Who is in charge of heorot

He says that he considers himself to be as dangerous as Grendel. Beowulf lies down to wait, while his fearful men lie awake, doubting that any of them will live to see morning.

In the dark night outside the hall, Grendel approaches stealthily, creeping toward the small band of Geats. Such a payment replaces the volley of violent retaliation with an exchange of obligation.

SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Why does Beowulf want to fight Grendel? What warning does Hrothgar give Beowulf? What is Grendel? Chief among these is the problem of succession. But the time limitation—in those days—suggests that in future days this friendship will vanish.

The poem begins with a creation scene, but reminds us again and again that beauty and order are under siege. It takes us to the edge of apocalypse, and leaves us hanging over it. This setting helps us understand the role of the monsters. The monsters are not, as some critics have charged, folklorish intrusions into an epic poem. Rather, as Tolkein argued in a famous essay , they embody and externalize principles of darkness, disorder, evil that threaten the heroic civilization of Heorot.

The monsters are demonic principles disharmony, the threat that the chaos will return. The whole poem can me mapped by oppositions between principles of light and darkness, associated with characters and spaces:.

Grendel embodies a particular form of chaos. A descendant of Cain the outcast, the one driven not only from the garden but from the land of Eden, Grendel is outside of the hall, outside of the circle of fellowship and gift-giving. He resents his isolation and despises their happiness. He turns their feasting into cannibalism, the civilized table into a savage meal. Grendel is a cyclopian monster, consuming raw human flesh.

Terrorizing the Danes, Grendel becomes effective ruler of Heorot. A usurper, he rules by fear and terror, not by law and custom, not by generosity and feasting. He embodies everything that is opposed to the settled life of Danish society. Unferth will later take the kingdom by treachery and become a usurper, as Grendel is. At last, however, Grendel arrives. Beowulf fights him unarmed, proving himself stronger than the demon, who is terrified.

Mortally wounded, Grendel slinks back into the swamp to die. The severed arm is hung high in the mead-hall as a trophy of victory. Overjoyed, Hrothgar showers Beowulf with gifts and treasure at a feast in his honor. Songs are sung in praise of Beowulf, and the celebration lasts late into the night. But another threat is approaching. The Danish countryside is now purged of its treacherous monsters. The people of the Northlands all align themselves to the migrations of the great elk herds.

The greatest of the Northlands Tribes follow the same structure as the lesser tribes. Heorot himself acts as the spiritual leader, a High Chieftain dictates law that all the tribes must follow, and a Great Champion commands the tribes when they must unite against an outside force and acts as the paragon of the people of the north.

His followers roam the northern tundra, zealous berserkers and fierce half-elk half-men known as Wengari. Heorot rejected them, however, seeing this act as obscene, driving many into aligning with the rebellion of Morditas. In the Divine era, Rahyeh declares war on the gods in the World of Eterra , leading a massive skirmish with his armies from Solarum , targeting Heoborea and threatening the rest of the land. Rahyeh himself tests out the resolve of Heorot, bombarding him with fireballs, but he defends fiercely with frost shields.

Eventually Rahyeh is bored of the stalemate and fatally wounds Heorot, leaving the deity on his own. Having witnessed the battle, the Traveler also founds a desparate Yulia and tells her about the instructions from her future self: to retrieve the Lance of Heorot and gain the blessings of the other gods in order to defeat Rahyeh. Yulia leads them to Heoborea and instructs to find Grael , Heorot's champion, who has been hiding in the northern woods for the call of dire times. The Traveler manages to defeat Morditas's champion, Yrun encased in the Frostroot Warden , and with the Lance, they head out for the other gods.