes it clear that Grendel "committed worse murders, and with no remorse for/his killings and crimes; he was too caught up in them." (ll. 135-137).  What makes Grendel so fearsome to the Danes is not just the attacks but that Grendel attacks without remorse and without stopping until he has killed every Dane who tries to sleep in Heorot.  The phrase "he was too caught up in them" suggests that Grendel's attacks can never stop because Grendel doesn't have the ability to stop himself.

Perhaps the most horrific description of Grendel occurs when Beowulf and his Geats are in Heorot, and Grendel begins his attack:

. . . he suddenly seized/and slashed up a sleeping warrior,/crunched his bonecage, drank the blood from his veins/and swallowed great morsels; soon he had gobbled down the lifeless man. . . . (ll. 741-744)

It is one thing to be killed in a battle with Grendel, but it's quite another thing to become Grendel's meal during a battle.  On a scale of ways to die, being eaten alive is probably the most horrific manner of death.  The fearsomeness of this encounter would have been enhanced when the listeners recall that Grendel, who is committing an unspeakable act, was once part of God's family.  His cannibalism, of course, places him far outside the pale of mankind.

Grendel's defeat at Beowulf's hands, of course, is well deserved and, in a Christian context, part of God's just revenge upon Grendel.  But Grendel's fearsome attacks on mankind--implacable, hateful, unnatural--would have reminded Beowulf's audience that their lives could conceivably be ended by equally fearsome beings who stalked the outskirts of their Christian world.

Grendel is neither a woman nor a man; he is a monster, a demon, and a fiend, a creature separate and apart from humanity:

He was spawned in that slime [of the moors and marshes],

Conceived by a pair of those monsters born

Of Cain, murderous creatures banished

By God, punished forever for the crime 

Of Abel's death.

Thus Grendel was born of evil itself and acts as its agent. He was born of "a brood" who forever work against "the Lord's will" and who are "again and again defeated."

Grendel's evil is not found in his abhorrent physical characteristics but in his nature and intent. He loathes God, God's followers, goodness, love, light and human companionship. He delights in murder and destruction, attacking Herot merely for the pleasure of destroying the sleeping warriors and their community. As the result of Grendel's hatred and rage, Herot remains deserted for twelve years, "[t]welve winters of grief for Hrothgar."

Why we are so fascinated with Grendel and the evil he brings into the story is an interesting question. Perhaps we find him fascinating because he is the exception, not the norm. Grendel is unlike all others in the story, with the exception of his own mother, also a monster. He is unusual, to understate the case, with his terrible claws, magic skin, superhuman strength, and stealthy form. Perhaps we are fascinated with Grendel because he symbolizes anything or everything that threatens our own safety and security. Speaking idealistically, perhaps Grendel fascinates us because we are good and find his evil simply incomprehensible. 

For me, the answer to this would be "not much."  Of course, it's subjective, isn't it?  Answering this question depends a lot on a person's definition of good.  Grendel's mother seems to like him.

As far as the "human" definition of good, I would have to say that Grendel does not have much in him.  Think about these quotes from the story, which describe Grendel as:

“[m]alignant by nature” and that he has “never show[n] remorse” (137).

By human standards, someone who is bad to the bone and feels no remorse for his bad acts is generally considered a bad dude.  Also consider that he likes to bust up the town and eat the people he kills.  And don't be confused by the movies...the story itself doesn't say exactly what Grendel is so PO'd about.

But I have to add this little kernel in Grendel's defense: his value system is different than ours.  Grendel is not human, and therefore is not bound by human definitions of "badness" and "goodness."  But it is thought that he's a descendant of Cain, and Cain was human, so there might be a bit of that still left in him.  We would have to better understand Grendel's motives for doing the things he did.  It isn't cannibalism to Grendel because he isn't a human.  And to Grendel, attacking humans with a vengeance might not be any different than us attacking a colony of wasps that have crossed us.

So, all and all, by human standards it doesn't look like Grendel has more than a drip of goodness to him.  But by hideous-swamp-monster standards, I am sure he's a prince.