Grendel (summary):
1971 - a novel
Author - John Gardner
Grendel’s point-of-view of part 1 of Beowulf
Anti-hero  Does not embody any value system
 Is usually a rebel, an outlaw, or an anti-establishment figure (doesn’t
follow the rules)
 Is often regarded as an villain
 Seems to have no purpose in life and searches for a meaningful reason
for existence
 Rejects the values, rules, and attitudes of his society; is often
misunderstood by society
 Is often an angry person
EXAMPLES: Rambo/Reservoir Dogs/Cat in the Hat/Jack(Ed Norton in Fight
Club)/Shrek/Tony Montana/Holden Caufield/Dirty Harry/Frankenstein’s
monster/Jack Sparrow/Robin Hood/Dexter/House/Jack Bauer/Hancock/Jason
Bourne/Napoleon Dynamite
Someone who is against society - you may want to root for
Grendel is a nihilist (a belief that life is pointless)
Cover - sadness/talking to God/anger/looking for an answer/depressing, lifeless
colors/looks like fire or flames/walking around a moor or a wasteland
Described in Beowulf - big, hairy, like a gorilla, 12 feet tall
Epilogue - Piece of writing at the beginning of a book that gives some insight into
the theme or plot --- Blake poem
Summaries ~
Aries the Ram
Chapter 1: Grendel reflects on the nearly twelve years he has been terrorizing
Hrothgar and his people
Taurus the Bull
Chapter 2: The flashback begins. Grendel remembers his “childhood,” when
he first left his mother’s cave to explore the world and encountered
men for the first time.
Gemini the Twins
Chapter 3: Grendel watchers Hrothgar’s kingdom expand and observed the
ways of human beings. He overhears the song of the Shaper, a
blind man who serves as the king’s poet/singer/historian. He is
deeply moved by the Shaper’s poetry and music.
Cancer the Crab
Chapter 4: Grendel comes to Hrothgar’s meadhall hoping to befriend the
human beings, but they attack him and drive him away.
Leo the Lion
Chapter 5: Disillusioned, Grendel meets with the dragon, who “converts”
Grendel to his nihilistic view of life.
Virgo the Virgin
Chapter 6: As a result of his meeting with the dragon, Grendel decides to
become Hrothgar’s enemy. He attacks Hrothgar’s meadhall for the
first time and humiliates the thane Unferth. Thus begins Grendel’s
twelve-year war with Hrothgar.
Ch. 1
Grendel was attacking Hrothgar’s people for 12 years
Alliteration - repetition of the same consonant sound Kennings - hyphenated metaphor
Calls his mother a “fat, fowl bulk” living in a “dingy, underground room”
She doesn’t speak
Foreshadowing - G. talks about meeting up with the fire-dragon
Sounds like the Grinch - despises the Whos while G. despises humankind
Author speaks like a “normal” person would
Build a funeral pyre - so they can sign to the dead men
How does Grendel feel about himself:
pities himself
thinks lowly
depressed
“stinks of dead men”
still is quite proud
How does Grendel feel about humankind:
dislikes
has some respect
likes the satisfaction of killing them
sickened by the fact that they think they’ve won
feels like he needs them
thinks that some of the rituals are useless
How does Grendel feel about life:
negative view
hates everything
pointless
confused (b/c his mom doesn’t talk)
depressed
nihilistic viewpoint
Adam & Eve have children:
Cain and Abel - Cain killed his twin brother b/c
he was jealous of the attention he got Ch 2
Bull never stops - he keeps trying
He can not think logically as a human can
CHARACTERIZATION:
Men (humankind) –
monstrous/aliens/determined/ants/dumb/bullies/pointless/superstitious
Grendel - Sarcastic/depressed/lonely/compassionate/normal
Grendel doesn’t want to kill, but he has to kill
“The world resists me and I resist the world”
Where was Grendel? Walking and got trapped between two trees – he got stuck
between the two trees
When we don’t understand something we lie/are judgmental/avoid it/jump to
conclusions – They think Grendel is a beastlike fungus
“‘Surround him! Save the horses,’ said the king. Suddenly I knew I was dealing
with no dull mechanical bull but with thinking creatures, pattern makers, the most
dangerous things I’d ever met” (27)
“I understood that the world was nothing: a mechanical chaos of casual, brute
enmity on which we stupidly impose our hopes and fears. I understand that,
finally and absolutely, I alone exist. All the rest, I saw, is merely what pushes
me, or what I push against, blindly – as blindly as all that is not myself pushes
back. I create the whole universe, blink by blink. – An ugly god pitifully dying in
a tree!” (20-21)
What is G thinking and why at that moment?
 Everything around him pushes him to do what he is doing
 He realizes that no one can really help him – the bull is all the problems
that he faces
 He starts to feel like he is all alone in the universe b/c he thinks whatever
he says is true
 He also thinks he is the only intelligent person in the world
 Everyone sees the world differently, so the universe really exists in our
minds
 He thinks nothing is important to him – including all of the other animals
Ch 3
*****handout*****
PASSAGE #1 - (pg. 33)
Per Grendel’s eyes:
Humans are wasteful/ruthless/selfish/ignorant/merciless/violent/savage
But the humans were sure to take the GOLD which show GREED
“The fallen hall was a square of flames and arid smoke, and the people inside
(none of them were eaten either) were burned black, small, like swarfs turned
dark and crisp.”
PASSAGE #2 - (pg. 39-40)
Grendel watches Hrothgar’s kingdom expand from the top of a mountainous hill all the places H. is conquering surrounds the hill and looks like a wobbly,
lopsided wheel
Humans are destructive (cut down forests/set fires/huge boars would run from
them)
Man has become the deadly animal - allowing their animals to destroy
nature(hedges, valleys, roots of what might have grown)
PASSAGE #3 - (pg. 43, 44)
Grendel becomes intrigued/memorized by the Shaper. Poetry has moved him making him feel things he has not before.
Shaper makes humans seem heroic/noble/patriotic/right/good
“Shapes” reality into what he wants people to remember
Ch 4 (handout)
“I listened [to the Shaper’s singing], felt myself swept up. I knew very well that all
he said was ridiculous….flattery, illusion…Yet I was swept up” (48)
Music touches him and he realizes he is connected to the humans
Everything the guy was saying is not true - yet he was intrigued
Reshapes reality/the world
G trips over a dead human being who had his throat slit - he grabs it and brings it
to the meadhall as a peace offering - but they all attack him and they would kill
him if they got a chance - G crushes the body he brought out of anger and tosses
it at them
“It was a cold-blooded it…cursed by the rules of the hideous fable” (55)
The things that the Shaper was saying was a lie and he doesn’t believe
what he says - he believes that the world is one big accident - but he still
wants to be a part of it
SHAPER:
Men (reality) - Selfish/greedy/wasteful/vicious/savage/ruthless/violent
Shaper makes humans seem heroic/noble/patriotic/right/good
Life is all a pointless accident - just like the stars b/c they are just randomly
placed/no pattern/no meaning and humans wanted them to be something more
so they made something up - - - Just like the Shaper comes and creates things
that are not true to make people believe and so they can make sense out of
things
Art - entertains us and makes us think - explains why?
(56) river symbolizes the flow of time - Does G take a physical or mental journey
Ch.5 (D-dragon, G-Grendel)
Does G really go to see the dragon?
D scares G and makes fun of him - G gets upset and picks up one of the D’s
jewels
“Now you know how they feel when they see you.”
The Dragon says he can see the past, present and future - and he knows what G
is thinking before he speaks -Shaper??
D is trying to instruct G - gives him answers to his questions
Time and Space - professor-like when he talks about life
D sits on gold - and tells G “seek out gold and sit on it”
Why doesn’t G ask questions to the D - but D doesn’t let him
There is really no point to existence - things just die - nothing matters
“Necessity is the mother of invention.”
Quote handout:
“You improve [the human]…..Ashes to ashes and slime to slime, amen.” (72-73)
 Reason the humans act the way they do is b/c of him
 Doesn’t matter if you scare them or not b/c it doesn’t matter anyway
 Gives humans reasons to explain the unexplainable
 Humans use things like war and G to “scare them to glory”
 Find meaning in art and culture
 G is like the beast in LOTF
o Beast gave the boys organization/religion
 What does fear do for a society?? = propels them forward so they can
think and survive - unites people
 G needs the humans and the humans need him
 Go ahead and scare them if you want - what you do with your time is your
choice
 Dragon only sits on his treasure all day and night
 If G stopped, humans would just find something to replace him
 They need each other - G would have nothing to do and nowhere to go
“Things come and go…Mere ripples in Time’s stream.” (70-71)
 Connection to Macbeths speech
o “signifying nothing” - “mere ripples in Time’s stream”
o Our time here is just a flicker
o “petty pace” - “terrible pity”
o What is going to happen is going to happen regardless of what we
bring to the table
o “out, out brief candle” - “no light,” “flicker of time,” “snuffed out”
If D could see the future - why doesn’t he stop G??
Even though he can SEE into the future, he can’t do anything about it - Maybe
that’s why he hates everything b/c he can’t do anything about it
Ch.6
Pgs- 75-80
“Nothing was changed, everything was changed, by my having seen the dragon.”
(75)
“But there was one thing worse. I discovered that the dragon had put a charm on
me: no weapon could cut me.” (79)
Everyone tried to attack G and G held a guard upside down and bit off his
head
G is finally realizing he is one of a kind and that he is a monster - giving
into what the dragon s saying
G has found some purpose in his life - an IDENTITY
Pgs. 80-86
“Another one came at me….trying to make his eyes focus” (81)
He is talking about the bleary eyed Geats trying to fight him - but they
couldn’t even come close
“’You can talk!’” (83)
We meet Unferth - He sees that G has something in common with humans
Pgs. 86-90
“I got more pleasure from that apple fight than any other battle in my life.” (86)
G humiliates Unferth by not allowing U to get near him
“I killed the two guards so I wouldn’t be misunderstood” (90)
Bringing Unferth back (he was trying to die a heroes death)G still
kills the two guards to show that he is
Unferth becomes a sort of pathetic joke b/c he can’t kill G and G won’t kill him