Beowulf(poem and Grendel(book) comparison (0)

Comparison of “ Beowulf ” and “ Grendel ” by John Gardner
The text has more or less the same meaning in both of the extracts. The differences lie in the language use, character types , speakers, layout etc.
In the original “Beowulf” epic Grendel displays nothing but the most primitive human qualities . He is a grotesque monster who terrorizes a small community of Danish warriors. Therefore he can be called a flat character. In the book “Grendel” the protagonist and antagonist have been swapped. Gardner greatly alters the monster’s characterization. In his novel , very little separates Grendel from his human counterparts: he has a high level of intelligence, as well as a human capacity for both emotion and philosophy . As the text is written in the first person point of view through Grendel’s eyes , one gets a quite good picture of him. Unfortunately he is fighting with the inevitable. He keeps attacking and eating the Danish warriors simply because his instincts tell him to do so. He cannot help it; he is still a beast and not his own master.
Beowulf undergoes as radical a transformation as Grendel does. The Beowulf of “Grendel” is uncannily superhuman. He is not only supremely strong , but also a cold, mechanical being. He is the only one who can make Grendel suffer physical pain. As the monster sees Beowulf as a terrible being himself and doesn’t give him really any human qualities, he is definitely a flat character.
Already on the first reading of Gardner’s text it strikes out that he has exchanged the metaphors in “Beowulf” for similes, or at least most of them . E.g. “His hand still closed like a dragons jaw on mine” instead of “That the frame of his body failed him now…the outlaw dire took mortal hurt ”.
It seems to me that humour is created with the adds in the brackets and I also find the exclamations by Grendel slightly amusing.