Beowulf by Raffel Burton - Research Paper Example

50, lines 849-852). The first important event in the text is the conflict between King Hrothgar and Grendel. Beowulf decides to help the king and fights with Grendel. Hrothgar does not kill him, but rips off his arm. A bit later Grendel dies and the above-mentioned quotation describes this significant event. 2) “She'd brooded on her loss, misery had brewed/ In her heart, that female horror, Grendel's/ Mother, living in the murky cold lake/ Assigned her since Cain had killed his only/ Brother, slain his father's son/ With an angry sword” (pg.

63, lines 1258-1263). This quotation symbolizes the new trouble personified by Grendel’s mother. 3) “Let your sorrow end! It is better for us all/ To avenge our friends, not mourn them forever./ Each of us will come to the end of this life/ On earth; he who can earn it should fight/ For the glory of his name; fame after death/ Is the noblest of goals. Arise, guardian/ Of this kingdom, let us go, as quickly as we can,/ And have a look at this lady monster” (pg. 67, lines 1384-1391). These words are uttered by the protagonist of the writing – Beowulf.

He encourages the guardians to follow Grendel’s mother who tries to take revenge of her son’s death. She even came to the king’s palace and ate one man. This means that danger has not passed by. 4) “when he comes to me/ I mean to stand, not run from his shooting/ Flames, stand till fate decides/ Which of us wins. My heart is firm,/ My hands calm: I need no hot/ Words” (pg. 101, lines 2524-2529). These words are uttered by Beowulf before he is going to fight with the dragon. This event proves the protagonist’s courage one more time. 5) “For ten long days they made his monument,/ Sealed his ashes in walls as straight/ And high as wise and willing hands could raise them.

/And the treasures they’d taken were left there too,/ .Ground back in the earth” (pg. 121, lines 3159-3163, 3165-3167). The writing ends with Beowulf’s death and giving information about a new king – Wiglaf. The quotation describes people’s attitude towards their hero; they even erected a special monument for him. Let's consider several interesting news articles describing present-day situations that can be connected with Beowulf and analyzed with its help. One of them is fromNew York Times and is entitled Arab League Punishes Syria over Violent Crackdown.

1 The theme of punishment is common for both this contemporary news article and the epic under consideration. The article describes various sanctions against Syrian economy reminding us of Beowulf trying to invent different ways to oppose his enemies (Grendel, his mother and dragon). It is evident that the contemporary situation in the world described in the article has much in common with the epic under analysis. For instance, it also concerns conflicts between people. However, if the problems appear just between several people in Beowulf, they concern several countries and even the whole world in the article mentioned above.

The epic Beowulf inspired writers and other artists to create books, movies, comics on the basis of the epic. For example, the following films seem to be based on the ideas suggested by the epic’s anonymous author. They are the following ones: Beowulf was created by Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman in 2007. It is an animated fantasy film. It was created by means of a motion capture process reminding of the technique applied in The Polar Express. Another version of the same film was created a bit