In the fight with Gretel, Beowulf showed his wits when he decided to rip off Gretel’s arm after knowing that swords would not be effective against him. The scene is described in the phrase, “He was safe, by his spells, from sword of battle, from edge of iron. Yet his end and parting on that same day of this our life woful should be, and his wandering soul far off flit to the fiends’ domain (Beowulf, Chapter 12).” This quote describes how Gretel was basically invincible to anything that could cause any serious damage, which further highlights the ingenuity of Beowulf when he decided to use his bare hands to rip Gretel’s arm off. In that situation I doubt that anybody would think of using their bare hands against a demon when a sword and magic spells could not even hurt