Nine Gates

Satan is hitchhiking through the time and space continuum. He is swimming through black waves. He is walking on hot coals. He is traveling through evil. It is easier for him to travel at the beginning of the trip. The evil was friendly and kind. It captured his heart and made him melt. This is his kingdom. He sees all the nightmares that humans have. He sees all the things that frighten animals. He has his big backpack full of supplies as if he is a college student asking for a ride a couple miles on his trip across America. He has his staff or walking stick and he stops for a breather to eat some trail mix. He stops in front of the first big gate that looked like it was an entrance to a Hollywood mansion. The gate is made of solid gold. It is not very strong gold because it is solid gold. There is a sharp edge on the doors of the gate which point towards heaven. It would be very painful to climb over the gate so no one would dare climb the gate. Satan was not about to return to a youthful day like he was some hooligan trespassing on private property. It is just one thing after another with this whole trip business. He sees a woman standing on the other side of the gate. He is thinking that he does not want anything to do with this tracking at all now. Rather, he just wants to get it over with. He does not care about the outcome. He just does whatever it takes to get through this gate.

            He decides that he would like to recognize this woman as his daughter. She was spawned from his head. She is also his lover who gave birth to his son. He is standing there as a see-through black and grey shadow with his crown and staff. His lover is a woman with a beautiful upper body and a lower half of tentacles that made her look like a monster or Medusa from the waist down. He loves her yet he does not love her at this moment. This signifies greater evilness. This is the evil in a human relationship. Satan is abusing and does whatever he can to have power in their relationship. He ignores her feelings and does not treat her well. He does not even see this as a relationship. He probably sleeps around on her and she is kind enough to never notice or show she is distraught. He had his 100 virgins like he is a Muslim extremist who is waiting for the day he dies. She probably would know to say, “It’s ok dad.” She probably is not a strong person and just goes with every scheme he plots up. He says. “Open up this gate and you will have whatever you want from me when we get to earth.” She just goes with it thinking that he loves her and she loves him and there is some strong bond between them. This is much like sin where people choose to behave the way that they behave and often regret the outcome and often tempted to sin. This woman has a dog that runs around her in a circle from her stomach. He has given her the gate and she has been told to guard it. The dog look like the Hounds of Baskerville. They are black with pointed ears and sharp teeth. She has given birth to his child of death. He asks for the key to the gate and she lets him have it and he opens the gate and lets himself through. He sees nine arched gates and goes through the gate. He finds a precipitous edge where he thinks about what he wants to do and jumps with his wings. He falls and gets carried by a gust of wind. He travels with this wind until he comes across earth which is chained with a small chain to heaven.

            Satan meets Eve who is happy go lucky and never gets into trouble. She is helped by the whole forest. Adam is a very intelligent man who does all his good deeds on his own. Satan comes to this woman as a snake and feeds her an apple. Satan releases sin. Death eventually takes over and God’s last resort was let loose on earth. Jesus Gods only saves earth. The snake is eighteen feet long and it is a black serpent. The snake was sweet talking Eve into eating a bright red apple. Satan is the kind of guy you could meet at the bar. He is a smooth-talking man that sits at the bar with his beer talking to a pretty girl.

http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Kaa

 http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Nazg%C3%BBl

 https://in.pinterest.com/pin/251709066648296215/

I affirm that I “have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this paper”

Alex Cooper

Alexander Stephen Cooper                                                                                              11/18/2016

Blind Devil

There is earth. There is space. Space goes down, down, and down. It goes down into darkness. The light from earth radiating from heaven eventually stops passing through the abyss of black space. Space gets deeper and deeper into the dead of black. It looks like the darkest night when all the night owls are out and roaming the street. They walk around smoking their cigarettes like zombies. There is the black that travels and floats above hell. Hell, is made of rock that is red and orange. The rock is sulfuric and gassy. There is a sizzling sound. Flames shoot out from the ground. There are lakes that have acid as water with a flaming atop. The devils have had a secret meeting. They are plotting and planning, holding a parliament like meeting to figure out what to do with the king. The devils know full well that the king can come to Hell whenever he feels like it and massacre all of them. The devils are only in Hell for one reason; they have been cast out of heaven for not preforming their duties for God. They wanted to do whatever they wanted to do. The devils wanted it all for themselves and never got on the good side of God, but rather they wanted what they wanted and got cast out for bad deeds. Were they all angels or was Satan or Lucifer the only angel cast out? Where did the other angels come from? Some people have said they were all angels. Angels were the only other creation while the Garden of Eden was in the making.

Satan the king was sitting on his throne. Does he have the throne? Was he standing there watching and looking on? It is possible that all this man had was fire and brimstone. He is watching over their studies. They are all standing wearing black robes and wigs. They have their horns. Their horns are red. Maybe, they have white wings and an orb of light over their head with halos of gold. The first Devil began to talk. He was speaking plainly. The first devil voted for all-out war and rebellion like the Americans had done during the Revolutionary War. He took out a piece of paper and wrote down, “I want war.” He then signed it. All the devils agreed, they wanted war and were scheming like politicians. They spoke politically mentioning law and were trying to tempt themselves into action. They got around the fear of war, and plotted to get away with murder like common criminals. They also spoke like businessmen who were running a large corporation. They had lots of money. The devils wore suits with red ties. They had brief cases and knew how the stock market worked. They hated their jobs and resorted to bribery and often went to court to get out of charges they picked up through business and pleasure. They were illegal to the bone until life sentences caught up with them. They were doctors who killed people. They have massive doses of medications and experiment on people. The law protected them. They wore white lab coats and had stethoscopes. They were liars. They were the worst possible jewelers. They raised the price of gold and precious gems. They stole them, horde them, and get away with it.

Eventually, they come up with a plan. Satan, they king is going to do his duty to his kingdom and country. He is going to track throughout black until he reaches earth because he can. He wants the power to never pass. He wants the spirit to be evil because he can. He wanted to do things because he could. He called upon his wit and strength to make his trip. One devil spoke up, he wanted to make hell home. He wanted to make hell a place where they can live without the black, torture and death surrounding them. They wanted to get rid of the cold atmosphere. They wanted to no longer suffer every second. They wanted to get out of constantly being in blood. They no longer wanted to die every day where they are tied down and giving punishment. One devil spoke up he wanted to mine hell for its gold and gems. On earth mining is one of the most dangerous jobs where people die from suffocation and mine collapses. Miners are also exposed to dirt, and lung disease. Often miners have a very short life. The devils want to build a castle of gold and eventually turn hell into heaven. Hell, should be more powerful than heaven. Mammon wants his riches. Beelzebub wanted war. There should be a playing field in heaven. They must to take it to God. Belial wanted open war. Maloch wanted open war. Satan took the lead and is ready to fight by himself with honor and prestige. He faces certain death.

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-12-17/news/69119340_1_simultaneous-polls-simultaneous-elections-assemblies
http://www.angelfire.com/empire/serpentis666/Satan.html http://content.time.com/time/today-in-pictures/0,31511,2002664,00.html
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christianpiatt/2013/02/satan-and-hell-a-brief-history-part-1-of-2/

I affirm that I “have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this paper”
Alex Cooper
Alexander Stephen Cooper 11/18/2016

PTSD

Death has had a massive impact on Macbeth. He is grieving from the shock of blood, violence and death. It does not matter that Macbeth was the slaughterer. It does not matter that Macbeth killed his kingdom’s enemies. What does matter is the fact that Macbeth was involved in extreme violence and bloody battlefield trauma which ended in death for many of his compatriots and enemies. Some of his fellow soldiers were very young men or really mere children. Macbeth was initiated as a soldier as soon as he was old enough to fight for Scotland which was at a very young age. In his first fight, he was probably wide-eyed and proud to be initiated as a warrior. In his second battle, he might have been keen to learn more still somewhat unaffected by the trauma of war. However, war changes everyone and with incremental exposure to violence and death, Macbeth was changing. My proposition is that this Macbeth was affected from the first time he engaged in battle and witnessed death or killed an adversary.

In battle, Macbeth killed like a psychopath, committing murder over and over. In battle, Macbeth has also suffered brain damage from attacking and being attacked. He started losing focus of what was right, not like a mass murdering psychopath but rather like he had taken a gateway drug to murder and began to kill without a cause which is sometimes the case for a soldier. Soldiers are closer to committing murder after a war than before the war. They also often enjoy the kill and are drawn into enjoy killing. Ahh, that is victory.

Macbeth likes to kill because he likes victory and the glory that brings to him and his kingdom. He is a career soldier. PTSD has affected Macbeth. He is awake around the clock on guard, then quite frankly falls asleep and does not care. He seems to develop mental illness. I don’t know what other kind of illnesses, but the actual act of killing someone in cold blood and not thinking about the feelings of a human being off the battlefield brings mental disease. Then Macbeth goes further into madness by killing a family. It was very cold thinking when Macbeth was assigning his soldier to track down and kill this family, a mother, all her children and their servants, all the members of the household. Today, this would probably be a war crime where a leader would be charged and arrested for being cruel and inhumane by the United Nations. Macbeth was also a part of the deaths every step of the way. He murdered Duncan the king, even though no one knows for sure he has done this, it was a very serious allegation. Macbeth’s weapon of choice seems to be a knife which is very up close and personal and vicious. He could have killed with poison. Macbeth was following his wife’s instructions before and after which obviously involves Lady Macbeth in the murder of Duncan. Had Macbeth chosen to put arsenic in Duncan’s mouth then held him down until he swallowed, rather than stabbing Duncan to death, it might have been less traumatic. Stabbing Duncan to death was a crime of passion.

PTSD effects modern soldiers who have killed or wounded enemy soldiers during the war in Afghanistan and the Middle East, World War One and Two during which it was known as shell shock. Being away from their jobs, home and family adds to the stress. It can also create this double life where when they come home they feel as though their lot or place in life is no longer the same. Often, soldiers off the battlefield, begin to stop following rules particularly rules of law and begin to act out. They could act like soldier or like children that have not had parents. If you could think of Neverland. They lose control and do whatever they want which means they are more likely to get into legal trouble such as being charged for murder. They could also steal things and get arrested. They could also begin using hard drug because none of it matters. Believe it or not, sexual trauma is also a large issue in the military for those who have returned home from their time serving in the military. I don’t particularly know how this could have impacted Macbeth but his relationship with his wife is Bonnie and Clyde like. They made for a twisted couple. His wife was a black widow who wanted to murder the king for political gain. However, I don’t think she had an issue with her husband; she wanted him to rise in the political ranks rather than to decimate his soul. She loved him and wanted the best for him. He was not good enough ever for his wife though, and was often trying to receive a few more brain cells to keep up with his wife. He gave her access to a war machine and she plotted murder. I don’t believe the relationship was as twisted as I originally thought it was because Lady Macbeth wanted to come to power. Her husband was making everything worse. She probably still wanted children and a white picket fence life. PTSD has had an impact on Macbeth’s mental illness. He was suffering a little every day. This is only stipulation or the creation of a little story of its own.

"PTSD: National Center for PTSD." Mental Health Effects of Serving in Afghanistan and Iraq - PTSD: National Center for PTSD. US Department of Veteran Affairs, n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2016. http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/485522/A-Scottish-salute-to-our-heroes
https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/bonnie-and-clyde http://www.healthination.com/kitchen-tips/cooking-tips/easy-cooking-tip/



I affirm that I “have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this paper”
Alex Cooper
Alexander Stephen Cooper 11/17/2016

Dream

You go to sleep. You have slept most of the night and you are continuing to sleep. In your dream, you are awake. You are not in your room. You don’t know where you are. No one knows where you are. Somehow you find out that you have superpowers at night while you are asleep. Your memory works perfectly. You remember everything. You know everything that you will do the next day when you wake. The dream turns into something different. It takes you further from reality into some distant future where you are everything and have everything. There is something about your thoughts that changes. Your thinking is more thoughtful like. There is a maze in your brain that you must follow to the end where you come to a dramatic realization that you are something more than your reality. You are running down a corridor. It is pitch black. It is so dark you can and cannot see things. I don’t think anyone can see anything in the dead of black. You wake up. You go to sleep again having woken up frightened and fall back into another dream. You are dreaming about your next day, and your past life. You want to never wake up because you can see everything and it is all so very clear. It is better than watching television. It is like watching a film, or rather being awake and actively engaging in life.

            In books, dreaming is a common subject that is often perpetrated by the consumption of alcohol or marijuana. It is often created by the use and creation of one’s own bank of knowledge. It is like eating a worm at the bottom of a tequila bottle. Or watching a worm crawl out of a red apple while doing your first kindergarten homework assignment while wearing glasses. There is something surreal about this image as if you have just been put into your own dream and have suddenly awoken. I find this nearly as troubling as a Trump election like when you awoke the morning after the election and wondered on what island you were marooned for the past few years. There are fighter planes flying over-head. The new President has decided he wants to use all his Presidential rights. There are laws to be put in place to build a wall between the United States and Mexico. He has the right to reinstate the draft then we all get shipped off to Syria for war. It was like waking up to a dream. There is this feeling of a mistake that you don’t know how to wake up from yet everything suddenly becomes reality. The unknown and this change also excites you.

            Lady Macbeth has been witnessed doing things in her sleep. She has her eyes closed and she is pulling papers out of her closet and signing and fiddling with folders like there are legal document binding their kingdom to the murder that has been taking place under the crown. Macbeth has killed in cold blood with the scheming and advise of Macbeths wife Lady Macbeth.  It has been shown that dreams alter reality and mood. They bring people down to earth, and lead to an alteration in how the perceive their reality and their course of action throughout their life due to the change in chemicals in the brain.  It has been shown that women who dream about their ex-husband are more likely to never get back together with their husband due to their differences. Lady Macbeth’s dream is spawned from her husband failure to think of the proper course of action when committing murder, and it is also spawned from murder eating away at Lady Macbeth’s psyche.

“Since her majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her night-gown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, right upon’t, read it afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all the while in the most fast asleep (Macbeth1-9)”

Lewis, Penelope A. "What Is Dreaming and What Does It Tell Us about Memory? [Excerpt]." Scientific American. Scientific America, 18 July 2014. Web. 12 Nov. 2016.

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/05/google-dreams.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-poster_bed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKYQPZBskIk

I affirm that I “have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this paper”

Alex Cooper

Alexander Stephen Cooper                                                                                              11/14/2016

Mustache Utopia of Manliness

In Utopia, no one would dare to ask a guy to step outside in order to solve a problem. I mean man generally have this desire to show their manliness. The desire to prove their manliness seems to get stronger when they start drinking. A simple discussion can turn into a heated argument then next thing you know, some big bloke comes over and ask you to step outside. This might be attempted at a pub but you would probably get kicked out.

Dueling on the other hand was an old-fashioned ritual where arguments were settled with a swords or pistols. It was a ritual where men fought to defend themselves or their possessing. It became a trend that was rising within the aristocracy.

Single combat was the first form of battle where men who did not receive justice in the court system took another man outside to battle it out. This was considered an honorable thing to do. The men in conflict walked out of the court room to continue their fight.

The winner of the duel was often arrested, charged and sentenced. Pistol fighting had standard. The distance of the two duelers was carefully measured in paces before a shot was allowed. The pistols used were not very advanced and fortunately not as advanced as todays AR15s the military carry. Otherwise, history would have been altered by massive violence considering the duelers and most of their spectators would probably been killed.

The other form of dueling was with swords. Two people would quarrel and pull out swords and eventually fight until one was mortally wounded. I remember reading this in Hamlet when one member of royalty picks up a sword and challenges another person to a duel. They clash with swords and who ever win dies because Hamlet’s opponent had poison on the end of his sword. They eventually crown Hamlet after he kills his uncle the king and his mother dies from drinking poison. He gets stabbed and dies in the throne This reminds me of the school bully that you don’t know what to do with. He wants your lunch money. He pushes you often and causes you harm. You can never get anywhere with this person. Sometimes you even like them and they still push you around. Eventually you want to give up and square off.

In Utopia Book I, we have a dueling of words. Words of defense from Thomas More for the old world order against those words describing a far-off impossibility of utopia! These men have come together with the purpose of arguing about the possibility of a perfect civilization. These men after great discourse and debate come up with flawed ideas for society. These ideas are a true dystopia. Everyone loves this perfect society that they have created. There are fires in the streets and dancing around law. 

http://www.artofmanliness.com

I affirm that I “have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this paper”

Alex Cooper

Alexander Stephen Cooper                                                                                              2016 10 18

A Perfect Society Of Slave Trade

           

Slavery is a major topic in Utopia. I have researched and found that slave ships were an interesting form of human transportation. This transportation was not a violation of law during this time, however in my opinion it was at that time, nevertheless, a violation of human rights. European countries such as France, or Spain took to the sand and jungle of Africa where they came across kingdoms of Africans. These African kingdoms often willingly sold their own people into slavery for much needed revenue. African people were sold to work mainly for other civilizations such as in Rome or Muslim cultures where slaves were essential during this ancient time period. Carthage is a civilization which is a good example that comes to mind. Carthage makes me think of rhinos and elephants, gold or ivory. I think of white men with jet black hair coming to Africa with their metal guns and their advanced equipment to cull the labor needed to fortify their European homes and to expand their drive for empires.

            In Utopia Book II, slave buyers spoke to a few natives or kings and asked for a few relatives or anyone that needed to be dealt with or was a threat or a problem. People that they could take off their hands or buy easily. The sellers earned their little bit of gold. They were selling everyone they could into slavery and sometimes the sellers were even brutally forced into servitude. Slave traders bound and gagged people with fabric or tied wool over their heads then chained together those who were overtaken and enslaved. Newly trapped slaves were forced onto ships with cargo holds with multiple levels on which layers of slave body next to slave body was laid down. There was a lot of disease and illness that spread rapidly throughout the ship. This disease ripened and spread to the ships destination where the disease spread quickly to native populations in America. The natives lacked immunities to these foreign borne diseases and often native American populations were wiped out. If disease didn’t kill the slaves, then it was the sun where slaves were forced to do backbreaking labor where most slaves died.

            So, what do we do with slaves in Utopia? Who was in control of the slave population if violence was a threat without teeth? You couldn’t kill your slave since you had money invested in that slave. How did farmers working every daylight hour fit into this slave society? Some farmers do not own the food they produce, so maybe a slave does not own his body. You don’t actually own that house because you still have to pay taxes or it’s confiscated. With taxation, you don’t really own anything at all either. Ultimately, utopia was a brutal dystopia based on complete slave labor. So who owns what or whom? In death, you don’t own anything at all.

            Utopia to me is a modern socialized democracy where government is a very happy organism. It passes law after law to protect its people humanely from other countries. It passes law after law to protect its people from themselves. The whole question is what is humane, or what is not humane? I mean you could think like some sixteenth century philosopher who stayed in bed all day and slept around the clock because he could not survive without his pillow and cover. How many pillows did he have? I’m talking about De Cartes who was found dead in his bed all very suddenly. This was only after he had counted his pillows a couple hundred times or folded his sheets every possible way like he was folding the flag or making paper animals out of linen. He just sat and thought. Now the whole idea of this book was to establish a Utopia or perfect society. Did everyone believe this was a Utopia? Was he just keeping that name around to rationalize dystopia? It is all wrong to me. Yes. It is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. No one should actually over intellectualize a society. This means no society can or should title themselves by history’s definition as perfect. There is nothing perfect about slavery or farming, or using heathens for a military. It makes a mockery out of the art of manliness.

I affirm that I “have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this paper”

Alex Cooper

Alexander Stephen Cooper                                                                                              2016 10 18

http://americancivilwarphotographs.blogspot.com/2012/06/african-slave-ships.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2256774/The-Nazi-eavesdroppers-How-wartime-refugees-listened-conversations-horrors-Holocaust-secret-German-plans.html

http://www.gradesaver.com/utopia/study-guide/summary-book-one

https://repeatingislands.com/2011/09/27/antigua-barbuda-demands-reparation-for-african-slave-trade/

http://worldwideimperialism.weebly.com/slave-trade.html

The Wife of Bath Will Not Take Your Nonsense

This being my first experience with Middle English, I have to admit that reading The Canterbury Tales has been a bit daunting. Much like the training wheels on my first bike, the footnotes and helpful hints in the margins have been the only things keeping me from falling flat on my face and crying to my mom.

                                                https://playingintheworldgame.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/power.jpg

How I feel reading Middle English 

 Aside from my struggles with the language, I’m really looking forward to reading more of these characters’ tales! This concept of a storytelling contest brings me back to the days of trying to one-up each other’s campfire stories at Girl Scout camp. Since many of these characters seem a bit grittier (@Somonour) than most of the girls in my Brownie troop, I’m sure these tales will entertain to say the least. 

 http://www.optionated.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/936full-scary-stories-to-tell-in-the-dark-cover.jpg

Anyone else guilty of peddling these stories as their own?

After reading the Prologue of the Wife of Bath’s Tale, I’m definitely ready to hear more of what she has to say! I’m a big fan of her saucy attitude, and I love how she’s always got some biblical knowledge to back up her choices.

http://tattooimages.biz/images/gallery/Great_only_God_can_judge_me_quote_tattoo_on_arm.jpg.pagespeed.ce.jq5-vimJD3.jpg

Tell 'em, W.O.B.

 

Sure she’s been bouncing around from husband to husband since she was a preteen, but at least she owns it! I would love to see another character try to confront her about her choices, because I’m certain she would serve up a vicious verbal take-down, and honestly I’m here for it. 

Wife of Bath 2016: Make Canterbury Saucy Again

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. N.p.: W.W. Norton &, n.d. Print. 

Anti-Hero

            The winters are cold, harsh and hard. The once green grass is covered in a thick layer of snow. There are sharp thick long icicles that have been frozen from the last melt of the sun. The snow layer is thicker than the snow Frederick County experienced in the last couple of years. It is deeper than during the East Coast Snowmageddon where we had more than ten feet of snow. The ponds are covered with thick layers of sheet ice. The layers of ice thicken as the winter carries on through the months of November, December, January, February, and March. The ice is thick enough to walk on, and the water below is cold enough to freeze the fish. Beowulf has carried his people through fifty winters of increasing peace and community without hunger. Beowulf aspires to prove himself to his people. He wants to make amends for his shortcomings as the King. Beowulf talks about the men he has known over the years and how they were taken from this world by circumstance, debauchery, and battle. This particular winter, Beowulf must defend his people against a dragon that attacked his village and castle.

            It is debatable whether this text or any mythology from the Norse regions that consisted of Germanic people including Scandinavia, France, German, Belgium, and Great Britain, demonstrated any desire to glamorize, glorify, or worship the ground on which villains stood. It can be said that Beowulf surely isn’t an antihero. He is not a villain, so it isn’t possible to suggest that these people have an obsession with evil. They merely desire their villains to be powerful and awe inspiring.

            The dragon is a wise, brilliant, creature that was stirred into a rage because a thief, along with his consorts, wandered into his cave to steel his precious hoard of gold and gems. The thieves looted everything from the dragon’s cave. The dragon follows the thieves’ footprints into the village which he then attacks in retaliation. The narrator in the text treats this dragon foe as a strong, intelligent, adversary who just wanted his money back. Today, the thieves would be considered trespassers and arrested on suspicion of burglary. The dragon would probably have been able to retrieve his treasure.

            In battle, the scales of the dragon gleam, and the fire from his mouth blazes. The audience is supposed to sympathize with the dragon enough that Beowulf has to rile the dragon to force himself to fight the dragon. Beowulf has to draw on his internal rage to draw the dragon out and inflame the hatred between them. This creature isn’t a super villain. He does not want world domination. The dragon hates like a wounded animal locked in a cage deprived of food and water. Hate is something human that has to be learned otherwise hate comes from fear.

            Let me exaggerate. What other evil, black, terrible villain of this story does the narrator, or the audience, or even Beowulf and his men show sympathy for in the book? Beowulf and his men show little if any sympathy for Grendel’s mother. Yet, the audience can muster sympathy for a woman whose only son has been murdered. He was the only person who lived with her in their cave. She has no one left. She has every right to be upset, but in the end it was Beowulf that made the jump on Grendel’s mother. These villains aren’t antiheros. The dragon does not wake up one day and decide that he is going to give his gold away. Grendel’s mother does not admit that she made a mistake in raising her son to be a blood thirsty beast. Grendel does not go to therapy for the habits he can’t kick such as eating human flesh.

            We are mostly sympathetic to Grendel because of the way Grendel is introduced as friendless, isolated and living in a solemn and hermit-like existence with his mother. Grendel seems to have made a lot of mistakes in his life. It would have made a better read if in some twisted way Beowulf was some mass murdering hulk. I mean he is, but I’m talking about the evil kind that ignores the rules of engagement. The evil kind that has to thrive off murdering women and children, or defenseless animals. If the old men of the Norse period sat around and talked about their past heroes that committed mass genocide, what kind of world would we live in? The Germanic people certainly weren’t Nazis-like.

"Coat of Arms of Germany." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 06 Sept. 2016.

"St. George (Raphael, Louvre)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 07 Sept. 2016.

"Winter Posters and Prints." CoolAntarctica. CoolAntarctica, 2001. Web. 06 Sept. 2016.

I affirm that I “have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this paper”

Alex Cooper

Alexander Stephen Cooper                                                                             7th September 2016