Monster+Quotes

English 12: //The Thirteenth Warrior/Beowulf//

Notes from //Beowulf// text

** Grendel: ** Strength: Stealth: Preference for darkness: · “Grendel hunted when they slept” (line 56) Appetite: Appearance/features: Vulnerability:
 * “a powerful monster” (line 1)
 * “Straight to the door, then snapped it open,/Tore its iron fasteners open with a touch” (lines 403 – 404)
 * “ripped him apart, cut his body to bits with powerful jaws” (lines 423 – 424)
 * “their points/ Could not hurt him, the sharpest and hardest iron/ Could not scratch his skin, for that sin-stained demon/ Had bewitched all men’s weapons” (lines 48l – 484)
 * “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” (lines 36 – 38)
 * “He moved quickly . . . sliding silently” (lines 396 -397)
 * “he lived/In Herot, when the night hid him” (lines 81 – 82)
 * “Grendel filled nights with horror” (line 112)
 * “fate . . . intended/ Grendel to gnaw the broken bones/ Of his last human supper” (lines 416 – 418)
 * “drank the blood from his veins, and bolted him down, hands and feet” (424 – 425)
 * “His eyes burned with a gruesome light” (lines 407 – 408)
 * “his swift hard claws” (line 420)
 * “powerful jaws” (line 423)
 * “great teeth” (line 426)
 * “snarling and fierce” (line 407)
 * “the proof, hanging high/ From the rafters . . . was the monster’s/ Arm, claw and shoulder and all” (lines 515 – 517)

** Grendel’s Mother: **

Appearance/features: Strength/method of attack:
 * **“**the greedy she-wolf” (line 574)
 * **“**she welcomed him in her claws” (line 578)
 * **“**she carried him, armor/ And sword and all, to her home” (lines 582 – 583)
 * “the mighty water witch” (line 595)
 * “she ripped/ And tore and clawed at him, bit holes in his helmet” (lines 601 – 602)
 * “she drew/ A dagger” (lines 621 – 622)

** Grendel’s Lair: **


 * “Out from the marsh, from the foot of misty/ Hills and bogs” (lines 393 – 394)
 * “the water was bloody, steaming and boiling/ In horrible pounding waves” (lines 528 – 529)
 * “deep in murky darkness” (532)
 * “secret places, windy/ Cliffs, wolf dens where water pours/ From the rocks, then runs underground, where mist/ Steams like black clouds, and the groves of trees/ Growing out over their lake are all covered/ With frozen spray, and wind down snakelike / Roots that reach as far as the water/ And help keep it dark. At night that lake/ Burns like a torch. No one knows its bottom” (lines 545 – 553)
 * “A deer,/ Hunted through the woods by packs of hounds,/ prefers to die/ On those shores, refuses to save its life/ In that water” (lines 554 – 559)
 * “the mud at the bottom” (line 573)
 * “her wet world” (line 578)
 * “someone’s battle hall . . . high arched roof” (lines 589 – 592)

** Dragon: **


 * “the heat of the dragon’s breath . . . / a streaming current of fire” (lines 695 –698)
 * “the earth itself shook” (line 708)
 * “The dragon/ Coiled and uncoiled” (lines 710 – 711)
 * “the dragon’s scaly hide” (line 726)