Jesse's Reviews > Beowulf

What's not to love? A classic good vs evil story. An epic hero fighting evil to save a nation in distress. And Beowulf is indeed an epic hero. The strongest man alive! He's slayin' dragons, he's slayin' countless foes on the battlefield, he's slayin' many a maiden I'm sure. A true people's hero. Humble, caring, strong, handsome as the devil himself, and twice as charming. In all of literature, you couldn't find a more epic hero.

On the flip side of Beowulfs' coin is Grendel, on the surface he's a real piece of shit. A creature of darkness, exiled from happiness and cursed by God, the destroyer and devourer of men. He wreaks havoc on the poor Danes eloquent mead hall. Slaughtering hundreds of poor souls. To the point the disheartened Danes can't even use the mead hall anymore. All but abandoning it for twelve years, until the great Beowulf steps in that is. But If we delve deeper than the surface we might understand our friend Grendel a little better. We can assume he's a relatively young man (his mothers still fighting his battles for him). He moved out of Mom's nest and is making a home for himself in the swamp. Then some asshole Danes build a bar right next door and spend all night getting drunk, singing stupid songs, and being loud obnoxious jerk-offs. No wonder he snapped, killed, and subsequently ate, a bunch of people. The poor guy just wanted some peace and quiet. We can all understand that. Who amongst us doesn't hate annoying neighbors?

The same story can be told for the poor dragon. He found some abandoned treasure, claimed it for his own, and went about minding his own business. Then some jerk wad comes along and steals his favorite cup. Who wouldn't be mad if you went to the cupboard and your favorite cup was gone, nowhere to be found?

I'm just saying I don't think all the blame can be placed on these "Vilans". Seems to me they may have been justified a little.

Overall it was a great story and I'm glad I read it.