I recently had the pleasure of illustrating Beowulf and Grendel, which is part of a great classic of ancient Anglo-Saxon poetry and an all round kick-ass epic story.
Once again this is for the fine people at Legends, Myths and Whiskey, who are always a pleasure to work with.

This time however, LMAW is releasing their beautifully narrated stories (together with a bunch of art I made for the project) as an album.
You can find more information here.
And if this doesn’t quench your curiosity, you can read a well made review here.

Now, as far as the story goes, this is the first of the three epic battles that make up Beowulf’s saga.
Long story short (straight from Wikipedia):

Beowulf begins with the story of Hrothgar, who constructed the great hall Heorot for himself and his warriors. In it he, his wife Wealhtheow, and his warriors spend their time singing and celebrating.

Grendel, a troll-like monster said to be descended from the biblical Cain, is pained by the sounds of a joy he cannot share, attacks the hall, and kills and devours many of Hrothgar’s warriors while they sleep. Hrothgar and his people, helpless against Grendel, abandon Heorot.

Beowulf, a young warrior from Geatland, hears of Hrothgar’s troubles and with his king’s permission leaves his homeland to assist Hrothgar.

Beowulf and his men spend the night in Heorot. Beowulf refuses to use any weapon because he holds himself to be the equal of Grendel.When Grendel enters the hall, Beowulf, who has been feigning sleep, leaps up to clench Grendel’s hand. Grendel and Beowulf battle each other violently.

Beowulf’s retainers draw their swords and rush to his aid, but their blades cannot pierce Grendel’s skin. Finally, Beowulf tears Grendel’s arm from his body at the shoulder and Grendel runs to his home in the marshes where he dies.

Now, I had different options for a battle match between Beowulf and Grendel.
Beowulf is so cocky that he wants to kill the monster by just using his hands, so I guessed it made sense for him to be bare chested, like a proper wrestling match.

I could have made a much more dynamic scene, having the chareacters punching heach other, tables flying, fire and so on.
I chose insted the moment right before Beowulf rips Grendel’s arm off, so in this case I emphasized both Grendel’s struggle and Beowulf “I’m not even sweating” espression.

We did debate a bit over this, and discussed whether it would have been better to depict Beowulf as if he were struggling a little bit more.
In the end we kept the face I painted in the first pass. I think it gives the composition a more “Renaissance” flavour, with characters always with plain expressions.
I figured it fits with the ancient epic poem.

Anyway, I depicted all of Beowulf’s three battles, so next time I’ll post the illustration I made for Beowulf’s and Grendel’s Mother.

by Paolo Puggioni