Afternoon of Alterity - Nazareth College

the treasures that fill up their home. The men identify themselves ashumans through their daily activities and treasures.At times the king’s thane, full of grand stories, mindful ofsongs, who remembered much, a great many of the old tales,found other words truly bound together; he began again torecite with skill the adventure of Beowulf adeptly tell an apttale, and weave his words. (Liuzza 74)Here, the men begin to display their significant attachment to thephysical space through the strategy of story telling. The men sing oftheir identity and the importance of being clearly differentiated asa human. The men need to be able to define who they are so theycan solidify the fact that they are not different or monstrous but thatthey make up what it is considered to be the norm of their time.The monstrous physical space exists on the border of the humanworld. The monstrous space is dark and scary. Grendel lives in themoors, which the humans consider to be separate from their physicalspace. The humans believe that Grendel does not have a humanidentity because of his otherness. Grendel is different from the men,which they solidify through song. They are not able to identify withhis physical appearance or actions. Therefore, it is essential to theexistence of the human identity to reside in a separate physical spacethan the monsters.The clear distinction between human physical space andmonstrous physical space becomes blurred when Grendel irruptsinto the reality of the men’s physical space and their identity. Grendelirrupts into the physical space of the human men by invading themead hall, Heorot. Grendel creates confusion among the men.How can someone who is so utterly different come to be withintheir physical space? The men knew exactly who they were and hada clear definition of their destinies; “Thus this lordly people lived inlaura lucyshyn 145