creates this mead hall during that period of peace

in the Danish history, which is very rare,

most the time the people of that territory were fighting constantly with each other

they're always these civil wars going on,

internecine and fighting all the time and there is a brief period here

where there is no serious warfare, where

Hrothgar decides that he's going to build a mead hall, a large

hall for feasting and joy and revelry

and he builds this hall that is towering up to the sky, beautiful and

gilded, and shines like the sun and it's a

monument that's going to outlast him, something he wants

future generations to remember him by and

consequently it's something which he pours his whole

life into and that generosity of spirit, that generosity of money to build

something that will benefit his people

a place for their own happiness, a place where they can make merry together.

That generosity shows him to be a good king.

He builds the hall and of course it's quite the success and

people come from miles around to enjoy the companionship of one another

and that hall is in all respects like

an image of the world. The ancient Norse saw the world

as an island in the midst of water

and there was a dome of the sky overhead that the Sun traversed over

and down from the island of the earth there was the roots of the earth

that stretched into this giant tree they called Yggdrasil

and Yggdrasil had different worlds within it

and therefore this world of light

and joy and life is mirrored in that world of life

and joy and light in the mead hall of Heorot.

Heorot is itself like a small image

of that joyful world in which we live.

But into that mead hall comes this terrible creature, as it

says this child, this descendant of Cain,

this troll, he is the Grendel which

is a name that means the "grinder" one who grinds up lives

and out of jealousy he comes to attack

the mead hall. Grendel's a creature who

despises life, and despises joy, and despises happiness

and out of envy he seeks to end that joy

and the lives of those men and so he comes and he attacks the mead hall

and he devours the guests that are sleeping there

thinking that they are protected and he

continues to attack for several years,

until finally people are afraid to come to the mead hall and they start

leaving and fleeing from Heorot and so Heorot becomes not a place of joy, but a

place of

terror and sorrow and awfulness.

It's much like in our world today which could be a beautiful place

sometimes there are people that create evil, create strife, create violence,

and may cause the world, which otherwise is beautiful, become like a living hell

and Hrothgar begins to despair because he doesn't know how to stop this

and in the midst of that despair, and that

sorrow where everybody's leaving him we need somebody to step in, to come in, and

destroy this Grendel somebody of courage and merit

to destroy that creature because no one else seems able to do so.

That takes us into the second section.