Question

Supply three examples of imagery from section XX that support the inference that the region where Grendel and his mother live is a sinister place.

Answer 1

The three examples of imagery found in Section XX that suggests Grendel and his mother lived in a sinister place are:

1. 'They live in secret places...'
2. '...At night that lake/Burns like a torch. No one knows its bottom,...'
3. 'Hunted through the woods by packs of hounds,/A stag with great horns,...prefers to die.'

Step-by-step explanation:

Beowulf is one the oldest surviving literary piece; written in Old English with author unknown.

The Section XX of the epic describes the events of avenge of Grendel's mother on Danes after her son's death. The section also describes vividly the place where the duo of monstrous son-mother lived.

The place where they lived is described through imagery as a sinister.

The lines that supports this description are:

1. 'They live in secret places...'
2. '...At night that lake/Burns like a torch. No one knows its bottom,...'
3. 'Hunted through the woods by packs of hounds,/A stag with great horns,...prefers to die.'

These lines suggests that Grendel and his mother lived in a sinister, deep, secret place on the earth. They lived at the most bottom place of the lake 'which knows no bottom' and the lake 'burns like a torch in the night.' The place is so sinister that a stag, who is hunted by a pack of hounds would love to die instead of exploring the depths of this lake.