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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