Grendel And Beowulf Similarities

Beowulf has a number of battles throughout the story. These battles consist of fighting with the demon Grendel, the demon that was Grendel’s mother, as well as a great battle with a giant green dragon. All of these battles ended with the beast dying, but the final battle ended with beowulf having a greater battle with the dragon than with the others. Beowulf approached these battles differently, but some of them have similarities.
Grendel comes because he hears all of the partying and joy. Grendel knows that the men will soon be too drunk to fight so he goes in and attacks. Unfortunately for him Beowulf was waiting for Grendel to attack by acting like he was asleep. While Grendel is killing the other men Beowulf jumps on his back grabs his
arm and starts pulling. Beowulf also takes his armor off as to not scare the beast away before he can attack. He helps these people because he wants to repair a relationship that went sour between a man and his father. He prepares by having a great feast removing his armor and acting like he was asleep from the alcohol. The battle concludes with Beowulf ripping Grendel’s arm off with his bare hands which sends the monster back to hide with it’s mother where it dies soon after.
After Grendel dies in his home with his mother she leaves the strength of her home to attack the humans to get revenge for her son. Beowulf is promised treasure if he goes out and kills this beast that attacked in the night. He agrees and heads out into the marshes where the lair of Grendel’s mother is. Once he gets to the lake they see it is infested with serpents and water dragons. He prepares for this battle by putting on his armor getting plenty of weapons ready, and is given Hrunting a great sword by Unferth. He also prepares should he be slain by asking his men to help the Geats and bring his treasure back to his home. Beowulf swims down to the bottom of the lake where grendel’s mother tries to kill him quick by crushing him but his armor is strong enough to hold her grasp. Beowulf at first tries to fight the beast with his new sword, but it does nothing. Then he tries to fight her with his fists, but the beast is just as capable and matches his blows. The he spies a giant sword on the wall which he uses to put a final blow onto the great beast. After killing Grendel’s mother Beowulf becomes king for 50 years before a poor thief stole a goblet from a great green dragon. The dragon woke to find the goblet stolen. He proceeded to do what any normal dragon would he started killing and burning villages to find what had been taken from him. Beowulf was in his 60s at this time so he decided this time to get more armor. He got an armorer to make him a great iron shield to withstand the fiery breath. He takes his armor and eleven strong men to help him in this fight. At this time you can tell he is not as sure in himself as he used to be with the extra armor, and shield. Beowulf starts fighting the great dragon, but his sword cannot penetrate the scales. Wiglaf decides to go help Beowulf as the others flee from the battle. He hits the dragon on the head with his great sword, but his sword breaks when wiglaf comes in the dragon bites Beowulf in the neck. Wiglaf stabs the dragon in the side, and beowulf kills it with a blow in the flank from his dagger. Beowulf dies from the poison from the dragon bite.
These battles all had things that were similar to each other.
Some of the similarities throughout the battles are that in every battle Beowulf either does not use a weapon at one point or breaks his weapon on the beast. Against Grendel Beowulf rips it’s arm off with just his bare hands and strength. When he fought Grendel’s mother after he found out his sword was useless against the beast's hide he proceeded to try and punch it to death. Once this did not work he grabbed a giant sword and killed the beast who’s acid blood destroyed the swords blade. When he fought against the dragon Beowulf was fighting it and slashed the beast on the head, but it’s head was too hard for the blade and broke the sword. After the blade broke he proceeded to kill the dragon with a dagger. He also always went to help people whether he knew them or not such as helping the Dane’s with the fight against Grendel. Grendel’s mother was attacking people in the same village so to save them from the torment Beowulf went off to kill the beast to help the people. With the dragon Beowulf went off to protect his people and his kingdom from the dragon, but he did not necessarily do it just for himself. He went to help the people. His strength was always present in every battle. With Grendel Beowulf ripped his arm off with just his own strength. When he fought Grendel’s mother Beowulf was able to pick up a sword described as for giants made for great beings much larger than beowulf
himself.
There are a number of differences between every battle. These can be from minor terrain differences to major things such as the armor he wears. One difference was the location of every battle. The Grendel battle took place in a great mead hall where the men go to celebrate their victories and conquests. Though the battle with Grendel’s mother took place in her cave hideout at the bottom of an enchanted lake. This would have provided an advantage for the beast as it would have known it’s own territory. The dragon fight took place on land near the dragon’s massive hoard of gold. All of these battles took place in different areas allowing for different monsters to either have an advantage or be taken completely off guard. These seemingly minor terrain differences made Beowulf think differently about how to approach the battles. Beowulf trapped Grendel because he knew he was stronger than the beast so he waited for the beast without any armor. This showed that he was very confident in himself that he was stronger than this demon. The battle with Grendel’s mother Beowulf took a great sword as well as chain mail. This showed that Beowulf was snot so sure about his strength being a factor in this battle or his resilience to the great beast. He also wore the chain mail in hope that it would protect him from the crushing force of the beast which he was correct in. The dragon battle was the most different from the others as he fought the dragon on open ground not in his own home with advantage or in its home, but on fair ground. This meant that neither the beast or Beowulf had an advantage terrain wise. Though due to Beowulf’s old age he took the most amount of defensive items with him he had taken into any other battle. To this battle he took a set of chain mail as well as a shield to protect him from the beast’s fiery breath. This shows that Beowulf knows he cannot fight the beast without protection, but it also foreshadows his death as it shows he needs extra protection to fight a beast. Though Beowulf could have never expected to have gotten bit by the beast and it having venom that would kill him.
All of the battles that Beowulf faced had similarities and differences that change the outcome and the way the battle was fought. These differences and similarities forced Beowulf to compose himself differently than normally. Beowulf fought great beasts in different areas that either helped his situation such as the Grendel battle or harmed him such as fighting Grendel’s mother.