The key to writing an epic poem is to show that there is a predominant hero who paved the way for a nation.
This hero should be someone who shows qualities such as loyalty to their followers, bravery, and courage, just to name a few. Strophe 8 in Burton Raffel’s translation of Beowulf shows all of these qualities in Beowulf. Strophe 8 is the tale of Beowulf’s first of three battles with deadly beasts. It starts out by telling the reader that Grendel is coming out from the marsh.”
Bearing God’s hatred” (394-395), revealing to all that Grendel comes from a hellish hole and is all that is evil. Little does Grendel know that this trip for prey shall not be as easy as the previous many.
The monster who once took 30 men to his slimy hell of a home to eat would gnaw the broken bones of his last human supper” (417-418). The great Beowulf and his 14 warriors have been called upon to save Hrothgar’s people and destroy this beast. After devouring one man with ease, Grendel grasped Beowulf and found himself at the mercy of Beowulf’s deadly grip. The battle through the beautiful hall of Herot proved to be successful when “him who of all the men on earth was the strongest” (471-472) defeated the wretched beast. Beowulf proved to all that he would not back down to anyone.
Any good battle can make a story exciting, and that is exactly what the battle with Grendel does to this story. At the very beginning of this stanza, the reader is informed about Grendel’s living quarters, setting the mood in an evil tone. It is already known that Beowulf is the ideal of good, thus setting up the ever-exciting battle of god versus evil. The battle was so intense that the high halls rang, its roof boards swayed and Danes shook with terror” (449-450). Such an intense battle is enthralling, and it is hard not to be enveloped in all the commotion. Grendel, the beast who could not be defeated by any ordinary man, “whose hands were harder” (434), was finally defeated.
This great power that Beowulf showed in the battle truly set him apart from all other normal men. The whole time I was reading this part of the poem, I was anxious to find the result of the battle. The translator did an excellent job of capturing the exciting parts of the strophe. The way it was described that Grendel snatched the first Geat” was particularly thrilling.
Drank the blood from his veins and bolted him down” (421-425) shows how graphic the language is in this poem, making it much more exciting. I became interested in the plot after this stanza because of the vivid and colorful imagery used to describe the battle. Imagery is a very important part of capturing your audience, and this stanza did exactly that.
When trying to translate any type of literature, it can be very hard to capture the excitement in the original work. It can be even harder when you have a specific point to get across. However, in Beowulf, it is very clearly shown that Beowulf is loyal to his people, brave, and courageous – the true characteristics of a hero.
