It’s all about Grendel this time!

A look through the novel Grendel

Hello! Welcome back to my blog! If you enjoyed my last post about the poem Beowulf, well buckle your seatbelts because this one is also going to be a great ride! This time I was given the chance to read, Grendel by John Gardner. The novel is all based on the perspective of Grendel himself, where we can see his thoughts on things and how we got to where he was in the poem, Beowulf. This novel was quite fun to read in all honesty, we get to read from basically some moody teenage point of view. Well, that it was it seemed like our little monster just complained from the very beginning. Anyway, this book speaks and mentions a lot of one’s mortality and feeling and experiences that come from humans, whether it spoke of how greedy we are, or how eager we can be in hopes of becoming powerful to the point where we can sacrifice things, such as peace and love. Grendel speaks of it all as he witnessed it himself from the shadows. It really was an interesting take on this whole thing because at the end it was quite questionable to me, who the real hero was, was it the guy who killed the big monster, or the being that is confused on who he is, and how he justed to talk to people but fate pushed him in that direction. Beowulf would be considered a hero, but It makes you have a lot of sympathy for Grendel as all he wanted was someone to talk to. If you like reading things that have a lot of symbolism please read Grendel by John Gardner, as if you look closely in each chapter is a mention of one of the astrological signs. If you read it or are interested in doing so please leave a comment, and tell me what your astrological sign is, I’m a Scorpio.

If you are unable to read Grendel or want a basic summary of what is happening before you add another thing to your audible list. The story is quite everywhere as in each chapter its speaks of a different moment in time for Grendel and his perspective. First, it starts with Grendel wishing to seek out someone to communicate with because his mother does not talk at all, as she only grumbles. But then he finds out that he can understand humans, but they can’t understand him. Then it goes on with him seeing the advancement of humans and being disgusted with their actions and reasoning. Like how they depend on the church and lies or are willing to sacrifice things for power. I don’t want to spoil it that much because his intellectual speaking is such a wonderful contrast than the way he spoke in both the movie and Beowulf. My favorite scenes were when he communicating to the dragon, and the dragon tries to give him advice but somehow all his advice leads to him talking about treasure, “My advice to you, my violent friend, is to seek out gold and sit on it.” (Gardner 74). But most importantly, I love how much the dragon is dedicated to the following fate, as he can tell the future and does not want to ruin it, “even then I do not change the future, I merely do what I saw from the beginning..” (Gardner 63). If Unferth was not my favorite character, the dragon definitely would I’m so grateful for the book Grendel, because it shows us so much more about these wonderful characters.

Now personally, Grendel is much more interesting and easier to read than Beowulf, the story flows more smoothly and there are no random cuts in the paragraph. However, I did get confused with each chapter being a completely different time in his life. But other than that it is a good read and was extremely interesting ESPECIALLY if you read Beowulf. However, Beowulf in itself was confusing as stated in my previous blog, because of its formatting and how I just could not comprehend what was happening and who each character was and when they would speak. But in Grendel, it makes it so much easier to get a full grasp on who each character is and why certain things are happening. Maybe this is because Grendel is based on the perspective of one character so we can see his true thoughts on the person he is viewing, and when he talks about situations. Rather than just a random narrator talking about everything at once with no clear distinction of who is who and why they are talking. In all honesty, the movie did not do Grendel justice at all, in the movie Beowulf, they make Grendel this slimy creature that shrinks and doesn’t talk. Rather than the intellectual character that he is, with all his precise thoughts and opinions, he deserves his movie. I would 10/10 recommend Grendel, especially if you just finished reading Beowulf because Beowulf was confusing as heck and Grendel gave a better outlook on the characters. Also, I appreciate The book Grendel for this, but they gave me such a better view of who my favorite character is, and his personality. I love unferth so much, he was the only thing I’m still crying about in this whole thing I wish he got his book. If you’ve read the book who do you wish they would make another book about?