I think the opening scene is perfect. Grendel breaks my heart.

I know he's one of the antagonists because he killed people, but its so unfair!

I guess we're supposed to assume that were Grendel not malformed then he would have been horrible and evil? And I guess he would have been evil because his mom was evil?

I feel so bad for him.

Darn you, greedy and flawed mankind! To me, Grendel and his brother seem like innocent victims.

Just watched the movie and I concur with your sentiments - there was, I felt, a touch of Quasimodo about poor old Grendel 'Da bells! Da bells!' He also reminded me of Smeagol/Gollum, from Lord of the Ringd, but then Tolkien would certainly have been using Beowulf as source material and I'm pretty sure I remember reading an abridged version of The Hobbit that drew some correlation between the two characters.

If I may...
I am a medieval literature English major. Grendel is a descendant of the line of Cain who was cursed for killing his brother. His line was banished to the moors and outskirts of society. He is filled with longing to be part of society but is cursed to be miserable and jealous. Also part of the curse is that he would want to die, but God set a seal on his line, that they cannot die without divine intervention. In the epic poem, Beowulf, a magical sword appears as Beowulf fights Grendel's mother. It is needed to kill her after which a light shone from above. To best understand Beowulf, it is really essential to read the story of Cain and Abel from the Bible. From Cain's line sprung the races of giants, monsters, and such of which Grendel and his mother are monsters. Hope this helps. I have read this story every year for ten years and still love it dearly.

I have found a summary of this information that I learned as medieval literature major, and I consider it reliable.

http://faculty.unlv.edu/jmstitt/Eng477/papers1/monsters.html

Also the story of Cain and Abel can be found online. It's Genesis, Chapter 4.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ~*Trisha*~,

I am so glad that there are people that feel the same way that i do about Grendel and the dragon. I wish i understood what Grendel was saying in the beginning though. He sounds so sad when he talks. I wanted to see more of the dragon too.