Styling Texts: Dress and Fashion in Literature By Cynthia Kuhn an ...

He is neither human nor beast, though he participates in and transgresses the boundaries of both worlds, making him ever the more monstrous.

Early in the poem, Beowulf is almost completely human—while his extraordinary strength and stamina mark him from his youth as different, these traits have not yet become monstrous. In the story of his youthful exploits with Breca, for example, Beowulf seems to be successful in his swordplay, and he wears his armor to good effect against the nicors. When he lands on Hroðgar’s shore, his armor and weapons identify him as noble. The coastguard admires him and his war-gear, commenting:

Beowulf’s evening with the Danes shows him at his human best: he tells stories, he wears beautiful armor, he carries an important sword, Nægling, and he plots against Grendel, planning his strategy. He engages in the ritual of the pre-fight boast. Beowulf fully participates in the human, engaging in all the behaviors that distinguish humans from beasts as he prepares himself to fight the monster.

But at this very moment, during his boast, when he is at his most fully human, Beowulf sows the seeds of his downfall, of his monsterization. He looks into Nietzsche’s abyss, preparing to battle Grendel, ignorant of the real danger when the abyss looks back. The narrator says: