Grendel's Misunderstood In Beowulf

We are introduced to Grendel and his mother in the poem, Beowulf, and come to consider them to be monsters because they eat people without defeat. The only man who can kill them is Beowulf because Beowulf is known to have the strength of many men in each of his hands. Grendel and his mother are described as huge, indestructible creatures that terrorize the humans. In the novel, Grendel, we learn that Grendel may not be such a monster after all. Grendel has the ability to understand and communicate with humans, and he desires connections with them although the humans are afraid of him. Grendel and his mother are outcasted by the humans because of their physical appearance and obvious strength, but Grendel appears to

In the poem, Grendel is painted as a savage monster, with no regard to human life. The Danes often refer to him as Cain’s descendant, and state that for the crime of killing Abel Grendel will never feel God’s love and henceforth is an outcast. “...Conceived by a pair of those monsters born Of Cain, murderous creatures banished By God, punished forever for the crime Of Abel’s death….and their exile was bitter, Shut away from men…” (Beowulf, lines 20-25). This form of Grendel is a murderous beast who only knows slaughter of men for the sake of murder, stating that he, “...fought with the righteous...seeking no peace, offering no truce…” (Beowulf, lines 59 and 69). However, the novel shows Grendel in a much different way than he is portrayed in the poem. While still a monster, Grendel shows his higher intelligence and human-like qualities through his thoughts. In the beginning of the novel Grendel shows that he is capable of forming coherent thoughts and speaking quite fluently, and thus is far more sophisticated than the mindless monster portrayed in the poem. This being said, Grendel does not hate the Danes at the beginning, even attempting to make peace by stating, “Mercy! Peace!” (Grendel 51), but denied the role of friend, he accepts the role of enemy and thus begins the war with the Danes.

In both works, Beowulf and Grendel, Grendel himself is generally given the same connotations. He is given kennings, called names, referred to as the evil spawn of Cain, and even viewed as a monster; but why? Why in both books is he a wicked, horrible, person who is harshly excluded from everyone? After stumbling upon John Gardner's book, it was halfway expected that some excuse would be made for Grendel; that he wasn't really the inexorable monster the thanes in Beowulf portrayed him as. But all it really did was make him worse. What is the message we are being sent about Grendel?

Despite the element of relatedness that Grendel and the men may share through their common language, the men do not accept Grendel and therefore Grendel reciprocates this rejection. By Grendel discrediting the purpose of the outside world he is further enhancing his own self-worth within the world because he is recognizing himself as greater than man. When Grendel returns to his cave after his interaction with man, he wants to tell his mother all that he discovered, however she has forgotten how to speak and can not respond to Grendel. Even though she could not reply, Grendel continued to talk to her, "trying to smash through the walls of her unconsciousness" (27).

Being misunderstood is not against the norm for anyone in life. At some point or another humans will feel different from those around them, and while Grendel is not human he is no different. Despite executing years worth of raids, it is evident Grendel is a sympathetic Outcast due to his mother’s actions, his experience with the men in the forest, and the tales the scops sing of Grendel.

The relationship between Hall and Grendel’s mother monstrosity has been actively debated for a long time. In this paper, I will argue how Grendel’s mother’s mere affects the mother’s monstrosity. I think that the contrast between mere and Heorot indicates that the mere represents a mock kingdom. However, Grendel’s mother did not complete her role as king. Ambiguously, mere can be considered as hell.

In the novel Grendel and the epic poem Beowulf the reader receives a better experience through a first person point of view. In John Gardner's Grendel which is written in first person the reader is constantly engaged. The authors use of first person provides the reader of Grendel’s thoughts and emotion. While, in the epic poem Beowulf which is written in 3rd person does not give the reader any personal connection.

Despite the way humanity treats Grendel, Grendel is a very social being. Grendel attempts to socialize with the people, but they are too fearful to be around him and speak with him. During his first confrontation with humans, Grendel yells, “‘Pig!’ I tried to yell. It scared them…The king snatched an ax from the man beside him and, without any warning, he hurled it at me. … ‘You’re all crazy,’ I tried to yell, but it came out as a moan” (Gardner 27). The thanes that attacked Grendel started speaking to him first, because they thought he was a tree spirit, so Grendel attempted to speak with them also; however, the people were petrified of Grendel. Although Grendel attempts to speak

Grendel was a character that was widely misunderstood in the book Grendel by John Gardner he was portrayed in the book as a gruesome beast when in reality all he had wished his entire life was to fit in. Throughout this story Grendel feels he has no friends in the outside world and no one to accept him besides his own mother. He doesn’t want to accept his role in society of being the Great Destroyer described to him by the dragon. Man creates a huge problem in Grendel’s life and has had a major effect on the way he lives with man. Grendel in his heart never truly wanted to be destructive; it was the rejection of mankind that changed his view on his life.

In most stories, it is easy to determine who the monster is. Dementors from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, Scylla from Homer’s Odyssey, and the Balrog from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings make it easy to see who the hero is and who the monster is. On the other hand, the anonymous poet of Beowulf does not make this distinction as clearly. The poet creates an ambiguous feeling throughout the epic that makes it unclear whether Beowulf is the hero of men that he is praised to be or a monster in disguise that uses his unnatural strength to murder his enemies. In Beowulf, the line between humanity and monstrosity is blurred as Grendel and his mother take on human attributes, while Beowulf takes on monstrous ones.

In Beowulf, each monster is given multiple human characteristics. Grendel, Grendel’s Mother, and the dragon all show human emotions and characteristics towards something or someone throughout the poem. Each of the monsters’ characteristics relate to the overall themes of the poem. The monsters in Beowulf, demonstrating anger and revenge, prove to obtain human characteristics through professing multiple feelings and emotions. Grendel demonstrates anger towards the townsfolk throughout the beginning of the poem.

Whenever grendel is around people, he has a natural inclination to dislike them because they do not Grendel as he is. Grendel’s mother can speak and understand little amount of the human language and due to the unfair treatment from society, Grendel hates his mother. He thinks she is going to become like society and deep down, feels she will leave him too. This is why he is always picking fights with her, yelling at her, or showing disgust. Due to the isolation he creates, Grendel suffers from attachment issues and a lack of connection. This lack of connection to the public, leaves Grendel with his thoughts and self doubt. He is left alone. “I understand that the world was nothing: a mechanical chaos of casual, brute enmity on which we stupidly impose our hopes and fears. I understood 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.” ― John Gardner, Grendel

Children typically bear some physical resemblance to at least one of their parents. The child may have the same skin color, facial expressions or height as his or her parent. Could this be the same for behavioral traits? Are behavioral traits likewise inherited? Or, are they learned? In other words, do behavioral traits come from nature (inherited) or from nurture (learned)? This question can be applied to “Grendel,” a murderous monster a in the epic poem of “Beowulf,” Was Grendel born a monster? Or, was he raised to be a monster? Or, are his monstrous behaviors a result of both nature and nurture? Descriptions of Grendel from the “Beowulf” poem give evidence that his monstrous behavior was a result of both nature and nurture; a

In Grendel, the story is told from Grendel's point of view. Therefore he is not viewed as a killing machine. In Beowulf however, it is the exact opposite. Grendel is seen as a monster who is terrorizing Hrothgar's people. The way Grendel is portrayed in Grendel is different from the way he is portrayed in Beowulf regarding his initiative and purpose. Grendel is portrayed the same in both stories when it comes to his actions and his nature.

     Contrasting points of view in Grendel and Beowulf significantly alter the reader’s perception of religion, good and evil, and the character Grendel. John Gardner’s book, Grendel, is written in first person. The book translated by Burton Raffel, Beowulf, is written in third person.