... Though delicately kept in the back ground, such a Christian interpretation of the main story on the part of the Anglo-Saxon author could not but give added strength and tone to the entire poem. It helps to explain one of the great puzzles of our epic. Why the poet himself with a plot of mere fabulous adventures so much inferior to the splendid heroic setting, ... Anglo-Saxon backdrop. Klaeber elaborates, "The figure of Grendel at any rate, while originally an ordinary Scandinavian troll, and passing in the poem as a sort of man monster, is at the same time conceived of as an impersonat...

• Word Count: 2211
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate