What is a differences of Grendel and Beowulf?

Beowulf is our oldest tale in anything remotely resembling English. It's about a warrior who kills a monster, then the monster's mother, and then dies killing a dragon.

Gilgamesh is believed to be humanity's oldest written tale, although the Vedas are probably older(?). This tale, from Mesopotamia, what we now call Iraq, is about a king who is also part god and his wild-man sidekick, and their adventures. When the wild-man dies, the god-king undertakes a rescue mission to the Underworld, where he fails to rescue his friend and learns an interesting piece of information regarding humanity's relationship with the gods. I wouldn't want to ruin it for you. It's cool. Check it out.