Grendel

1
Grendel

• Chapter 6 7

2
Grendels New Image

• Nothing was changed, everything was changed, by
  my having seen the dragonI discovered that the
  dragon had put a charm on me no weapon could
  cut me. I could walk up to the meadhall whenever
  I pleased, and they were powerless. My heart
  became darker because of that. Though I scorned
  them, sometimes hated them, there had been
  something between myself and men when we could
  fight. Now, invulnerable, I was as solitary as
  one live tree in a vast landscape of coal
  (Gardner 75-76).

3
Grendels New Image

• Charm makes him invulnerable
• Creates more isolation
• No more give and take to fights
• Even more alone and disconnected

4
The Shaper

• It enrages me. It was their confidence, maybe-
  their blissful, swinish ignorance, their
  bumptious self-satisfaction, and, worst of all,
  their hope.
• Believes Nihilistic view of Dragon
• Their hope defies that philosophy
• He spoke of how God had been kind to the
  Scyldings, sending so rich a harvest. The people
  sat beaming, bleary-eyed and fat, nodding their
  approval of God. (Gardner 77).

5
Grendels the Brute Existent

• I was transformed. I was a new focus for the
  clutter of space I stood inI had become
  something, as if born again.
• I was Grendel, Ruiner of Meadhalls, Wrecker of
  Kings!
• Used to only kill outside of hall
• Shapers song enrages him and causes violent
  outburst
• Violence now brings him joy

6
Grendels Re-birth

• As if casually, in plain sight of them all, I
  bit his head off, crunched through the helmet and
  skull with my teeth (77).
• Not afraid anymore
• Denied as a friend, he becomes their enemy

7
Grendel the Brute Existent

• No longer trying to fit in with the humans or
  befriend them
• Hes discovered his place in the universe
• Man needs the evil Grendel represents to look
  better
• He is himself as he was born to be

8
Grendels Charm

• Joy at first
• I felt strange unearthly joy. It was if Id
  made some incredible discoveryI was transformed.
  I was a new focus for the clutter of space I
  stood in (79-80).
• Allows Grendel to feel superior and invincible
• Gives him meaning
• Curse
• But also, as never before, I was alone (80).
• Furthers his isolation

9
Unferth the Hero?

• it must be a terrible burden, though, being a
  hero- glory reaper, harvester of monsters!
  Everybody always watching you, weighing you,
  seeing if youre still heroic.
• But no doubt there are compensationsThe
  pleasant feeling of vast superiority, the easy
  success with women (Gardner 84)

10
Unferth the Hero?

• It will be sung year on year and age on age
  that Unferth went down through the burning
  lakeand gave his life in battle with the
  world-rim roamerIt dawned on me that he was
  waiting for me to kill him. I did nothing
  (Gardner 87).
• Unferth is nothing if he does not die
• Unferth feels the heroic code is something to
  strive for-it gives him meaning

11
Unferth the Hero?

• I picked him up gently and carried him home. I
  laid him at the door of Hrothgars meadhall,
  still asleep, killed the two guards so I wouldnt
  be misunderstood and left.
• He lives on, bitter, feebly challenging my
  midnight raids from time to time (three times
  this summer), crazy with shame that he alone is
  always spared, and furiously jealous of the dead
  (Gardner 90).
• Grendel humiliates Unferth
• Mocks the traditional, heroic code

12
Chapter 7

• Style of Narration changes
• Parallels the growth of Grendel
• He becomes more inventive and experimental

13
Grendels Meaning

• Form is function
• Grendel does not kill men b/c he would not have
  anyone to wage war on.
• Hrothgar-Wrecker that is his function
• Without men to kill, he would have no form
• He would cease to be the Hrothgar- Wreaker (his
  function)
• Different view he cant exist without man, he
  does not alone exist
• Bound by this identity

14
Grendels Limits and Desires

• There is no limit to desire but desires needs
• Desires to kill
• Must limit the number he kills

15
The Queen

• the ultimate act of nihilism
• Then at last, moving slowly, as if walking in a
  dream, a woman in a robe of threaded silver came
  gliding from the hall.
• She is a peace offering
• Grendel feels she is beautiful and innocent
• But she was beautiful and she surrendered
  herself with the dignity of a sacrificial
  virgin...She was beautiful, as innocent as dawn
  on winter hills.
• She reminds Grendel that he is a horrible monster
• (Gardner 100)

16
The Queen and Grendels Mom

• She would gladly have given her life to end my
  sufferingso would the lady below would give, had
  given, her life for those she loved (Gardner
  102).
• His mom would save him from restlessness and rage
  he faces
• She has mindless love for him
• Wealthow sacrifices herself for her people

17
The Queen

• I changed my mind . It would be meaningless,
  killing her. As meaningless as letting her live.
  It would be, for me, mere pointless pleasure, an
  illusion of order for this one frail, foolish
  flicker-flash I the long dull fall of eternity
  (Gardner 110).
• Sameness of life and death is a foundation of
  existentialism
• Changes beauty to ugliness by his actions
• If he kills the queen (love beauty), then he
  becomes the dragon
• Not yet ready

18
Grendel

• I resolved, absolutely and finally to kill
  myself, for love of the Baby Grendel that used to
  be. But the next instant, for no particular
  reason, I changed my mind
• (Garnder 110)
• Hes aware of the change within him
• Contemplates suicide
• Sad because its the life that was given him
• He takes upon the role of the cursed race- his
  innocence knew no better
• He mourns the creature he could have been