What Does Grendel's Last Words Mean To Be A Curse?

He is overcome by the Sharper’s song and approaches them with the body trying to show a good gesture. However when he approaches them, he describes it as a sudden attack. He mentions that his approach with the dead body would provoke them by saying that there are other interpretations, but his version is the truth. Grendel says, “ I staggered out into the open and up toward the hall with my burden, groaning out, ‘Mercy! Peace!’ The harper broke off, the people screamed. (They have their own versions, but this is the truth)” (51-52). His opinionated and partial version of the truth is another cause for concern, to the reader, of Grendel’s reliability as a narrator. Furthermore, Grendel interjects his opinions about the meaning of life, humans, and nature throughout the story. This is clear evidence from Gardner that Grendel’s reliability, as a narrator, is questionable. Grendel’s use of stream of consciousness in his narration introduces additional flaws, which further degrades the reader’s trust in the

Through out the story, the reader constantly questions Grendel's actions, for one moment he seems like the horrible creature, as he maims and kills innocents, for no apparent reason, however at other times he knows he must do the right thing, and not be that evil monster. Such as when he rushes the meadhall, and goes after the Queen, Wealtheow, the same woman he that he saw throwing himself at her feet. "I decided to kill her. I firmly committed myself to

He puts the entirety of his trust into a man whose sole purpose is to manipulate those around him. This act shows Grendel’s desperation to find answers and the vulnerability hidden behind his beastly appearance. He falls for the magic in the Shaper's words. The way he so easily persuades the Danes, he persuades Grendel. "And I, Grendel, was the dark side, he said in effect. The terrible race God cursed. I believed him. Such was the power of the Shaper's harp!" (Gardner 51) Grendel is to be the monster, cursed by God, and sentenced to a life of misery and isolation. This is evident in Grendel’s relationship with his mother. There is the language barrier that separates two similar creatures. Just as the biblical story of the Tower of Babel, where a magnificent building could never be finished because of a “curse” given by God, the relationship between mother and son, a relationship just as magnificent, is prevented from developing. Grendel is alone, and he is fully aware of why, yet he still questions it, " 'Why can't I have someone to talk to?' I said. The stars said nothing, but I pretended to ignore the rudeness" (Gardner 53). He is not satisfied, and because of this, comes to hate the God who cursed him; slowly falling victim to

When readers are introduced to Grendel, he is a melodramatic creature who has no one to truly understand him. His emotions contribute to Grendel is caught in situations where he tries to interact but there is a barrier. When he encounters humans they fear him because of how violent he is or seems to be, but they retaliate with the same violence. The irony in this passage is that humans are attacking him because

Like many whom suffer the same disorder, Grendel completely changed his mind, extending from one topic to the exact opposite. He goes against his own ideas as if he were two totally opposing characters. He also always thought the dragon was near. Grendel allowed the ways and beliefs of the dragon to get in his head. He would claim he could “smell the dragon’s scent” whenever something sinister occurred. All of these symptoms, in addition to the isolation from Hrothgar’s people lead to the overall cause in withdrawal from society. Grendel’s emotional disturbances caused him to react completely unreasonable and rather foolish many times within his life.

Grendel’s violence stems from his belief that all things in the universe, including people, have no reason to exist. After meeting the dragon, an omniscient creature with knowledge of the past and the future, Grendel tries to change his own ways by repressing his animal nature and not harming the humans. The dragon asserts that everything that the humans do in the search for meaning, including religion and art, is pointless. During the talk, the dragon suggests to Grendel that he should find something tangible in the world and hold on to it, saying “my advice to you, my violent friend, is to seek out gold and sit on it.” (Gardner 74).

"The mountains are what I define them as.... What I see I inspire with usefulness... and all that I do not see is useless, a void." [28-29] Grendel then sees that the world is how he views it, and his senses make up everything: reality is dynamic. This important conclusion leads him to begin to look around him and form thoughts and opinions on all that he sees, as well as placing him at the first step down the road of the cynical death he suffers. His first impressions

In a world of chaos, he who lives, lives by his own laws and values. Who is to say that the death of millions is any worse or better, for that matter, than injuring a cockroach. And in the case of an existing power in the form of God, who is presumed to be all which is good, presiding and ruling an organized universe, why then does evil exist? The prosaic response of “without evil, there is no good” no longer holds any validity in this argument as the admitted goal of good is to reach an existence without evil. So even if a God does exist, I think it is fair, at this point, to say that he is the embodiment of both good and evil. And if humoring those who would answer the previous question with the response that there can be no good

“That shadow of death hunted in the darkness, stalked Hrothgar 's warriors, old and young, lying in waiting, hidden in mist, invisibly following them from the edge of the marsh, always there, unseen” (Beowulf 2: Line 74). Grendel was smart and a slithery serpent. He did not wish

In the novel, Grendel by John Gardener, Grendel is a human-like creature capable of rational thought as well as feeling emotions. Early on in the story Gardener depicts Grendel as being very observant, critical and somewhat spiteful of the world around him. He describes himself as a murderous monster who smells of death and crouches in the shadows. Grendel watches the humans from the shadows of the trees and at first it seems as though they are the real monsters, slaughtering and pillaging all for the sake of their leaders and for power. This light that the humans are put in gives Grendel a certain charisma about him, making him seem like the one to side with in this novel. Later in the story, however, things change. Grendel seeks out the

The poem does not give this insight of what happens before, or from Grendel's point of view. Seeing this scene in the movie gives the audience a better understanding of why Grendel and also his mother attack the Danes. Later in the movie Beowulf says, "He's no more human than you and I", which is true. If the Danes didn’t kill Grendel's father, the outcome of the story could have possibly been changed because Grendel would have had a different life and not seek revenge on the Danes, specifically the one who Grendel had seen kill his father. In the poem Grendel fights Beowulf, rather than avoiding Beowulf most of the time in the movie. In the poem, Grendel is seen as an evil monster that kills and eats the Hrothgar warriors and cannot be penetrated by weapons, rather than just human, or troll, like the movie. When the battle with Grendel occurs in the poem, it is said that Beowulf had cut off his arm to defeat him. While in the movie, Grendel finds himself stuck hanging, and must cut off his own arm to escape from Beowulf and his men. Both the movie and poem result in the death of Grendel, eventually leading to the revenge of his mother.

The mood grows even stronger by the last paragraph of the chapter, when it becomes clear that Grendel's death is

But for Grendel, Beowulf that swore that he was going to defeat Grendel and avenge the deaths of his soldiers that Grendel killed. One day Grendel went up to the mead hall to attack more of Beowulf’s soldiers, but it was a trap and Beowulf comes out attacks him. They engage in a gruesome battle and in the end Beowulf rips off Grendel's arm, which causes him to retreat. He then bled out and died on his way back

Grendel is undoubtedly a killer. He is does not take pity on the humans at all. When he fights them, he fights and kills ferociously.

Because the Shaper’s words were powerful, it made Grendel depressed. He knew that he was cursed by God, due to the curse he inherited from Cain. However, he looked at the corpse where the man was slaughtered by a group of men in order to conclude that both him and men were sinful and imperfect. As proof, Grendel had seen humans kill each other throughout chapter 1-4. As the darkness is increased through Grendel’s heart, Grendel now feels the Shaper’s foolishness towards tricking the humans, foreseeing a plan to destroy humanity.