Aristotle's statement, "To live alone one must be a beast or a god," directly relates to Heaney's translation of "Beowulf" and to John Gardner's Grendel. The statement is valid to a great extent, because Beowulf and Grendel both live in solitude. And the people portray Beowulf to be a god and Grendel to be a beast. Therefore, Aristotle's statement is correct and relates to both beings to a vast extent.

It is evident that Beowulf lives in solitude, because there is no one else who has been through the complications of battles and strength that he has been through. Therefore, he is mentally alone because no one knows what it's like to have battled the great beasts that Beowulf has battled. During the battle against Grendel, "One man...was in fighting mood, awake and on edge, spoiling for action" (Heaney 708-709) and that man was Beowulf. He was...