Good vs evil

So times were pleasant for the people there until finally ... one, a fiend out of hell, began to work his evil in the world. (99-101) Grendel isn't just the enemy – he's a personification, or maybe that should be monster-fication, of everything that is evil. He's literally a "fiend out of hell," a descendant of Cain, inherently rotten. "I had a fixed purpose when I put to sea. ... As I sat in the boat with my band of men, I meant to perform to the uttermost what your people wanted or perish in the attempt, in the fiend's clutches. And I shall fulfill that purpose, prove myself with a proud deed or meet my death here in the mead-hall." (632-638) It's all or nothing in this fight to the death: the good warrior Beowulf against the evil demon Grendel. Things can't get much more clear cut than that. click to collapse
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