Heroes, both real and legendary, have always had their monsters to face. Martin Luther King is a real-life hero who faced racism. His battle was the civil rights movement. Robin Hood is a legendary hero who faced not only a tangible monster, the Sheriff of Nottingham, but also the monster of poverty in his attempts to save his people from oppression.
In the Middle Ages, heroes and monsters were noted, recorded and shared through poetry or other forms of the Old English period of written language. One hero who was memorialized in this fashion was Beowulf. Like many legends, although not a real person, the character of Beowulf was probably based on a real hero or a collection of heroes. A real-life hero whose deeds are recorded is Judith. Her story, in fact, is one of the books of the Apocrypha.
Both of these heroes face different antagonists. Beowulf's monster is an evil creature described as having claws and large teeth and lives in a cave. Judith's monster is a military man bent on conquest and control. Both of these tangible antagonists, however, are literary representations of the same intangible monsters: fear and evil.
Beowulf is a poem that was written nearly 1200 years ago. The author of this great poem is unknown. It is believed that the heroid deeds of this warrior were sung to young soldiers to prepare them for battle. The poem's hero, Beowulf, had heard about an evil creature in a faraway land. He traveled to this land to offer his services in ridding these people of their invader, and also to face fear and evil.
Judith is usually remembered as the woman who cut off the head of an enemy leader. Indeed, she is often depicted in various forms of artwork holding a decapitated head. Judith was a widow living in the small village of Bethulia. She was not a warrior, and yet she saved her own people not only from an enemy army, but also from giving in to the monsters of fear and evil.
Grendel, the monster in Beowulf, is the personification of evil itself. He lives for evil and nothing else. In fact, the poem states "no savage assault [can] quench his lust / for evil" (Beowulf 27). Grendle is "conceived by a pair of those monsters born / of Cain" (26). He is a cold-hearted, blood-thirsty creature who is described in the poem as a "shepherd of evil" and a "guardian of crime" (46). Grendel is "a powerful monster, living down / in the darkness" (26). He would come out at night, travel to Herot, and savagely kill the soldiers of Hrothgar. Beowulf travels to the country where Grendel feeds in order to take on this monster single-handedly. In fact, Beowulf has stepped where the residents of this country have cowered. He faces fear and evil all alone and on behalf of those who were, until recently, strangers to him.
Judith's monster is the fear and pacifism of her people in the fact of evil. This face of evil is a man named Holofernes, a high-ranking offer in the army of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar demands idolization and adoration, and in his efforts to attain these things, as well as capture Jerusalem, he conquers everyone and everything in his path. Holofernes is a particularly terrifying raider. Along with his enormous army, Holofernes shows no mercy. Together they destroy and enslave entire populations. They insist that their captives worship Nebuchadnezzar as their only god (Moore 33).
During this period of undeclared warfare, one of the regions in Holofernes' path includes the small town of Bethulia. In this town is Judith. She is beautiful and popular among her neighbors. She is very worried for her people and angry at a compromise made by the Bethulian town council. The magistrates promise their enemies that if God does not come and rescue them within five days, they will turn the town over to Holofernes' army. Judith is angry that the town council has tried to coax God into doing their bidding. She asks, "Who are you, that you have put God to the test this day, and are setting yourselves up in the place of God among the sons of men" (Wahl: Judith 8:12)? The small-town magistrates, although desperate, realize the seriousness of their actions and ask her to pray for the town "since you are a devout woman . . ." (8:31).
Both Judith and Beowulf believe that God will give them the strength and courage to face their monsters and carry out their deeds. Judith devoutly prays for courage and strength to carry out her plans. Beowulf's strategy for his enemy is to face him without weapons. He had decided that "God must decide who will be given to death's cold grip" (Beowulf 37).
Beowulf decides to lie in wait for Grendel's next visit. When they do come together, a great and furious battle ensues. The walls shake and Beowulf's men watch as he defeats Grendel. Grendel's arm and claw are left behind as he disappears into the darkness to die. The arm, claw, and shoulder are hung from the rafters by the villagers as a trophy of this battle.
The evil, Beowulf's monster, has not, however, been completely defeated. When Grendel's mother begins her vengeful visits to Herot to kill, Beowulf knows he must again face the evil. He travels to her cave and battles with her. Again he fights without weapons, but evil has increased in strength and fear has now been added. This battle is much more difficult for him to win. He is forced to use Grendel's mother's own sword against her. He does finally defeat her, but only after nearly losing his own life. The battle is won and the trophy--the monster's head--is awarded.
Judith's strategy is somewhat different from that of Beowulf. Not having had experience in warfare, Judith wages battle against her enemy with a plan in which only a woman could succeed. By flattering Holofernes and boasting of his exploits, she wins his trust and admiration. After a few days of this masquerade, Holofernes' desire for Judith has grown so strong that he can no longer wait to have her, and he is on the verge of losing his self-control. In his plan to seduce Judith, Holofernes sets up a party and invites her to join him. As she sits at his feet during the feast, "Holofernes' heart was ravished with her and he was moved with great desire to possess her . . ." (Wahl: Judith 12:16). Indeed, she "so bewitched him that [he] drank more wine than he had on any other occasion in his entire life" (Moore 35).
After the guests leave the party, the soldiers carry their drunken leader to his room and close Judith in with him. Holofernes is passed out, and as Judith stands over him, she prays for the strength to carry out her plan. She holds his head by the hair and hits him twice in the neck with his own sword. She then places his severed head into a food sack and flees the city. Judith shows the head to her people to give them courage to stand up for themselves. In the meantime, after finding the decapitated body of their leader, Holofernes' men run away with the men of Bethulia in pursuit.
Beowulf's trophy is carried back to the people of Herot to show that Grendel has been defeated. Judith's trophy is hung on the wall in Bethulia as a reminder to her people to face their fears and stand up for themselves. It is interesting to note that, in both of these stories, the hero cuts off the enemy's head and uses it as a trophy. In both stories, the trophies awarded are the heads of the physical monsters. These are then used as weapons against the indiscernible monsters in that they are reminders to the villagers in both stories to stand up for themselves with courage and conviction.
Whether about real heroes or legendary heroes, both of these stories deal with the evil and fear that these people must face in order to save others, test their faith in God, and test their own resolve. In both of these, the main characters do defeat their tangible nemeses, and they conquer their monsters of fear and evil on behalf of others. The others must also conquer the intangibles as well as the tangibles.
Works Cited
Beowulf. Trans. Burton Raffel. New York: Mentor, 1963.
"Judith, a New Translation." The Anchor Bible. Trans. Carey A. Moore. New York: Doubleday & Co., 1985.
Wahl, O.S.B., Thomas Peter. "The Books of Judith and Ester." Old Testament Reading Guide. Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1966.
