Question

Which is the most accurate comparison of the two passages?

From Beowulf’s perspective, the Danes are helpless innocents, but from Grendel’s perspective, Grendel is the helpless innocent.
From Beowulf’s perspective, Grendel is a villain, but from Grendel’s perspective, Hrothgar and the Danes are the villains.
Both Beowulf and Grendel think they are acting to save the environment from further destruction.
Both Beowulf and Grendel think they are acting according to the will of the gods.

Answer 1

Option 2.

Beowulf (and the poem’s narrator) frames Grendel as the villain who terrorizes the helpless Danes, while Grendel’s own narration (Gardner’s novel) reverses that moral perspective, portraying Hrothgar and the Danes as hostile, hypocritical aggressors. Options 3 and 4 are inaccurate generalizations about motives; option 1 is partly true but less precise than option 2.