Are Grendel and the dragon really villains in Beowulf? When I was a child, I refused to eat Trix cereal
because I felt bad for the way that the children in the commercial treated the
rabbit, and I didn’t want to support their behavior. All the rabbit wanted was
some of the cereal and he would go through great lengths to try and get some,
but the mean children would always take it away from him. I was so enraged by
the commercial that one day in Kindergarten, the kid next to me was eating a
bowl of Trix and just as he poured all of the contents into his bowl, I snatched
the bowl away from him and said “silly “insert name here” Trix are for mean
people”. Needless to say, that day I had a five minute time out (a very long
time for a kid) and a letter home. I say all of this because, the children in
the commercial probably saw the rabbit as the villain, whereas I saw the
children as the villains. In Beowulf, although written to seem like villains, Grendel
and the dragon are misunderstood just like the rabbit in the Trix commercial.
Grendel really just wants some friends. The guy sits in his cave with his mother day in and day out. I love my mom and I don’t know what I would do without her, but at the end of summer vacation I am always ready to come back to school because I have had too much of her.
Also it was almost as if the Danes were being rude,
showcasing their happiness and parading around in “the hall of halls” (pg 7
line 78). I’m sure if they hadn’t have made so much noise Grendel wouldn’t have
even known that they were there or happy. Understandably, Grendel got mad because
he can’t party with them and started killing them. It’s that feeling when you are sad, but you are
around other sad people so you feel happier. If I were Grendel, while I was
killing people I would be thinking “yeah I’m lonely, but at least I’m not about
to be eaten”. I know it seems as though I am justifying killing; I am not I am simply saying that I can see what drove Grendel to killing.
The dragon, in Beowulf, was sleeping peacefully,
when his one of his things got stolen.
Side note: I find it interesting some of the wrong doings
in the poem take place a night or while sleeping. Grendel attacks at night and
the thief steals from the dragon while the dragon is sleeping. What do you guys
think about that?
I know that if someone took my phone and wouldn’t give it back I would be pretty upset and try very hard to get it back. I was always taught that stealing was wrong, so when I think about the thief it seems that he is really the bad guy here. The Geats are being punished because one of them wronged the dragon. It is like when a teacher gives a punishment to the whole class because one person is acting out. As unfair as that may seem, it does lessen the amount of acting out in the future. The Geats are being taught a lesson and hopefully, because of this, no one will steal ever again.
I find it interesting that you side with the "monsters" of the story, when most people would say that it's crazy and they're clearly the bad guys just because they recieved the title of monster in the beginning of the book. I think the Danes don't give Grendel and the dragon enough credit really. Just imagine if they had stopped using the hall and the noise coming from it stopped and then Grendel just didn't attack anymore. While simple enough a solution they were being selfish. They knew he attacked the hall and still they continued to use it because it was theirs. So in reality, the first couple attacks on the hall aren't their fault, but any after those are clearly the responsibility of the king. They knew what was coming for them and they chose to pretend like it was going to happen after 12 YEARS. They even blame the dragon for the entire problem they are facing. They entirely forget that the dragon was there to protect things and that someone stole from him. If someone stole from one of their houses I'm sure there would have been a big problem, but no because it was a dragon and all dragons are bad clearly he is the problem and not the theif. Rather than blaming the theif that caused the dragon to attack them, they blame the dragon for attacking because he is the dragon and he's big and scary so he is clearly the issue in this case; not the fact that no one cares who the theif is or that even after killing the dragon they take his treasure just like the theif did.
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