Hypertext and Beowulf

For the British Literature students. Here’s a like to an interesting hypertext of Beowulf. We’ve been tracking two multi-dimensional issues: audience and conflict and the nature of character, leadership, and reputation as disclosed by the text. All kinds of important issues arise from this approach.

We started with a question of the nature of Grendel. Who is Grendel? It’s interesting that Grendel is a lot of things: demon, antagonist, outsider, and a “reason” unto himself. Grendel, through the text, is difficult to pin down without Beowulf as hero to give him context, much as is the unmemoried Unferth and his accusations of vanity.