This post begins: The notion that a monster should prove to be a fraud is a fairly recent idea. The warriors gathered around the scop reciting Beowulf would have brooked no scene where the mighty Geat pulled the mask from Grendel’s face to find Unfurth hiding underneath. How the beer halls would have burned if such an atrocity were committed! The average Anglo-Saxon warrior enjoyed a good monster story.
If you’d like to read the rest, please check out Monster: From the Pages of Dark Worlds Quarterly.