The bones in his teeth crunched like they were made of toothpicks. The boy hadn’t been much of a feast. Scrawny, boney, and barely even a young man, Grendel made quick work of him. The reptile’s tongue trailed across his teeth and his lips, cleaning the last remnants of blood from his face. While satisfied, the beast knew that he would soon hunger for more. Seeing what he had seen earlier, Grendel knew that more would succumb to peer pressure and make the dangerous, last trip into the forest, much as their companion had...
“They say that if you go to the wood’s edge, the beast will find you and eat you alive,” the young man’s voice carried to Grendel’s ears. The reptile snorted. Since his last feeding, he had become somewhat of an urban legend around these parts. He found it quite amusing.
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The yellow and orange flames danced in the darkness and cast flickering light on nearby trees. Sounds of waves lapping at the nearby ocean shore mingled with the crackling of the burning driftwood. Their campsite wasn’t far; a short trek up the beach. There were about five of them that Grendel could see from his position behind a fairly tall bush.
“What was that?” a trembling voice asked.
“What? I didn 't hear anything,” another said and raised his shoulders in a shrug. The tallest boy, who appeared to be about 17, smirked. This was their ringleader, Grendel realized, as he watched them all turn towards him to listen to his voice.
“Are you scared?” he teased. Even in the scarce lighting, Grendel could see the boy’s face had flushed a dark crimson. The other teenagers snickered. This only served to make the young man’s expression shift to a scowl at the elder
“I wanted it, yes! Even if I must be the outcast,” (55). This is after Grendel has listened to the Shaper’s story about Cain and Abel. Grendel learns that he is the cursed descendant of Cain and is forever destined to be a monster. At first, he didn’t want to believe that is was true but after a while, he gladly accepted the role thus creating his own meaning. “I was Grendel, Ruiner of Meadhalls, Wrecker of Kings!” (80). This is when Grendel is experiencing his newfound invincibility to the humans and their weapons and he is tormenting them. After he visits the dragon in Chapter 5, Grendel has a renewed sense of confidence of who he is - which is a monster. In Chapter 6, he continues to terrorize the Danes and pursuing his monstrous desires. Grendel is acting upon his role as the monster because after speaking to the dragon, he realizes that nothing can stop
...n very human feelings of resentment and jealousy. Grendel was an unstable and saddened figure because of his outcast status. Though Grendel had many animal attributes and a grotesque, monstrous appearance, he seemed to be guided by vaguely human emotions and impulses. He truthfully showed more of an interior life than one might expect. Exiled to the swamplands outside the boundaries of human society, Grendel’s depiction as an outcast is a symbol of the jealousy and hate that seeks to destroy others' happiness and can ultimately cripple a civilization. This take on the outcast archetype ultimately exposes the Anglo Saxon people’s weaknesses, their doubts and anxieties towards the traditional values that bounded nearly every aspect of their life.
Grendel’s last words were, “Poor Grendel’s had an accident...So may you all.” Grendel’s last thoughts were confusion, confusion whether it was joy what he felt, or if it was only terror what abounded in his heart. The animals gathered around him , and he said, “They watch on, evil, incredibly stupid, enjoying my destruction” (Gardner 174). Grendel noticed the animals’ reaction towards his suffer. Therefore, Grendel’s last words meant to affect the animals gathered around him mainly, because they were contemplating his death as an enjoyful success.
Grendel, surprisingly, adapts quite well to his society despite its detestation of his existence. Grendel live is a rattlesnake-guarded cave, which allows himself to detach from his society, giving him the necessary space to cope with the troublesome thoughts among his people about Grendel. Unlike Frankenstein, Grendel tries to associate with the members of his civilization but is rejected every time he tries to do so. Every night Grendel goes to Herot to listen to the Sharper’s stories because the history interests him. He is quite intrigued and appreciative of the tales he hears, but when he comes in contact with those from Herot, they do not reciprocate the appreciation of his presence in Herot. The ones he admires so much taunt and torture him to the point they try to kill him for “intruding.” As retaliation, Grendel fights back and raids Herot every night.
Throughout the novel, this monster, Grendel, seems confused as to whether he wants to view life like his existentialistic dragon mentor, or like the ignorantly optimistic humans on which he feeds. At times he is captivated by the romantic songs of the Shaper, and feels no desire to kill, while at others he thrives on the "knowledge" of the dragon, and goes on bloody rampages. At one point during Grendel's insecure state, the dragon tells him something that changes his outlook, and gives him a new feeling of self-worth.
He does not act like the blood hungry beast he is seen as in Beowulf. In
Greetings, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. We present to you today Grendel, a creature accused of crimes of monstrosity. We stand before you today to prove to you that the accused is indeed guilty of such crime for which the penalty should be death at the hands of a suitable hero. Through the display of evidence and facts, we will validate our allegation and prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Grendel is absolutely who he is accused to be. For the past twelve years, Grendel has tormented the Danes with terror as he demolished their mead hall and cruelly killed their men. He killed without regret or remorse, and even took pleasure in terrorizing, killing, and eating them. A cease to this abomination’s terror came to be when a great hero
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.
Throughout the novel Grendel by John Gardner, the monster Grendel has many different encounters that change his view on the world. Whether it was through nihilism, existentialism, or idealism Grendel was influenced in many ways by all of them. The monster Grendel starts out as an existentialist, but morphs into a nihilist after he talks to the most nihilistic character in the book, the dragon. Influenced through nihilism, existentialism, and idealism Grendel is reshaped and sculpted into a new thing entirely.
Grendel is born a neutral being, perhaps even good, but nevertheless, without hate. The transition which he undergoes to become evil is due to misunderstandings between himself and humans and also meeting with a dragon who is questionably evil. As a young “monster”, Grendel knew nothing other than the cave he lived in and his mother who could not speak any distinguishable language. He was a playful creature who seemed to be like a “bla...
As we prepared ourselves, we had finally come to the day we were ready to set out. We arrived, and that night I was in a dream-spell trying to wake myself. Finally, I awoke to find Grendel standing dark against the dark night and fog that swept in as he opened the door. Grendel had swooped down and tore apart one of my earls limb from limb. Unable to move, I was helpless, until I caught Grendels milky white eyes staring at me. I jumped up and we battled, silently, in the foggy hall of Heorot. We battled until I finally twisted Grendels arm and it deteriorated,
John Gardner’s Grendel portrays a monster searching for his purpose in life. The characters know the meaning of their lives, but Grendel tries to discover his role and what life has to offer him. Grendel discovers his identity through other characters’ actions and beliefs. In Grendel, John Gardner illustrates the contrasting views of each character to show their view of society and the influence they have on Grendel.
as men. She has been sleeping down in her dark and dingy cave below the world
While the monsters of the poem are the antagonists of the poem, the author still manages to make the reader feel traces of sympathy for them. Grendel’s human depiction, exile and misery tugs at the heart of readers and indeed shows a genuine side to the figure, while Grendel’s mother and the dragon are sympathetic mainly because they were provoked into being attacked over things they both had a deep affection for. Their actions make us question whether they are as evil as they seem.
Although Grendel is depicted as a hideous bloodthirsty beast because he eats the Danes at Heorot continuously, he has some characteristics of a human gone wild. Grendel possesses the ability to feel human emotions such as envy and fear. When the Danes were having a feast in Heorot, Grendel “had dwelt for a time in misery among the banished monsters, Cain’s clan, whom the creator outlawed and condemned as outcasts”(104-106). He feels envy towards the Danes for making him an outcast of society. He was jealous of the Danes that were having a great time together while he had to live a life of misery alone. Grendel feels fear as well as envy because “he was overwhelmed, manacled tight by the man who of all men was foremost and strongest in the days of this life”(787-789). During the battle between Grendel and the hero Beowulf, Grendel was unprepared for Beowulf’s fighting tactics. He, who usually is victorious after each attack in Heorot, did not expect to be defeated by Beowulf, which is shown because “his fingers weakened; it was the worst trip the terror-monger had taken to Heorot”(764-765). When Beowulf leaves his weapon and decides to wrestle Grendel, Grendel realizes that he is no match for Beowulf’s strength. He feared death just as human are afraid of death. An ordinary person would want to flee if he or she was being wrestled to the ground and about to die. Grendel felt like fleeing but Beowulf did not want to lose any opportunities to kill the villain and thus does the deed in one go. When he realizes that his end was near, “the dread of the land was desperate to escape, to take a roundabout road and flee to his lair in the fens”(761-763). Just as humans in their psychoanalytic development, Grendel had a fight or flight response. When he knew that he was going to die he immediately chose the flight response in which he could not do because Beowulf was much more powerful and aggressive. He does not let Grendel escape. Grendel’s pain is all the more acute because he is brought so close to mankind and yet always kept at an unbreachable distance from society.