Study Guide John Gardner’s Grendel Chapter 1 Comprehension What kind of animal does Grendel encounter at the novel’s opening? Who, evidently, does Grendel live with in his cave? Why does it amuse him when Hrothgar’s thanes cover the fireplace in the mead hall? What do Hrothgar’s people do with the body parts that remain in the mead hall after Grendel’s attack? Analysis What is immediately established by the contrast between the Goat and Grendel? How might we characterize Grendel’s tone? Does Gardner want us to identify with Grendel? Offer some evidence of your answer. Does Grendel seem like the type to kill for fun? Why or why not? Follow up: Does he seem to take pleasure in his attack and in eating his catch? Fully explain your answer. Study Guide John Gardner’s Grendel Chapter 2 Comprehension When Grendel becomes stuck in a tree, what kind of animal first attacks him? What guards the door from Grendel’s cave? Fire wolves, fire birds, fire spiders, fire snakes, fire dragons, fire lions? What do the men who find Grendel assume he eats? How does Grendel get free from the tree that catches his foot? Analysis Gardner, through Grendel’s narration, really emphasizes the eyes of others—Grendel’s mother’s eyes, the eyes of the other grumbling creatures in the cave, the bull’s eyes, etc. Why? What is Gardner’s point? Fully explain your answer. Why is Grendel so alone? Why has Gardner written him as seemingly the only conscious creature in his family or cave? Grendel calls the people he sees “pattern makers.” He means this in contrast to the bull he encounters before the men. What does he mean by pattern makers? Why might it be important that Grendel is a monster? Study Guide John Gardner’s Grendel Chapter 3 Comprehension Early in chapter three, Grendel tells of what happens to the men who are cast out of the banished to the forest for their crimes. Grendel says he sometimes tried to befriend them and sometimes tried to ignore them, but in the end what always happens? Hrothgar begins to collect tribute (a sort of taxes) from the surrounding tribes. What does he build to make this easier? Who is the blind man who arrives at Hrothgar's mead hall one night? What is his occupation? Who, evidently, travels with the blind man? A beautiful woman, a team of oxen, a female child, a male child, an old woman, two dogs? Analysis Why is the singer/harp player called a shaper here? What is the connotation of the shaper's blindness? How does Grendel react to human war and what does Gardner want us to think of Grendel's reaction? How does Gardner present the shaper and what does Gardner want us to think of Grendel's reaction to the shaper? Fully explain your answer. What is the effect on the narrative of the long passage of time covered in the third chapter? Hrothgar becomes an old man, the land is irrevocable changed, and many wars are fought in the timeframe of chapter three. Study Guide John Gardner’s Grendel Chapter 4 Comprehension Hrothgar decides to build something he calls Hart. What is Hart? While watching the celebration of the completion of Hart, Grendel turns to a creature and says, “I knew him when.” What kind of creature is he talking to here? What is Grendel carrying when he attempts to approach the thanes in the mead hall? How many men does he kill when he attempts to befriend the thanes? Who speaks the lines, “Dool-dool! Dool-Dool!” to Grendel? At the close of chapter four, Grendel falls, figuratively towards what creature? Analysis What, so far, seems to be Gardner’s message about language? There are several references to snakes in this chapter as well as a reference to two brothers—the ancestors of the saved and the damned races that inhabit Grendel's world. What are the connotative effects of these references? What might be Gardner's message in juxtaposing the beautiful stories the Shaper tells of human nobility with Grendel's discovery of the murdered body near where the youths make romance in the leaves? When Grendel uses profanity on page 52, he notes that he had picked up these words from men and isn't sure of what the words actually mean. Is there a message about language here? Do we have sympathy for Grendel in this chapter? He does enter the mead hall and kill two thanes. Then, he returns and kills a guard. Study Guide John Gardner’s Grendel Chapter 5 Comprehension The Dragon: “My advice to you is to seek out _______ and sit on it” The dragon laughs at Grendel and says that, when scared, Grendel looks like what kind of animal? What does Grendel do that momentarily infuriates the dragon? The dragon claims to know how he, himself, will die. How? The dragon states that his great ambition is to do what? Analysis The dragon tells Grendel that man needs Grendel, that he is the brute existent by which they learn to define themselves? Is there some truth to this? Does man need opposition to define him? What are some ways that man defines himself by opposition? The Dragon argues that nothing matters—he is a nihilist. Is Grendel a nihilist too? How or why not? Based on Gardner's depiction of the dragon, does it seem as though he wants us to identify or agree with the dragon? What effect does Gardner produce through the complexity of the dragon's lecture—most readers are not able to follow the dragon's logic—and neither is Grendel. A nihilist is a person who recognizes that the universe is absurd and without purposeful meaning—and then decides that action is hopeless and does nothing. An existentialist is a person who recognizes that the universe is absurd and without purposeful meaning—and then tries to make meaning from that absurdity. So far, is this more of a nihilistic novel or an existentialist novel? Study Guide John Gardner’s Grendel Chapter 6 Comprehension Why can human weapons no longer hurt Grendel? What, specifically, does Grendel do to the thane who was attacking him when Grendel learns that he cannot be harmed by human weapons? What does Grendel throw at Unferth to humiliate him? When Unferth enters Grendel's home to kill him, but collapses in exhaustion. What, specifically, does Grendel do with Unferth? What ability is Unferth shocked to discover in Grendel? Analysis The Dragon states that there is no meaning in the universe. The Shaper believes that humans are inherently meaningful. Unferth believes that the heroic code of honor creates meaning. What about Grendel? What does he think at the close of chapter 6? In his search for meaning, it seems that Grendel has come to define himself as antagonist to humans. Is this meaningful? Is he defining himself here, or is he reacting to his surroundings and allowing those surroundings to define him? Fully explain your answer. Sympathetic monsters are classic literary devices—consider Frankenstein, or the Hunchback of Notre Dame, or Dracula. What purpose might an author have in utilizing a monster in a story about the human experience? Study guide John Gardner’s Grendel Chapter 7 Comprehension Who is Wealtheow? What was the original reason Hrothgar and his men went to the mead hall of the young king, Hygmod? What pet animal does the young king have? Eventually, Grendel kills it. Grendel now senses the dragon at odd moments here and there. Through which of his senses does he detect the dragon? When Wealtheow is passing the mead bowl around, she pauses at Unferth, who says he has had enough. Other men at the table make fun of him, indirectly. What do they allude to? Who visits Herot in chapter 7? Beowulf, Wealtheow’s brother-Hygmod, Grendel’s mother, a messenger from the Geats, the Priest of the dead? Grendel enters the mead hall and seizes an occupant. He decides to kill this person, holds this person while all present watch. Then he decides to let this person go. Who is it? Analysis Have we come to view Grendel with more or less sympathy as the narrative progresses? Why? How might we describe the change in style in this chapter and what might that change in style signify? Fully explain your answer. Grendel searches for reason and purpose in the universe and is baffled and enchanted by the shaper's words early in the text. What does he find enchanting and baffling in this chapter and how might this new thing relate to the shaper's words? Study Guide John Gardner’s Grendel Chapter 8 Comprehension Hrothgar feels that Hrothulf (his nephew) has the manners of a what? Why does Hrothulf come to live at Hart? What does Hrothulf plan to do, with the council of Red Horse? What plan does Hrothgar have for his illegitimate daughter, Freawaru? Hrothgar dreams of two things twisted together. What are these two things? Analysis Why might Gardner have introduced Hrothulf (Hrothgar's nephew) into the narrative? What does this character allow Gardner to explore or suggest? Fully explain your answer. What might be the significance of Hrothgar's dream about two twisted tree-trunks? How are Red Horse and the Dragon similar? Fully explain your answer. In what ways is this book's narrative style and structure continuing to change? Study Guide John Gardner’s Grendel Chapter 9 Comprehension Who believes he has seen the Great Destroyer? Grendel watches one of Hrothgar's bowmen shoot something with an arrow. What does he shoot? What happens when Grendel destroys the stone and wood images of the gods? What is the season in which this chapter is set? Grendel comments that he has eaten several of what? He states that after he eats one of these, “they sit on the stomach like duck eggs” (129). Analysis How does Gardner depict the religion of Hrothgar's kingdom? Fully explain your answer. Consider the entire narrative so far. What human institutions or traits has Gardner explored through Grendel's narrative? Does is seem as though Gardner is more or less in favor of any of these institutions? Fully explain your answer. Is Gardner suggesting something in Ork's explanation of the king of Gods? What might be the relevance of Grendel's vision at the chapter's close—a black sun and spiders? Study Guide John Gardner’s Grendel Chapter 10 Comprehension Who sickens and dies in chapter 10? What animal does Grendel cruelly destroy in chapter 10? Grendel watches a messenger deliver a notice of death to whom? Grendel's mother is trying to tell Grendel something and has succeeded in uttering a warning. Beware the what? Who sings at the funeral? Analysis Why might Gardner emphasize mechanical behavior so much here—the goat, and in the previous chapter, the hunter with his bow making the “click, click” sound? The mechanical behavior upsets Grendel. Is he demonstrating more free will, more meaningful behavior than the goat? What seems to be the tone of this chapter? Fully explain your answer. And what does that tone achieve for the narrative? What might Grendel's mother mean by “Beware the Fish?” What might be the purpose in including the whole song about Finn? Grendel ends the chapter with the Latin phrase, “Nihil ex nihilo.” What might this mean? Study Guide John Gardner’s Grendel Chapter 11 Comprehension How many ships do the Geats have when they arrive? What, according to Grendel, is odd or mystical about the way the Geat leader talks? Which Dane does the leader of the Geats insult during the great meal? Grendel recounts an event he once saw. He says he saw a Carpenter, a father of seven children, leave his house in the night and go where? According to the Geat leader's story, what kind of monster did he fight when he was engaged in his competition with Breca? Analysis What is notable about how Beowulf, the Geat leader, is described in the text? What effect does Gardner's description of Beowulf achieve? Is the Geat leader the fish Grendel's mother warned him about? What evidence is there for your answer? How does this chapter's tone prepare us for the next chapter? In other words, what expectations do we have as we finish chapter 11? Fully explain your answer. Study Guide John Gardner’s Grendel Chapter 12 Comprehension How many Geats does Grendel eat before he engages with Beowulf? After Beowulf grabs Grendel, what does Grendel slip or trip on? Why does Beowulf's attack work on Grendel if he is impervious/immune to attacks by human weapons? What fatal wound does Beowulf inflict on Grendel? Grendel flees the mead hall and dies in the forest. Who comes out to see him die? Analysis How might Beowulf be a kind of Christ symbol? How is Beowulf like the dragon? Does Beowulf or does he not have wings and fire? What about his speech to Grendel— does this really happen? Fully explain your answer. Grendel ends the novel, ready to fall into the abyss, clinging to the huge twisted roots of an oak. Where have we seen these twisted roots before? What ideas are subtly expressed in Grendel's final words: “Poor Grendel's had an accident...So may you all”? Why does the book end before Grendel takes the fall? Fully explain your answer.
