I chose this song because i think it represents Grendel perfectly, metaphorically and literally. In the song, the artist talks about him "hiding in the dark, it's teeth are razor sharp" which related to Grendel because he was able to devour hundreds of grown men with his bare teeth. in the song, the artist also says "the nightmare's just begun" . In the story of Beowolf, Grendel has been terrorizing the men of the mead hall for "twelve winters" and has so intentions of stopping anytime soon. Grendel has immense anger towards the king because of what he represented. For Grendel, the King represented good and most importantly, God. Grendel was not able to enjoy the life that the men in the mead hall got to enjoy because he, along with his family, were exiled. And thus, "Grendels hatred began". Grendel now had to listen to the men be happy in the mead hall while he was forced to stay underground. Grendel is not able to act out against God himself, so he acts out against God's people. Grendel feels "the rage" and he "just cant hold it" , which is similiar to the way the artist feels in the song Monster.

I chose to use the New Yorker article. John Ronald Reul Tolkien translated beowulf In the 1920's. He is also the acclaimed author of The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit. He was teaching old English at the University of Leeds during this time and by 1926 at the age of only 34 years old, he had had finished translating Beowulf. For reasons unknown, he never published his work. Forty years later, his son Christopher had it published. The story of Beowulf is actually three seperate instances of the hero Beowulf defeating three monsters successively. Some would admire the hero's strength and courage while others would call it murder. Is it really ok to kill a murderer in the name of the greater good? Or is it an excuse to allow "heroes" to carry out their own sinister vandettas? I think that the story of Beowulf is a very complicated one and posses many questions that could still apply to today's culture.