![]() The foundational article on Beowulf and monsters is J.R.R. Yet critics have always read it through the white gaze and a preserve of white English heritage. ![]() Indeed, Beowulf is a story about monsters, race, and political violence. Crucially, Grendel is never clearly described, but is named a “grim demon,” “god-cursed brute,” a “prowler through the dark,” a part of “Cain’s clan.” Years later, Beowulf deals with a dragon who is devastating his kingdom and dies while he and his thane, Wiglaf, are slaying the dragon. Beowulf, a warrior, lands in Hrothgar’s kingdom and kills Grendel but then must contend with Grendel’s mother who comes to enact revenge for her son’s murder. ![]() Grendel, the ghastly uninvited guest, kills King Hrothgar’s men at a feast in Heorot. ![]() Most readers of Beowulf understand it as a white, male hero story-tellingly, it’s named for the hero, not the monster-who slays a monster and the monster’s mother. ![]()
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