Beowulf- why does grendel assault herot?

Question

Beowulf- why does grendel assault herot?

Answer 1

Usually in most film or literature adaptions, Grendel attacks the hall because he has been disturbed by the noise the drunken people have made. In "Grendel" by John Gardner he attacks the hall because of revenge. The people of Herot have persecuted him, they see him in the woods and assume because of how he looks that he is a violent monster so they attach. They disrupt his life and so he goes after them. In Beowulf on the fact that he is a cannibal and is savage is showed. The fact that he is a descendent of Cain is suppose to imply that he is violent by nature or birth.  

Answer 2

Monsters, and even humans, often attack in stories without defined reasons.

But in the “Beowulf” poem, it is mainly because of the singing in the hall which disturbs the silence of the wastes.

This is a standard motif in the proto-tale. My discussion comes from Joseph Eddy Fontenrose’s  Ã¢Â€ÂœPython; a study of Delphic myth and its origins”, 1959.

According to Fontenrose the basic story is of a male and female monster, the female often being the mother and also the consort of the male monster. The slayers are either a hero who kills the male monster, and his son who kills the female monster, or there is only one slayer who kills both as in the “Beowulf” version.

The earliest surviving version is the Babylonian epic “Enuma Elish” where the god Ea is the first hero.  Ea slays the water-monster Apsu, and then his son Marduk slays the female-water monster Tiamet who is Apsu's mother. Hrothgar corresponds to Anshar. See http://www.cresourcei.org/enumaelish.htm... line 20 and following:

“Thus were established and were... the great gods.

They disturbed Tiamat as they surged back and forth,

Yes, they troubled the mood of Tiamat

By their hilarity in the Abode of Heaven.

Apsu could not lessen their clamor”

It is the joyfulness and hilarity and ceaseless activity of the young gods that offends Apsu and Tiamet.

In Greek myths Fontenrose looks at the stories of Apollo who slew the great serpent. He distinguishes two versions. In one Zeus first slays the monster Typhaon who corresponds to Grendel, then Apollo slays a female monster, usually called Dephyne, who was Typhaon’s nurse, here apparently a substitute for mother. Delphyne corresonds to Grende’s dam. In the other version Apollo kills a male serpent who in this version corresonds to Grendel and then defeats serpent’s female partner, a nymph named Telphusa who corresponds to the female monster.

The “Pythian Hymn to Apollo” is a combination of both versions, following mainly Fontenrose’s second version, but including details from the other version which connect the serpent to Typhaon. A translation is available at http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/... . The poem says:

So said Phoebus Apollo, and laid out all the foundations throughout, wide and very long. But when Telphusa saw this, she was angry in heart and spoke, saying: “Lord Phoebus, worker from afar, I will speak a word of counsel to your heart, since you are minded to make here a glorious temple to be an oracle for men who will always bring hither perfect hecatombs for you; yet I will speak out, and do you lay up my words in your heart. The trampling of swift horses and the sound of mules watering at my sacred springs will always irk you, and men will like better to gaze at the well-made chariots and stamping, swift-footed horses than at your great temple and the many

treasures that are within. But if you will be moved by me – for you, lord, are stronger and mightier than I, and your strength is very great -– build at Crisa below the glades of Parnassus: there no bright chariot will clash, and there will be no noise of swift-footed horses near your well-built altar. But so the glorious tribes of men will bring gifts to you as Iepaeon (`Hail-Healer'), and you will receive with delight rich sacrifices from the people dwelling round about.”

Apollo has built only the foundations, not an entire hall like Hrothgar, but Telphusa is already concerned about increased noise and bustle, though the poem makes this part of her persuading Apollo to build elsewhere, which is in itself only an indirect attack.

Answer 3

Beowulf – Anonymous

Study Guides:

Features: Chapter-By-Chapter Summary, Character Descriptions, Literary Analysis - Themes, Quotes, Object Info.

http://www.bookrags.com/notes/beo/

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/beowulf/

http://www.lone-star.net/literature/beow...

http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Beowu...

http://www.pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/barr...

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Historical Context

http://www.jiffynotes.com/Beowulf/Histor...

Online Versions of the Epic.

http://www.alcyone.com/max/lit/beowulf/

http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~beowu...

Answer 4

Grendel attacks Herot because of jealousy. He is woken by the songs that Herot sings when the town is completed. He then becomes jealous because of the idea that everyone has friends except him. Grendel was believed to be one of the pair of monsters that was a descendent of Cain, banished by God, forever punished for the crime of Abel's death.

Grendel envies the fellowship and happiness he sees in Herot. He hates not having anyone and being excluded from the company of men. He is jealous of the pleasures that men have. That is why Grendel kills the people of Herot for twelve years.