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by John Gardner (1971)
 Artists
in society and the power of art
 The importance of language
 Nihilism (the rejection of all morality)
 Death
 Heroism (a mortal force)
 Morality (the struggle between good and evil)
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Grendel both imitates and ridicules specific forms of
literature and authors
Beowulf—most of the plot and characters are borrowed
Grendel becomes a “case history of a bad artist” whose
words are constantly misunderstood; thus, he inspires acts
of violence v. the Shaper, who inspires great deeds.
Various character represent specific philosophies (Dragon,
Hrothulf, Red Horse, etc.)
 Twelve
chapters—twelve years of Grendel’s raids
and the twelve zodiacs
 Not chronological—flashbacks, allusions,
foreshadowing
 Tense—present tense is interspersed with the past
telling of events leading up to this twelfth year
 Each chapter represents a different branch of
philosophy
The text opens in April, the month of the ram. There is an
immediate concern with language:
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“Talking, talking. Spinning a web of words, pale dreams,
between myself and all I see”
Grendel’s mother lives in a cave—mute and beastlike
When Grendel is trapped in the tree, the most important
element is the encounter with the men, who speak a
language (Chapter 2)
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The summary of Grendel’s years watching the Danes, who
are slowly developing civilization (Chapter 3)
Hrothgar becomes powerful because he has a theory about
the purpose of war
The Shaper appears; he does more than make poetry; he
retells history and inspires men
Also, the Shaper names Grendel one of the race of Cain,
everything that is dark and evil—this is what Grendel
becomes
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Grendel visits the dragon, who tells him that the Shaper’s
words are an “illusion of reality,” leading men to believe that
there is meaning in the universe
The dragon denies the existence of God and meaning, and
advised Grendel to “seek out gold and sit on it”
Grendel discovers that the dragon has put a “curse” on
him: he can no longer be injured by men’s weapons
Grendel finds the “heroic” and idealistic Unferth, and in
acting in unexpected ways, completely humiliates the
would-be hero
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When Unferth seeks Grendel in his cave, Grendel knows
that life is meaningless
Grendel returns to engage in battle, and he returns Unferth
unharmed, “so much for heroism”
The arrival of Wealtheow (“holy servant of the common
good”) as a peace offering
 Hrothgar’s
nephew arrives after the murder of his
father
 Hrothulf’s resentful attitude and desire for power
allows Grendel to ponder “the idea of violence”
 The encounter with the priest leads to observations
about religion
 Grendel deals with boredom (Chapter 10)
 Strangers
arrive (Chapter 11)
 Beowulf tells him about the cycles of
existence before destroying him
“Though you murder the world […] Strong searching
roots will crack your cave and rain will cleanse it: The
world will burn green, sperm build again. My promise”
 However,
Grendel attributes his end to a
random accident
 First
encounter with men, “the most dangerous
things” (Chapter 2)
 Grendel is trapped in a tree
 The men think that he is a fungus at first, and then
a spirit that eats pigs
 The king, in fear, attacks him with an ax
 He is saved by his mother
 Men are dangerous because “they think and
scheme”
 Grendel
is emotionally affected by the songs, the
lies (Chapter 3)
 He feels torn between what he observes (i.e.,
reality) and what he hears (i.e., the beauty and
idealism)
 Hearing
that he, himself, is considered the dark
side of creation, he wishes to convert (Chapter 4)
 He goes to the mead-hall, calling for mercy and
peace, but is attacked
 He wishes for someone to talk to
 He returns because he is addicted
 He wants the songs to be true, even if he has to be
the outcast
 The
dragon says that Grendel inspires and
improves the Danes (Chapter 5)
 That if there were no Grendel, they would invent
one—they need the monster
 Thus, Grendel is irrelevant
 It makes no difference if he stops or not
Grendel at first feels that the charm causes his
enemies’ defeat (Chapter 6)
 Then, he realizes that he has nothing to fear and
nothing to stop him, so his raids become inevitable
 He discovers the charm when he accidentally runs
into a guard, trips, and is not hurt by the sword
 He discovers a reason for his existence—he is now
“Ruiner of Mead-halls, Wrecker of Kings”
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 Grendel’s
feelings?
 Beowulf’s trick?
 Grendel’s defense of Beowulf’s superiority?
 The whispering?
 Explanation for defeat?
 Amplifies fight details?
 Beowulf’s image?
 Grim humor?
 Both
Grendel and Unferth exhibit characteristics of
the anti-hero
He murders and cannot be punished
 He sneaks around at night, spying
 He makes fun of the Danes and rejects all that they
stand for
 He searches for answers, but can find only
meanness
 He is crude, but not stupid or dishonest (he is
successful in his feud, but a failure at finding
happiness)
 He says that he is angry very often
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1-3 do not fit—while he did kill his brother, he has made
restitution according to the law
 4 He tries for greater heroism in chasing Grendel, but
is forced to achieve an ideal that the Danes do not
understand
 5 He seems a failure as a hero, yet achieves an even
more difficult kind of heroism by not giving up even
when faced with humiliation (did not commit fraud and
stupid mistakes in the past)
 Yes, he is angry
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 Hrothgar
 Unferth
 Wealtheow
 Beowulf
 Grendel
says that “tedium is the worst pain” as the
sun walks overhead
 He waits for the Shaper to die
 The chapter is filled with references to the past and
a dark future
 Times passes slowly and boringly
 That
the Danes are fooled by the Shaper’s lies
 That Unferth is a fool for clinging to his heroic
ideals
 That his war with Hrothgar is “an idiotic war”
(Chapter 1)
 That he, himself, is a “pointless, ridiculous
monster” (Chapter 1)
 Grendel
describes himself as a shadow (Chapter
10) and as walking around the edges of the world,
outside the mead-hall at dusk
 Grendel plays a game of looking at himself as he
postures, as standing outside himself (Chapter 1)
 Also, Hrothulf’s arrival and encounter with the
Priest read like scenes from a play
 Grendel
says often that he is stupid and that life is
meaningless (and he tells the story)
 He whispers and cannot be understood by the
Danes (his language is older)
 His voice is too loud and frightful to be understood
 His killings, an expression of anger and the
meaning of his tale that he summarizes at the
close of Chapter 10: “Nihil ex nihilo”—“nothing
comes from nothing”