Reading Notes: The Battle with Grendel, Reading B

Grendel and Beowulf Fighting by  Henry Pitz

I think that for my story telling, I will open with the fight between Grendel and Beowulf, and then flashback to how it all began in the middle and then finish the fight at the end of the story. This type of story telling provides an amazing literary roller coaster that I enjoy very much and that I hope others will as well. Beowulf is defending his sleeping companions from the silent attack from Grendel in their hall. At first it appears that Grendel is winning but then the tide turns as Beowulf gasps a hold of Grendel's hand and holds it in an iron grip. 

Beowulf grapples Grendel to the ground and holds him there in a vice. Beowulf rips off Grendel's arm, and as he lets out a cry of pain, the men in the hall are awoken, and we learn that they had been in an enchanted sleep the whole time the fight had been going on. Presumably Beowulf's strength had kept him from falling under this spell. After he lost his arm, Grendel ran and escaped from the hall. The story ends with Beowulf sporting the arm he obtained from Grendel upon a dais in front of the people as they cheered his name.

I think that I will change the ending so that Beowulf kills Grendel, and is made king by the people. Grendel will have killed the previous king in the ensuing struggle, along with most of those who were in the hall. I think that this change will make the story seem more final, as the rest of the conflict takes place in the other stories in this unit. I will try to make this one short and sweet, where I tie all lose ends by the completion of the story, leaving the reader satisfied, and ready to put it down. 

Story source: The Story of Beowulf by Strafford Riggs with illustrations by Henry Pitz (1933). The battle with Grendel

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