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This article covers the importance of Beowulf and why the story is so important to literature today. The original copy slowly deteriorated over time as a lot of it was lost in a fire in 1731. Edges of the paper slowly were lost and a lot of the words to the story went missing, making it hard to read and translate the story. Luckily a copy of the manuscript was made before it was completely destroyed and a lot of high tech equipment helped professionals recover most of the info that was lost. There is still a lot of speculation about when the actual story was originally written. Some people believe it was during the 8th century or earlier, but there is no proof. Recently, Kevin Kiernan in 1981 stirred up a lot of controversy saying it was recorded in the 11th century. Either way, it was still formed a very long time ago and the fact that it remained in tact for so long is quite amazing. This article highlighted a lot of the facts surrounding the physical story itself, but didn't dive into the actual text, which made it harder to convey the point of how important it is. Still, it did get across that it is one of the oldest pieces of literature around today and that it does serve a lot of meaning to Old-English pieces. The manuscript of Beowulf is now in the British Library.

http://beowulfresources.com

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Last night, the kingdom of Herot was attacked once more by the violent creature Grendel who has been terrorizing the land for almost 12 years now. The attack was very sudden and quick, and the causalities are staking up to almost 30 men now; one of the worst in the history of these attacks. King Hrothgar's leadership has been in question for months now. His citizens do not think he is in any shape to be in control of the kingdom, and sources who were with him last night during the attack claim he did nothing except watch his drunk men try to fend off Grendel. "Woe, woe, woe" are the only words people actually heard come out of his mouth during the length of the massacre. To many, this has been the last straw for their corrupt leader. "Some god is angry," a woman said during an interview after the chaos of the following night. "I believe Hrothgar does not care for his people anymore, he just sits around with that hoarfrost-beard and cracked skin of his waiting for another attack, but doing nothing to prevent it." A recent poll conducted by Geats News Network (GNN) projects Hrothgar's approval ratings to be at an all time low. Analyst from GNN believe they will be at "virtually zero" following the most recent attack, unless he can find a way to boost the citizens morale and build up their defenses quickly. The kingdom is currently rebuilding the main door, adding a few small improvements which include iron pegs and bands to give it more strength. the bodies of the ones killed will be burned while citizens gather around to grieve.

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I chose Jake Pepper's post who is in 8th period. I thought that his description of the character Punished "Venom" Snake was a great representation of how darkness can be portrayed through a person. When I read the paragraph he wrote it really helped show why this character was a good representation because he talked about how the character is seeking revenge and does very questionable things that are unlike his usual heroic mannerisms. He also mentions that the character has a chunk of shrapnel in his forehead which symbolizes his "decent into a demon". Overall, this post was very descriptive and took a completely new approach to darkness that a lot of people did not think of, including myself.

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Although the lyrics are very hard to understand in the song, a copy of them are in the video's description and I think that they describe Grendel's behavior when he attacks the town perfectly. It describes a person mercilessly killing people, just how Grendel did when he attacked the mead hall late at night. The song has a lot of violence in its lyrics (and some profanity) which represents Grendel when ever he is in full attack mode, killing dozens of men in seconds, and causing as much chaos as possible. Its heavy metal instrumental would be a good pump up song for Grendel to listen to as he is going about the mead hall, destroying a bunch of drunken soldiers and causing Hrothgar a lot of trouble. "Brutality now becomes my appetite, Violence is now a way of life, The sledge my tool to torture, As it pounds down on your forehead" these lyrics are extremely graphic but are a great representation of Grendel's thoughts because all he wants to do is cause as much violence as possible because of the things Hrothgar and his men have done to him and his family.

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In my mind, I have always imagined Grendel as a very gruesome and aggressive looking creature. I do not think that he would look anything like a man, but more like the creature in this picture, mainly because it is hard for me to imagine a human-like creature causing so much destruction and creating so much violence. In annotation #2, when it talks about the old Shaper leaping out the back window because he feared Grendel so much even though he was blind and hand never seen him is what really impacted my perception of him, because since he had never seen Grendel before, but has heard stories and encountered him in the past, he has most likely created an image in his head of Grendel, and I like to believe it would be something like this. The reason being connects back to my first point in that a person does not connect all of the violence and destruction to something that does not appear all that harmful like a human-like being, but instead people imagine it as being something terrifying with huge claws and reptile like skin with a huge mane and sharp, large teeth that are ready to prey on any unsuspecting human. This perception adds a darker element to the story and makes the readers imagination go wild just imagining a creature of this size and appearance violently killing and eating humans like it is nothing