Grendel

by: John Gardner

--The epic of Beowulf may be one of the best examples of Scandanavian poetry in existence. It is, however, an extremely difficult book to read due to its less than subtle rhythmic undertones and its proclivity for redundancy. This is due to the style of the time whose bards favored hyperbolic lines that is often repeated in order to place emphasis on heroic deeds and events.

--The book entitled Grendel, written byJohn Gardner, is a loosely based translation of the epic that completely digresses from any of the other attempted version (discounting, of course, Chrichton’s Eaters of the Dead). In this adaptation, the author narrates the story in the antagonist’s perspective. He recounts his early childhood and his inability to comprehend his strangeness, relative to the people around him, and his mother’s more animal-like behavior. He then tries to assimilate within the Nordic tribes that shared his habitat but was conversely attacked and driven out of their domain. Because of this, Grendel sought to understand his assailants more and hence grew this seemingly perverse desire to spy on his neighbors. Through such acts, he discovered the beauty of epic poetry, through the king’s bard, and how it emulated the greatness of man and it’s heroes. Due to this, Grendel sought to define himself, as well, similar to how men were admonished through the flowery words of the poet. He, however, grew disenchanted when he found out that there were no such events, nor heroes, as the poet described them but, as it were, they were merely exaggerations of small deeds and the heroes were no more than rich noblemen with large coffers. Due to Grendel’s disillusionment, he then sought to correct the lies that the bard had so willingly created by constantly attacking the encampments, hence proving that man’s definition of himself is in fact false.

--This book is a well-written example of man’s struggle for self-definition. Here, Grendel, who himself is truly not a man, sought to characterize himself by using the people around him as the basis for his existence. However, he finds out that even they truly do not know or were confused as to who they are themselves. Because of his frustrations, he lashes out and destroys the mens’ concept of themselves for they failed to provide him the self-definition he needed. This eventually led to his demise in the hands of Beowulf, the only man he met who truly fit the description of the epic hero.

--In totality, the book was highly entertaining although the ending was quite anti-climactic. the author documented Grendel’s journey into self awareness extremely well, although Grendel truly did not achieve it. Gardner painted clear delineations between the antagonist’s (or in this case, the protagonist‘s) hopes, disappointments, his notions of existentialism and eventual madness which was highly indicative of a job well-done.