Matthew Shi - Period 6 - 03/05/2024

 Matthew Shi - Period 6 - 03/05/2024

Modern Mythology 2024

Research Paper

The concepts of space and time have been brought up throughout the Grendel and Beowulf unit. The idea of the omniscient dragon who sees past, present, and future as well as Grendel talking about events in different periods of time is in relationship with how the universe itself operates. One particular discovery is how black holes function. From my own previous understanding, I believed that black holes acted like a vacuum where things would be pulled and torn apart, eventually squeezing into its singularity. However, in more recent discoveries, it turns out that black holes actually only take anything that falls into the black hole and crush it onto the singularity. The past misconception as well as the present discovery alludes towards folklore as a whole from how black holes have operated.

Black holes had been commonly misconceived as operating as cosmic vacuums that would suck things in and whatever it sucked in would eventually be squeezed into its singularity. It’s almost like the dragon within Grendel. The dragon, an omniscient being that can see the past, present and future, while not essentially sucking in everything, it still knows “everything about everything”, compressed down to its mind that is beyond our understanding. Black holes are beyond our current ability to understand. The dragon breaks down into a humanistic understanding due to their lack of vision compared to himself. He tells us that humans use the Shaper as a way to prove to the Danes that the illusionary system developed by humans to make themselves believe what they want. In a sense, it’s similar to science. Scientists develop their methods and theories on the premise that whatever they find is true. But the truth was created by humans themselves. Perhaps the real reason we can’t comprehend black holes at the very beginning was because the truth we developed about them was an illusion created on our own.

However, with the more recent discovery of black holes only taking things that fall too close to it, it reflects Grendel falling too close to humans, eventually becoming the singularity, the villain created by human ideas. The black hole acts as a sort of limit before being torn apart into a single point. Icarus’ limit was his immaturity with ego and confidence. He had fallen too close to his confidence, eventually leading to his single point of death. Grendel’s limit was his own curiosity of humans. His own curiosity had led towards humans discovering him and believing him as a monster. The dragon scoffs at Grendel for trying to change himself from the monster he has been perceived to be. He had already fallen too close to humans and now they seek to annihilate him. They want to get rid of the single villain that they see.

Black holes, as a whole, also represent futility in a variety of ways. Upon getting too close to a black hole, all atomic matter will become annihilated and squeezed down to its singularity. The annihilation represents the inescapable fate that Grendel has placed upon himself. Despite how hard he tries to escape his identity from the humanistic perspective, they will always see him as a monster. It’s pitiful, yet it’s the limited scope of humans. We have our fears and whether we choose to face them or not is up to our own selves. Those who choose to face them want to find the ability to escape from themselves. Those who do not will forever stay staring at their fear as the monster of their own ideals. Both are the limits of humans. We can only try to find our escape route to delay fear from destroying us or give in to the prison and let it tear aspects of ourselves. Either way, we are bound by our own fears. Black holes are also limited to age. Even though the dragon in Grendel is all knowing and capable of seeing all time, he himself says that his own death is still inevitable. What he can do could all be for nothing. Humans trying to progress in society could all be for nothing. Our world may be stripped away at any moment in a way we could or couldn’t understand. We only live to hope that the future tomorrow could have a meaning for something. Whether or not it’s for our own selfish goals or for the better of society or even searching for the future, we all do things that are futile.

Sources:

“What Happens When Something Gets ‘too Close’ to a Black Hole? - NASA Science.” NASA, NASA, science.nasa.gov/universe/what-happens-when-something-gets-too-close-to-a-black-hole/. Accessed 4 Mar. 2024.

Tillman, Nola Taylor, and Daisy Dobrijevic. “Black Holes: Everything You Need to Know.” Space.Com, Space, 6 May 2022, www.space.com/15421-black-holes-facts-formation-discovery-sdcmp.html.