are sleeping. He kills thirty people and continues his attacks regularly each night until the hall is deserted. Hrothgar and his warriors are no match for Grendel.

The hero of the poem is Beowulf, who is considered the strongest person alive, with the strength of thirty men. He resides in the land of the Geats tribe in Sweden. In this poem, Beowulf is clearly a force for good, and he confronts and destroys evil wherever it thrives. Hearing of Hrothgar’s troubles, Beowulf sails to Denmark and offers his help. This is the beginning of his journey. A grateful Hrothgar orders a feast to celebrate, but Grendel breaks into the hall:

Came then from the moor
under the misty hills
Grendel stalking under
the weight of God's anger.
That wicked ravager
planned to ensnare
many of the race of men
in the high hall.

Grendel devours a Geat warrior and grabs Beowulf. A violent struggle ensues, the protagonist rips off Grendel’s arm, and the monster flees into the marsh where he ultimately dies. The Danes hang the severed arm in the great hall as a trophy. Beowulf thanks God for his victory, and the Danes honor him.

Grendel’s mother, who lives at the bottom of the fiery lake of the monsters that boils over with blood, seeks revenge for her son’s death and attacks the Danes, killing Hrothgar’s faithful friend and carrying away Grendel’s arm. Hrothgar once again askes Beowulf for help, and Beowulf journeys to the underworld at the bottom of the lake and slays Grendel’s mother after a fierce battle:

He who fought for the Danes,
fierce and sword grim,
despairing of life,
seized the chain-wound hilt,
drew the ringed sword,
and angrily struck—
It grasped her neck hard
and her bone rings broke.
The blade entered
the fated body.
She fell to the ground.
The sword was bloody,
and the warrior rejoiced
in his work.

In keeping with the elements of a traditional epic poem, this long verse narrative dealing with a serious subject written in a formal style tells of a heroic, quasi-divine figure responsible for the survival of the Danes. The protagonist is a person of great national importance, and the action during his journey into the underworld involves extraordinary deeds in battle. It is also significant to note that throughout the entire journey, Beowulf gives credit to God for his successes. Additionally, whereas Beowulf represents goodness in his physical struggles, the monsters symbolize the presence of evil in the world, which the hero battles during his entire lifetime. The evil is human sin, not part of the natural world. The monsters have “Descended from Cain.”