Grendel Reflection

My summer reading book was Grendel by John Gardner. The tale of Grendel was about the monster named Grendel, his life, and explorations leading up to his death. The novel had many different themes and lessons to be taught from Grendel’s many misfortunes.

Grendel a large beastly creature is in a twelve year war with mankind, mainly being Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, owner of the mead hall that Grendel terrorizes and destroys continuously, the mead hall holding all the Danes treasure. The novel skips back and forth in time from when Grendel was a child exploring the world and discovering the human world for the first time. One of his first expeditions to the human world, Grendel gets caught in a tree and attacked by both a bull, and a band

of humans that later he realizes they are Hrothgar’s men.

As a child, Grendel becomes fascinated by the human’s ways and culture. He watches them evolve from nomadic tribal people to an updated system of people that have roads, governments and militaries that make organize attacks on other communities. Grendel watches Hrothgar reach power as the most powerful King in the surrounding areas. Hrothgar’s power attracts the attention of the Shaper, a poetic singer that sings of glorified tales of the Danish people and heroes. Grendel seeing the evolution of men and knows the truth of the tales finds the shapers songs alluring and becomes ashamed of his own malicious nature. Inspired by the shapers tales Hrothgar orders a mead hall to be built that he calls Hart. Grendel increasingly irritated with his ashamed feelings due to the shapers tale goes and visits a Dragon that says that all human philosophies are irrelevant and wrong. Grendel adopts his philosophy and becomes increasingly mad at the Danish men causing him to start the twelve year war with the Danish men raiding the Hart mead hall. Hrothgar gets threaten by other kings that causes him to attack the King of the Helmings Hygmod. Hygmod in order to avoid war offers his sisters hand in marriage to Hrothgar and

Hrothgar accepts. In the last year of the war, Grendel acts a deity called the Destroyer to talk to a blind priest and the shaper dies. Grendel starts feeling an increasing feelings like dread, shame, and etc. that he cannot understand why he is feeling them. Grendel’s mother notices and says “Warrovish,” that Grendel later realizes is ‘beware the fish.’ Beowulf and his fourteen men arrive to rid the Danes of Grendel. Grendel realizes what they are there for and is excited and frightened by them. Grendel attacks Hart after the Geats and the Danes fall asleep where Beowulf attacks him after pretending to be asleep. Grendel slips on a pool of blood making Beowulf have the upper hand. Beowulf rips Grendel’s arm off and Grendel escapes. Grendel goes to the edge of the cliff where animals surround him and the book ends with Grendel saying that he had an accident and so will everyone else.
One theme of the book that I found impactful was isolation.

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

of Hrothgar’s people. Grendel is frustrated that he believes that men can give him his answers to his questions about the world because of how similar they are on the inside but men are always frightened and disgusted by him that he never really has a meaningful conversation or encounter with them. Grendel even tries to communicate with the sky or thin air on numerous occasions throughout the book trying to find answers to his questions, but he never gets his answers which continually frustrates him.
One lesson that I learned from this book that can apply to my life is don’t assume or judge people based on what they look like or where they are from. I believe that if Hrothgar’s men were not so frightened by what they cannot understand or by peoples appearance and showed Grendel a little kindness that he would not have turned out the way he did. Grendel could have been nice and caring if the human world would have accepted him, taught him instead of isolating him and trying to kill him when he did nothing to them in the beginning. If Grendel was accepted he might have not been so angry, resentful and took the Dragons philosophy on life and mankind. I believe this can apply to life because we should not judge people based on what they look like or where they came from, if we do then they might just turn out like how we are making them out to be or worse. Everyone has the potential to be better till they are convinced otherwise by people over and over again.
In conclusion, Grendel was a misunderstood beastly creature that was not given the chance for a better life and terrorized the Danes mostly Hrothgar’s men in his great mead hall Hart. Grendel taught many different lessons, the pain and effects of isolation being a big one. I really enjoyed reading the captivating novel Grendel over the summer and hearing about Grendel’s tale and adventures of his life.