Monsters in Beowulf Represent the Abstract Idea

¶ … monsters in Beowulf represent the abstract idea of evil, while Beowulf himself symbolizes good. In his quest, Beowulf faces three monsters: Grendel, Grendel's mother, and the fire dragon. Each of these monsters represents darkness, or an evil that exists in the absence of morality and society. Beowulf defeats each of these monsters in turn. The defeat of Grendel even suggests that the defeat of evil is not necessarily dependent upon the intervention of God, as Beowulf himself asserts.

Similar to Shakespeare's understanding of jealousy as a green-eyed monster, each of the monsters in Beowulf represent emotions and abstract ideas. Beowulf himself is a symbol of all of the values of the civilization that produced the poem. He is the epic hero who represents the values of heroism, courage, and strength. Beowulf is a symbol of good pitted against the forces of evil.

The three monsters that Beowulf faces symbolically represent the evil the Beowulf must encounter and defeat in turn. All three monsters live in darkness, representing the forces that exist outside of the security of civilization and the constraints of morality. In Beowulf, these monsters represent what lies outside of civilization and morality. They represent society's outcasts and those who follow those outcasts; those who live outside of the values and morals of civilization.

The first monster that Beowulf encounters, Grendel, clearly reflects many characteristics of evil. Grendel is described in unflattering tones, clearly signifying the characteristics that define evil. He is described as a "that dammed creature, grim and greedy ... savage and cruel" (lines 120-123).

It is Grendel's actions, however, that truly define him as evil. The monster brutally slays many Danes, and takes them to his lair. Grendel is described as a best who "from their rest seized thirty thanes, thence back he went pround in plunder to his home, faring with the banquet of bodies to seek his shelter (lines 123-124) even as they slept; and then, gloating over his plunder, he hurried from the hall, made for his lair with all those slain warriors." Here, the slaying of the sleeping, defenseless people is an evil action, made all the more reprehensible by the monster gloating over his actions.

After Beowulf's defeat of Grendel, Hrothgar notes that God helped Beowulf defeat the great beast because God could not allow evil to continue to win over humans for such a long period of time. Beowulf himself notes that he won the fight on his own merits, and that God had actually protected Grendel. Here, we see that Beowulf's defeat of Grendel, or symbolically of evil, is not dependent on God's help. Thus, the greater message within Beowulf seems to be that values of Beowulf's society, which he represents, can defeat evil, even without the help of a Christian God.

Grendel's mother is also deeply symbolic of evil. Her actions are as deeply disturbing as those of Grendel. She carries off Aeschere to her lair to eat him, a deeply shocking act, after Grendel is killed: "the horrible woman avenged her child, killed a warrior savagely; there was from Aeschere, the old, wise lore-counsellor, life departed" (lines 2123-2126). While her desire for revenge over Grendel's death is understandable, it is the disappearance of the corpse that truly marks her lack of morals and the difference between Grendel's mother and the civilization that she wrongs. "Nor could they him, when morning came, weary of death the Danish people cremate in fire, nor lay on the funeral bale, the beloved man; she had carried off the corpse in fiend's embrace beneath the mountain stream" (lines 2127-2131).

Beowulf battles the fire dragon later in his life, after he has lived many years as a wise and good king. Thus, the threat of evil (as symbolized by the dragon) is seen as an enduring threat to the good that is symbolized by Beowulf himself.

The fire dragon was awakened by a human who stole a cup from the dragon's lair. Upon awakening, the dragon sought revenge upon humans who had stolen the cup, and began to terrorize a nearby town, "Then the demon began to spew flames, to burn bright houses; the gleam of fire rose to the horror of the men; nor there anything alive the hateful air-flier wished to leave" (lines 2313-2316). The King Beowulf is told of the dragon's wrath, and is asked to slay the dragon. Thus, the fact that Beowulf is asked to slay the beast symbolizes the fact that society depends upon good to vanquish evil.