“…The monster’s /
Thoughts were as quick as his greed or his claws: /
He slipped through the door and there in the silence /
Snatched up thirty men, smashed them /
Unknowing in their beds, and ran out with their bodies, /
The blood dripping behind him, back /
To his lair, delighted with his night’s slaughter.”
Raffel, Burton, and Leonard Baskin. Beowulf. Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1971. Print.
Portrait of a Monster: What did
Grendel Look Like?
Response 1 by Harleigh Kramer
Grendel bounded across the hillside, his razor sharp claws digging deep into the hard-packed earth like cleavers into livestock flesh. Upon ascending another hill, he halted suddenly and thrust out his chest, his lungs like great bellows from a fire. He forced his hot, foul breath from his mouth with a bone chilling howl. So deep and evil was it that his own ear tips and bristled mane quivered and vibrated from the sound. Grendel breathed in the heavy stench of fear and panic that emanated from the meadhall just on top of the rise of the hill in front of him. His eyes blazed with a hellish fire and his teeth gleamed in the moonlight as a crooked and demonic grin twitched into plance on his muzzle, still caked with clots of dry blood from his previous victims. Grendel hauled his large and muscular form up to the meadhall doors, where he tore his claws through one of the guards, sending spatters of warm, thick, and sticky blood spraying across the walls.
Magazine / April, 2013 3
Bringing text to life with imagery
Friedeck, Heidi. "What does Grendel Really Look Like?" HeidiFreideck. Wordpress, 8 Sep. 2011. Web. 22 Feb. 2014. (For educational purposes only.)