Beowulf from Grendel's Perspective
One night, as Grendel was sleeping soundly in his home in the swamplands, he was suddenly awakened by the sound of music. The music angered Grendel because he had been up late the night before entertaining his monster friends and was in need of his beauty rest. So he headed out the front door and headed to see what the commotion is all about.
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Upon arrival at the mead hall, Grendel notices the door is much to small for him to enter through it easily. This does not make him happy because it happens everywhere he goes in the little human towns. So he squeezes his shoulders through the small opening and manages to ask the man at the nearest table what was going on. The man, being exhausted from his own celebrations, was to tired to even notice the beast standing over him. Monsters of Grendel's type are not used to be ignored and see it as disrespectful and so do not like to be ignored. Which is why Grendel pulled his head from the doorway and reached his claw in to snatch up unsuspecting man. Everyone else in the room was too busy to even notice the man being lifted from his place behind his drink. With the first man out of the way, Grendel decided to try a different approach. Again, scrunching himself down partway through the door, Grendel looked for someone to tell him what was going on. He cleared his throat and said with a rough, gravelly voice, "Excuse me!" No one noticed. So he said it louder, "Excuse me!" A few heads turned. After a number of astonished gasps, more turned to see. Detecting he was now the center of attention, Grendel asked what they were all doing making so much noise so late at night. The men only stared at him. So he asked more simply and slowly, not knowing if they were intelligent or not, "What are you doing?" The only response this time was an echoed "Get him!" This surprised Grendel because they seemed to say it in unison. He jumped slightly and hit his head on the doorway. He stood up and rubbed his head and knocked over a horse and its cart with his foot.
A building is ablaze and a crowd of people stare helplessly from the streets, listening to screams coming from within. A single person runs in to rescues whomever he or she can find. Whether or not that person emerges with a child in their arms, empty handed, or not at all, does nothing to alter our society’s perception of their heroism. Today’s society would classify such an action as heroic, regardless of outcome, for one reason: intentions. During Anglo-Saxton times the interpretation of such an act, based on the tale Beowulf, would not be so understanding of what was intended, but rather of the outcome. If one perished and failed in an attempt of such a heroic act words like weakness might arise. It is here that the clash of what a hero is occurs between the Anglo-Saxton tale Beowulf and John Gardner’s Grendel. Beowulf in Beowulf is a hero for he defeats evil and restores order to and for the common people. Unferth in Grendel however is unsuccessful in his campaign against evil, but like the man who emerges empty handed he is by no means any less of a hero. For heroism, as demonstrated in the Anglo-Saxton tale Beowulf, is altered in Gardner’s Grendel to convey the idea that intentions define a hero as opposed to actions.
Years after his encounter with Grendel, Hrothgar's power and influence grow until he rules an immense territory. He builds a glorious meadhall, the greatest in the land, and names it Herot. He builds roads to connect his kingdom and hires an immensely gifted Harper to play at special occasions. Grendel is fascinated by the Harper's music and tries to join the humans, but he is attacked by the frightened guards and must flee. Feeling lonely and rejected, he visits an ancient dragon that lives within the kingdom. The dragon speaks for some time, and his wicked, tired cynicism infects Grendel. He puts a charm on the young monster, making him impervious to human blades. After this, Grendel becomes a creature of pure destruction. At the onset of each subsequent spring, Grendel carries out several raids on Hrothgar's meadhall. He is very careful about this, leaving just enough men behind to rebuild and grow for the next spring.
“Poor Grendel’s had an accident… so may you all” (174) were the last words uttered by Grendel, a monster with human-like traits, before he passes away following his fateful battle with Beowulf, a strong warrior from The Land of the Geats. The novel Grendel by John Gardner is inspired by epic Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, and is told through the perspective of Grendel, on his journey through life and his discovery of his purpose through the events he lives through. In this chapter, Grendel fights Beowulf, and meets his ultimate fate, freeing him from the endless, mechanical cycle in which he finds himself trapped.
Grendel has the intent of getting back at Hrothgar but also realizes that the Danes do not deserve his sympathy and the fact that they live selfishly and innocently makes him act violently towards them. When Grendel first encounters humans and the outside world, he gets enraged when they behave badly, act angrily towards one other, use up natural resources for their own selfish purposes, and only care about wealth. Grendel also encounters the Shaper, who sings songs about lies and uses this “weapon” to manipulate Grendel's mind. Grendel listens to the Shaper's lie and conflicted he says, “It was a cold-blooded lie that a god had lovingly made the world and set out the sun and moon as lights to land-dwellers...Yet he, the old Shaper, might make it true, by the sweetness of his harp, his cunning trickery. It came to me with a fierce jolt that I wanted it. As they did too, though vicious animals, cunning cracked with theories, I wanted it, yes! Even if I must be the outcast, cursed by the rules of his hideous fable.” (55) Grendel after observing the humans realizes that none of what the Shaper said was true. Even though Grendel knew that the Shaper's words were mere flattery and should disbelieve what the Shaper muttered, he was still deeply touched by the words, tempted by their beauty, and tricked into having a strong positive outlook on his role
The soldiers were having an epic time that night in the Danes, until Grendel heard the happy and joyful music. Grendel was very cold-hearted and did not want to see anyone happy. He hated the music they were playing and decided to attack the Danes and kill every soldier he saw. He attacked the soldiers while they were awake. However, the soldiers tried to fight Grendel off as hard as they could, he was just too powerful for them. Beowulf then came to protect the Danes and fight off the demon Grendel. Therefore, Grendel tried to run off and when Beowulf caught him, Grendel spoke before Beowulf ripped his arm
The story begins with a flash-back into Grendel’s early years. He is all alone even then, but he is too young to realize it and fills this void with imaginary friends. He talks about how he entertained himself during his early years saying “Crafty-eyed, wicked as an elderly wolf, I would scheme with or stalk my imaginary friends, projecting the self I meant to become into every dark corner of the cave and the woods above” (17). People in our world may invent imaginary friends also, sometimes for companionship, as part of play, or for other reasons. Imaginary friends can serve as an important source of companionship to some children and even adults, especially if companionship is absent for them in the social world. As an example “young children in boarding schools often develop imaginary friends to cope with extreme stress and separation from their intimate relations” (www.phycologytoday.com/z10/fl/mllr.7se.php)
The epic poem, Beowulf, focuses on how the forces of light and darkness are always at war, just as God and the Devil fought and God won. Grendel just sits in his cave with nothing to do all day, which explains why he is so grumpy all of the time. Grendel behaves as though he were grounded. Because people already think Grendel is scary, he might as well act scary. Monsters have no life whatsoever. Just like how wolfs act so mean and scary.
as men. She has been sleeping down in her dark and dingy cave below the world
Grendel is made fun of his whole life just based on the way he looks and sounds. All Grendel wanted was to have friends and be included in things, however he is shunned and is forced into hiding in a cave far away from everyone. When the mead hall is opened everyone is invited and welcomed to come and have a good time except Grendel. This makes Grendel very upset and he becomes filled with rage. Instead of going and telling the king how that made him feel he decides to speak with his actions. Grendel goes to the mead hall and goes on a rampage killing and breaking everything and everyone in his way. Grendel did this because of how he was treated as a child both by society and his mother. Through his childhood his mother was never really there when Grendel needed her the most. On night Grendel went out on his own and got stuck in a tree. Grendel screamed for his mother "Please, Mama!”, "Owp!" I yelled. "Mama! Waa!" but she didn’t come. Time past as Grendel sat stuck in the tree until a group of men came up to the tree. The sat there on their horses staring at grendel saying things like "It's a growth of some kind, that's my opinion. Some beastlike fungus.” The men discussed what it could be until one got off his horse and said “Could be its some kind of an Oaktree spirit.” They came to the conclusion that he was hungry so the men went to get pigs. When the men left Grendel laughed because he was happy to get food. The men thought that the sound meant he was angry and moved back, then without any warning one of them picked up an ax and hurled it right at Grendel. He screamed “Surround him!” they started throwing rocks and poking Grendel with sticks, he yelled for his mother again and again and finally she came. Grendel’s mother came running in screaming and roaring. The men got so scared they hoped on their horses and rode home without looking back. The way Grendel was treated as a child has a direct
He is described as a monster, demon, and a fiend. Grendel has swift, hard claws, and enormous teeth that snatch the life out of his victims, which are numerous. This “shadow of death” not only kills; he drinks the blood of his prey. His forefather, Cain, was also known for this fiendish act. Just as Grendel is an outcast, so Cain was cast out of the Garden of Eden. To the Anglo-Saxons, the worst crime a person could commit was the crime of fratricide, the killing of one’s own brother. Their society and culture was structured around themes of brotherhood and kinship. The mead Hall, Herot, was a symbol of peace. It was a place where warriors gathered in a spirit of brotherhood and harmony to celebrate. Grendel was jealous and enraged by the festivities and the sound of laughter that he kept hearing while he was alone in his mere.
Grendel is confused for a long time as to why the people ostracize him, and eventually he turns to violence to cope with it and to feel better. The chaos when Grendel arrives is described as: “a panic after dark, people endured raids in the night, riven by terror” in which “all were endangered” (192 / 193, 159). The mere reason for Grendel’s raids on the people of Heorot is because they ostracize him and make him feel like an outcast. Grendel’s revenge on the townspeople shows that exclusion never does anyone good, it can only harm people. This demonstrates the consequences of society’s inclination to judge people, and how it can hurt the one judging more than the one being
The story is told from Grendel’s point of view. From his perspective you can gather that he is not the horrible, violent monster that everybody makes him out to be. He is actually just as scared as the humans are. On page 30 of Grendel, Grendel states that it wasn’t because he threw that battle-ax that he turned on Hrothgar. He said that was mere midnight foolishness and he dismissed it. This shows that Grendel is not out there to harm them, he is an innocent being.
Grendel throughout the book is in constant isolation with the human world and his own. In the realm that Grendel is from, the monsters and beasts do not obtain the intelligence to speak with Grendel, which Grendel himself seems to be far more intelligent than them. Grendel’s own mother in the story cannot even speak with him she relies on an emotional response for when she feels he is distressed, she holds him like you would hold a baby or she stares blankly at him when he questions her about the world even when he was a child. There was only one time that Grendel’s mother really did try to speak with him and all she said was, “drool drool.” In the human world Grendel is curious about human philosophies and understandings of the world around them but he is continually isolated from them because every encounter with mankind he has, even when he is a child, ends with them chasing him off or trying to kill him. Mankind misunderstands him and chase him away even with his first encounter with them as a child in the tree. The men think he is a God that they need to feed, which he laughs at, making the men think that Grendel is angry so they try to kill him. Thankfully Grendel’s mother comes and saves him from the men but she still never speaks to him. Grendel realizes and acknowledges even when he was a child that he and mankind are very similar creatures that is why I believe that he constantly revisits the communities
This book shows how Grendel put up with man and learned to adapt to the
Grendel is an unhappy soul in John Gardner's book "Grendel", because he feels useless in society and doesn't want to accept his given role. Throughout this whole book Grendel feels he has no friend in the outside word and no one to except him besides his own mother. He doesn't want to except his role in society which is to be the Great Destroyer. Man creates a huge problem in Grendel's life and has had a major effect on the way he lives with man. Grendel is unhappy in many ways. He wants to be accepted by man but never knew why he was always shunned out of their society.