Beowulf is the oldest epic poem in Old English and also the earliest vernacular English literature. The epic poem has an unknown author and parts of the poem are also missing. Beowulf, Grendel and King Hrogthar are some of the most influential characters in this epic poem. Grendel, a troll-like monster, is afflicted by the noise coming from the dining hall of King Hrogthar's kingdom and terrorizes her whenever there is a social gathering. Beowulf's heroic character emerges when the terror of the meat hall, Heorot, is unbearable. The three characters interact and affect the poem in different but major ways. Beowulf is rooted in a pagan tradition that depicts nature as hostile and the forces of death as uncontrollable. Blind fate chooses victims at random and man is never reconciled with the world. Beowulf is a true epic in its quantity of interests and empathy, even if it is centered on the vocation of a man killing three monsters. The action and characters of this seemingly simple story have the power to symbolize the experience and ideals of the original audience. Brutes contribute to evil and disorder as no human could, but the evil that originates innocently in the human heart is not overlooked. Transforming both the fairy tale monsters and the horrifying power politics of the background is the objective gratitude of the human struggle for understanding and order. In Beowulf, the narrator and characters use human experience to understand the human condition and find the noblest way to live their lives. . The epic scope of Beowulf comes in part from the narrator's often brief observations, which place the poem in a broader, higher context. The narrator sporadically reminds the reader of the... middle of paper ... compound noun that metaphorically represents something else. Beowulf is rooted in a pagan tradition that depicts nature as hostile and the forces of death as uncontrollable. Blind fate chooses victims at random and man is never reconciled with the world. Beowulf is a very simple story told with great elaboration. A man of great power, valor and generosity fights three monsters, two in his youth and the third in his old age. Other more complex human events precede them, others interfere, others will follow, but these more realistic events are all essentially background. The true calamity of the poem may lie not in Beowulf's own demise, which transcends tragedy through his faith in God, but in the desolation of his people which leads to the reburial of the treasure. Beowulf gives his life to save them from the dragon, but in the end he cannot save them from themselves..