Beowulf

I am wondering what the lines 43-45 mean? "they decked his body no less bountifully with offerings than those first ones did who cast him away when he was a child"? Was Sheild abandoned as a child? This part somewhat puzzled me. This story seems to show how men felt about women during this time. Men treated women with respect although they never mention thier names in writing, is it only writing the do this in, or rather in real life also? At first reading line113 "the giants too who strove with God" It made me wonder why the demons would strive to be with God? But looking at the meanings of strove, one of them means to contend in opposition or battle. This makes more sense. One thing I found odd was, why does Grendel only come out at night? No one seems to wonder, but I do. Demons are not know to only come out at night. This makes me also wonder if Grendel is a symbol for the greed in the King, who HAD to built the most brilliant and wonderful meed hall ever. Skipping ahead while on topic ... At the end Beowulf has to defeat a Dragon. Lines 3076 "Often when one man follows his own will many are hurt. THis happened to us. Nothing we advised could ever convince the prince we loved, our land's guardian, not to vex the custodian of the gold, let him lie where he was long accustomed, lurk there under the earth until the end of the world." I can not decide if these lines are refering to the dragon or to Beowulf? Let's think the "land's guardian" is the dragon, Beowulf is said to have "kept our coffers and our kingdon safe"(3005) Then they would be basically the same thing right? Maybe the dragon is the demon inside Beowulf, Demon of what though? His want of everlasting fame? Beowulf says "I shall pursue this fight for the glory of winning", for his ego maybe? Because he ALWAYS has to win the fight? He goes on to tell his men "this fight is not yours, nor is it up to any man except me to measure his strength against the monster or to prove his worth"(2532-2535) Maybe this story is about men facing their monsters within?