Editing Grendel (section)

==Other interpretations and discussions==
[[Peter Dickinson]] (1979) argued that seeing as the considered distinction between man and beast at the time the poem was written was simply man's [[bipedal]]ism, the given description of Grendel being man-like does not necessarily imply that Grendel is meant to be humanoid, going as far as stating that Grendel could easily have been a bipedal dragon.{{sfn|Dickinson|Anderson|1979}}

Other scholars such as Sherman Kuhn (1979) have questioned Grendel's description as a monster, stating:

{{Blockquote|There are five disputed instances of [[wikt:aglæca|āglǣca]] [three of which are in ''Beowulf'', lines] 649, 1269, 1512 ... In the first ... the referent can be either Beowulf or Grendel. If the poet and his audience felt the word to have two meanings – ''monster'' and ''hero'' – the ambiguity would be troublesome; but if by āglǣca they understood a ''fighter'', the ambiguity would be of little consequence, for battle was destined for both Beowulf and Grendel and both were fierce fighters (216–217).}}