LRJ #2 on boawulf

Olumide Ige

Ms. Piefer

4^th Hour

LRJ 2

The people in this story have very noble values. They values things such as: armor, weapons, and skills. They value armor intensely because it to have good armor it must have been crafted from a very skilled blacksmith, also the better the armor the better protection and if it could be made to look good also then that was something of great value. They also valued their weapons with a great passion. This is expressed when the story speaks of the sword Hrunting, “At that moment of need was of no small importance: The brehon handed him a hilted weapon, a rare and ancient sword named Hrunting” (line 1456 – 1458). This quote shows that weapons are of grave importance to them and where cherished. Another value is swordsmanship. The better a warrior can wield a sword the more respected he is among men. Beowulf is an extremely well rounded warrior, and as he comes to kill Grendel and his mother he boast the whole time of his to be victory. Just the fact that he is willing to even try gains the men’s respect and they give him anything he requires.

There are many unrealistic images presented in this story. One of the biggest is Grendals mother. She is supposed to be presented as pure evil, a giant monster with claws and talons. She lives in a lake and comes up to eat humans like her son. The story describes her very intensely, but she can be put into the same class as “the boogie-man” or “the monsters under the bed/ in the closet”. Another unrealistic image is the power that the sword Hrunting is supposed to wield. If it were even slightly realistic, when it struck Grendals mother, it would have at least made some sort of cut. The quote “Then heaved his war sword and swung his arm; the decorated blade came down ringing and singing on her head. But he soon found his battle torch extinguished: the shining blade refused to bite”(line 1520 – 1524) shows that this weapon was supposed to have some special, extraordinary properties about it to make it even stronger, but even with that, it failed to even harm the beast at all. Hrunting is not the only sword with special attributes beheld in it. The sword that Grendals mother has strapped to her side also is special. In the quote “Meanwhile; the sword began to wilt into gory icicles, to slather and thaw. It was a wonderful thing, the way it all melted as ice melts” (line 1605 – 1608) shows that this blade some how has a possibility to melt after its use to behead Grendals mother. A realistic sword defiantly would not melt.