Sir Gawain and the Green Knight vs. Beowulf

        The so called monsters of both stories have differences between them. Grendel, the monster in “Beowulf”, is a beast who eats people and terrorizes cities. The Green Knight, of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, does not exactly eat people. He does not exactly terrorize towns; as a matter of fact he does not look beastly either. Unlike Grendel, the Green Knight is said to be dressed up in fine clothes and his body is a glistening green. The Green Knight is also what he is named, a knight, he approaches the king cordially and asks for a challenge which is opposite to Grendel who just starts eating people because they make noise. Another difference between the two is in the ways they threaten and terrorize their victims. The Green Knight gives Sir Gawain a fright when he intimidates him by surviving a clean head chopping, and also when Sir Gawain realizes that the Green Knight is going to fulfill the challenge, though all of this is only part of a test which in a whole is suppose to be the basis of the Green Knight’s terror. Grendel, on the other hand just devours people whole, instead of taunting them through a test. The Green Knight in fact really is not the true monster of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”; the actual monster is in Sir Gawain himself. His courage is the monster; the Green Knight is only testing the monster in Sir Gawain. Though Grendel is in fact one of the monsters of “Beowulf”.

         Both stories contain a good vs. evil. Though the evil is not necessarily a monster figure evil. But both stories do contain similar “good” sides which are the heroes, Beowulf and Sir Gawain. In the good against evil battles in both stories the hero ends up not overcoming the evil. Like in “Beowulf” in the end the fir breathing dragon kills him and in “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, Sir Gawain fails one test of the Green Knight.

The actual evil in “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, is the courage to be faithful, Sir Gawain neglects the lord’s wife and stands still when the Green Knight is about to make a blow, but yet one thing fails him he receives a scarf from the lord’s wife. He was not faithful to the lord because he did not give the lord the scarf that his wife had given him, and this is where evil prevailed. Evil prevailed in “Beowulf” when Beowulf took too much then he can handle upon himself, that leading to the dragon severely and in the end fatally hurting Beowulf. Though both do “good” sides put up a good fight. Beowulf fought until he could fight no more and Sir Gawain lived up to the challenge by leaning still as the Green Knight was preparing to chop off his head.