Making personal connections between my own heroes and Beowulf, and my own monsters and Grendel.

1. HEROES AND MONSTERS
Making connections in Beowulf

2. CONNECTING HEROES #1
 My dad is my hero. I
feel this way because,
like Beowulf, he knows
that his reputation very
valuable and he taught
me to develop and
protect my own
reputation.
 “In the end each clan
on the outlying coasts
beyond the whale-road
had to yield to him
and began to pay
tribute. That was one
good king.” (9-11)
Seamus Heaney's Beowulf: A New Verse Translation, published in 2000 by
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

3. CONNECTING HEROES #2
 My dad served in the
Air Force during
Vietnam. He
recognizes the value of
serving and defending
his country. He taught
me that there is great
meaning to be found in
serving something
bigger than myself.
 "Nor have I seen
a mightier man-at-arms
on this earth
than the one standing
here: unless I am
mistaken,
he is truly noble. This is
no mere
hanger-on in a hero's
armour." (244-251)
Seamus Heaney's Beowulf: A New Verse Translation, published in 2000 by
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

4. CONNECTING MONSTERS #1
 The monsters in my life
are usually of my own
creation (they are
problems that I haven’t
learned to deal with). So
one connection I can
make to Grendel is if I
interpret his character as
representative of evil
and connect him to a
manifestation of evil in
my own mind.
 “So times were pleasant
for the people there until
finally one, a fiend out of
hell, began to work his
evil in the world.” (99-
101)
Seamus Heaney's Beowulf: A New Verse Translation, published in 2000 by Farrar,
Straus, and Giroux.

5. CONNECTING MONSTERS #2
 I also think of personal
monsters as the evil I
recognize in
myself/humanity. We
do wrong to other
humans both
accidentally and on
purpose, which makes
me think that evil is
part of our nature that
must be over come.
 “Grendel was the name of this grim
demon haunting the marches,
marauding round the heath and the
desolate fens; he had dwelt for a time
in misery among the banished
monsters, Cain's clan, whom the
creator had outlawed and
condemned as outcasts. “
Seamus Heaney's Beowulf: A New Verse Translation, published in 2000 by Farrar,
Straus, and Giroux.