Grendel

Grendel is a very interesting novel. It takes into account the point-of-view of the “evil Grendel” from Beowulf and transforms the whole story into a nice heart-felt novel. In Beowulf Grendel is portrayed as an evil monster who gains pleasure from slaughtering humans. However, in this novel, I feel sorry for Grendel. He appears as a lonely, sad creature who only tries to make friends with humans. They misinterpret him, due to the fact that they cannot understand his language, and they attack him. He only comes to the mead hall in hopes of making new friendships. He observes the Danes secretly in a sort of jealous way. As if he wishes, he could be a part of their celebration and storytelling. Even though he sarcastically mocks the Danes and their dumb “religion”, to me it seems that he still wishes to be a part of them.

When Unferth attacks Grendel, Grendel defends himself and throws apples at him. This could be as a sign of that Grendel is throwing “knowledge” upon the Danes. He wants to wake them up into reality, and make them stop believing in God. He wants them to realize that he truly is not after them. It is important to realize that the apple throwing symbolizes Grendel’s knowledge. He only longs for connection, not harm. Are the humans cruel to nature that they do not ever try and approach Grendel in a friendly way? Is that their instinct to survival? Will they ever really see Grendel past the outside and into the inside? Grendel does not wish to continue fighting the humans, as the whole action is “mechanical” and pointless. Grendel can sense that this war will go on and on, with no end. But will he ever be able to change that? Will he ever be able to get the point across to the humans and let them know that he is not intending any harm? Grendel grows up alone, he cannot even communicate with his mother and the dis-connection grows stronger and stronger over time.

The dragon tries to influence Grendel to continue fighting with the Danes. At first Grendel finds pleasure in his raids, but later he realizes that the whole action is pointless and meaningless. He wants to have meaning in the world, to be something…but fighting won’t get him there. He wants to be known for something, but it is not as Grendel who killed the Danes. Will Grendel ever find a way to gain some meaning in his world or will the Danes end his life before he can gain any significance?