Journal 5

Grendel is a fierce, strong monster that observes the human life form around him in anger and aggravation. Grendel is the antagonist in the poem Beowulf and the narrator in the book Grendel. Although the kingdom of Herot sees Grendel as a cold hearted evil creature, the book Grendel sometimes portrays Grendel as a semi-kind creature. At one point he took this woman, Wealtheow, and took her to his cave. He planned on raping her but instead he let her go. At some points Grendel does have a dark side though. Grendel saw a body of a Dane in the forest that was killed by another Dane. He was trying to show the humans how even they can be, but instead they saw him as the villain in their world on their land. He knocked down the door to the meadhall and asked for mercy but the Danes did not understand him. They chase him out of town. Grendel does occasionally show a sensitive kind side but for the most part, his thoughts and actions portray him as an evil monster which is strongly brought on by the actions of others.

Grendel isn’t just given the name of a horrible monster, he takes on the role. He is full of anger and rage. Grendel is a disgusting monster, eating the Danes and fighting everything that crosses his path that he doesn’t like. Beowulf is brought to destroy Grendel because Grendel keeps scaring and killing off the Danes. Some of this is not his fault because the Danes did not know how to react to a new creature such as Grendel that they have never seen before. When Grendel is a mere infant, the humans came across him and thought he was a tree spirit. When they started to talk Grendel realized that he could understand him but when he talked back they could not understand him. He started to talk louder and freaked out the humans. Ever since, they have lived in fear of Grendel.

Beowulf and Grendel both are set around 700 AD but no exact date is known. At this time, war, battling, and fighting are the main activities that take place. Fighting among clans and among friends was very common. They took out their anger through violence which was something that aggravated Grendel greatly. He didn’t see why people would kill people of their own kind. At this point Grendel believed that no one else existed except for him. No one else mattered.

This starts to get into the symbolism behind Grendel. Grendel could symbolize many of things. He could symbolize evil, the devil, hatred, or even immortality. In the story Grendel, Gardner compares Grendel’s lair to hell, so in a way, Grendel would be the devil. This follows the symbol of immortality because the devil is immortal. The dragon ends up making Grendel immune to human weapons which to the humans they thought he was immortal from dying all together. Grendel is also full of hatred. He comes from a horrible family that is cursed forever. Grendel also tends to find something about everything that he hates. The music that the harpist played upset Grendel even though it wasn’t horrible. He just didn’t like the meaning that represented the Danes as a group that they were proud of. In the end, Grendel could be portrayed as a good creature or a bad creature. He didn’t really start any of the mess he is in, but he did make things worse.