The Monsters' View
By Luke Romano

When looking at the story of Beowulf, readers often think of Grendel and Grendel's mother as the spawn of Cain and the ultimate evil, but are they really? I mean yes they depict Grendel as a ferocious bloodthirsty ogre who hates mankind, but put yourself in his shoes. If you knew that right next door there was people in an extremely lavish mead hall drinking and telling most likely fairy-tales with them being the main protagonist, wouldn’t you a bit frustrated and angry? I mean you don't get invited because of your looks, and every single night there partying keeps you up. I mean, I would be pretty angry, but I certainly would be angry. So, Grendel being the monster that he is takes his anger out on the mead hall by slaughtering the men of the mead hall. This is repeated every night they threw a party, until the borderline narcissistic Beowulf comes over to solve everyone's problem. So, he threw a party to lure Grendel into coming which he does. Then Beowulf kills Grendel in probably one of the most vicious and inhumane ways of killing anything. By tearing his shoulder from his torso and allowing Grendel to bleed out after he leaves the combat.

Now, where did Grendel go once he was dismembered by Beowulf and how did Grendel's mother find out? Grendel’s Mother either found him dead or Grendel went to her for one last time, both being equally horrifying to a mother. She was probably furious that she had to find out that her son was dying and wanted revenge against the savage who did that to her son. When she arrived at Heorot and saw her son's bloody arm hanging up like a mantel piece,  she was most definitely filled with a blind rage causing her to kill AEschere, wreak havoc, and take back Grendel's arm to give her son the respect that any mother wants to give their deceased son. Then Beowulf goes and invades Grendel’s Mother’s home and kills her at her own home then does something completely dastardly and horrific. He hacks both of them to pieces and takes her son’s head away from her corpse disrespecting them even more. So while readers are saying that the Monsters are wicked and Beowulf is the hero and legend, they might have to take a closer look, then redetermine their initial view.