and you'll notice here that Grendel, when he comes to the hall, it's not the first time he has come

to the hall,

and now when he puts forth his hand to open the door, the doors burst asunder

at his touch because he's that powerful a monster that he just bursts right in

and when he comes in he immediately grabs

some of the warriors that are lying there waiting for him, some of the Gaets that are waiting

for him,

and he devours and bolts them down hands and feet and all, it's a very graphic scene.

But when he comes to Beowulf, Beowulf has made this vow

that he's not going to fight with any swords against the monster

and consequently that's a saving vow, it's a vow that he boasts he wants to try

his own metal

against the monster but it saves him in the end because what happens is,

that no sword can pierce Grendel and so when Beowulf

grapples with him mano e mano, he actually

is at an advantage because he's not using a sword against him at all.

Well the two grapple and the whole hall rings with the sound

of their wrestling and eventually the strength

of the Gaet wins out against the strength of Grendel

and when Grendel feels that he's being defeated he tries to flee,

but Beowulf has him tight, has him gripped tight and it's that sense that

evil itself is terrified of a hero, of a heroic

character, a good man, and he wants to, Grendel wants to, flee from

the hall and flee back to his own cavern in order to hide from Beowulf,

but Beowulf won't let him go and he grapples him in the arm and finally

tears off his arm and Grendel goes fleeing into the night

to bleed to death in his own hall and so he's defeated

by the power of Beowulf. What was originally a boast

on the part of Beowulf, that is he was going to fight without a sword,

has now become his triumph, it's been

the thing that allows him to win out over Grendel and he hangs up this

tremendous arm

up in the rafters for everybody to see as a sign of

the fact that he's actually defeated this horrible monster.

So that's the end of these three sections, this fight with Grendel.

In the next section there's a slight shift that occurs here because

Hrothgar comes in and he tells this story to Beowulf

and the poet is taking a lay, a song,

that would have been popular at the time and incorporating it into his own

poem. So we see here next, in this next section, a story that Hrothgar is

telling

as a sort edification story or a contextual story,

part of the rejoicing over the fact that Grendel has been defeated.

So that's in this next section.