When Grendel says Unferth's "beard and hair straight down like seaweed" (86), what literary device is being used?

VERIFIED

Michael Harding

Very good tutor.

There are few devices being used at once. It's an image that uses a simile, I.e. saying something is like something else. However, it's also a form of inverse anthropomorphism, in that it attributes a human quality to something non-human. "Hair like seaweed." The idea is to make a character (Unferth) seem connected somehow to the sea; bear in mind that Unferth at this point in the story is bragging that he is the best swimmer in the world.