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Both are Evil // Braylan Stringfellow

    The question "is Grendal's mother evil" is going to be a tricky one to answer. From Beowulf's perspective, she is considered as evil. For starters, she attacked them. She also killed and took the body with her so that "the Danes could not burn the dead body" (145). When Beowulf went to attack her, he said that he was barely able to escape with his life. To him, she was a cruel monster that deserved to die.
    But why did Gendal's mother attack them, and why did she act out of as much rage as she did. Well for one she is mother whose baby was killed. For mothers, their kids are there life; if anything happens to them, they are going to fight with there life to keep them safe. Grendal's mother is only acting out of her natural instinct to protect her child. So from her perspective she is only doing her job as a mother.
    So Grendal's mother is justified in her actions for avenging her son then, right? Not exactly. Its one thing to protect her son, but it is completely different when it comes to avenging. Her son is already dead. Nothing she can do will bring him back; the damage is already done. 
    But the question is she evil is still not answered. In order to answer to that we cannot look at Beowulf or Grendal's mother. We have to look somewhere else. We have to at someone or something that defines what is good and what is evil. As Christians we look to God for those answers, and according to Him both parties are at fault. Both of them are acting out of revenge for their losses, and God says to not act out of revenge. He says to let him deal with the people who wronged us. So according to God both parties are in essence evil because they both are doing wrong. 

I commented on Lily's and Isabelle's post.

Comments

  1. Caroline TuckerMarch 1, 2021 at 7:28 PM

    I agree. Looking just to Grendal’s mother or just to Beowulf, we cannot determine if they are good or evil. We need a standard outside of the book to know. It is like what Abernathy said in class, our answers to some of the questions we have cannot come from the book. Because of this, we subconsciously use our knowledge and/or beliefs that are outside of the book to answer.

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