Journal 1

Grendel, a monster, in Beowulf, raided King Hrothgar’s mead-hall for a period of twelve years, and every night Grendel would invade Herot and kill dozens of men. Grendel serves to be an antagonist in Beowulf. He is the villain that seeks any danger in King Hrothgar’s kingdom. Hrothgar had one of the most popular mead-halls of all until Grendel began his vicious reign of terror. The character of Grendel is portrayed as an evil monster that has cruel actions, unclear motives, and wicked character traits.
Grendel is the son of Cain, which is the first murderer of all mankind. “He was spawned in the slim, conceived by a pair of those monsters born of Cain, murderous creatures banished by God, punished forever for the crime of Abel’s death” (21). From the quote, it can be interpreted as Grendel’s reign on Herot is not his entire fault. It is Grendel’s nature to disrupt mankind and destroy anything that gets in his way. Grendel is a tall, large creature that has tremendous strength. It is said that his traits were specifically dedicated to bringing horror and haunting mankind.
Grendel’s unclear motives tie to his curse that was set upon him because of his father. It could have been faith that brought Grendel to murder 20 and some men every night for twelve years. He seems to be built especially to be a killing machine. Grendel could have also been simply hungry. Beowulf never specified anything about him eating for the sport or because he was hungry. Another possible motive that may have driven Grendel to slay Hrothgar’s men is because he had the strength to and just because he attained the ability to destroy any human in his path. Grendel could roam freely and do what he pleased without punishment.
Grendel’s actions had no thought behind them. He was “so great that he needs no weapons and fears none” (168). In Beowulf, there was no specification of what Grendel’s facial expression was when he executed the Geats. There was also no pattern of destruction evident to the men. Grendel did not specifically pick out who he was going to eat. It was simply random as if he had no thoughts. Grendel travelled to Herot every night and ate a hand-full of men and took another hand-full for his walk home. Beowulf did specify that Grendel would eat the heads of the men. He also reeked of rotten human blood that has accumulated in his hair and body for twelve years.
Grendel’s cruel actions, unclear motives, and wicked character traits has made him a monster that will never be forgotten. His cruel actions show that he does have feelings toward anything. His unclear motives imply that he does not have any rational thoughts, and his wicked character traits depict that he is an evil, cursed creature that shows no mercy toward any living thing.

Journal 2

Values of Anglo-Saxon society that Beowulf reveals are generosity, loyalty, and bravery. In Beowulf, Beowulf reveals generosity by travelling to the land of the Danes to offer his strength to defeat Grendel. He goes beyond what is asked of him and helps the Danes in a time of need. In Beowulf, loyalty was a major character trait in each of the warriors. They were each loyal to their king. An example of this is when Wiglaf made his speech to the men of Beowulf about being loyal to their king when he fought the dragon. One line from this speech that highlighted loyalty starts on line 778, “Let us go to him, help our leader through the hot flame and dread of the fire.” To get the whole essence of this speech, it is lines 763 – 790 in Beowulf. Beowulf portrays bravery because he stood up to any creature that he had to face in order to protect his people no matter how large it is. The universal theme that this reveals is heroism. Beowulf was an epic hero, and he craved being at a higher status than others.

Journal 3

Grendel has difficultly when it comes to his relationship with language. In the beginning of the novel Grendel embraces language but has very little capabilities of his own. Grendel believes that language is the key to acceptance and peace. Grendel hears the Shaper and how his words bring peace to the humans and how his words allow him to be accepted into society. By the end of the novel Grendel uses various complicated literary styles. Some of these styles include: arranging text in different forms, writing in others' voices, and writing as if this novel were an epic. In the novel Grendel’s biggest problem with language is that his language isn’t the same as the humans, though he thinks it is. He tries desperately to speak to the humans, but by the end of the novel Grendel realizes the world around him is not as he would wish it to be. He becomes frustrated with humans and the world in general, and stays in his cave. Grendel's speech becomes more simplistic until he cannot even make a grammatically proper last sentence.

Journal 4

Grendel’s philosophical journey begins with him feeling superior to all other creatures. He finds pleasure in scaring the Danes and making other animals tremble at the sound of his footsteps. Grendel’s philosophical journey begins with existentialism. He is lonely and doesn’t think life has a meaning. He is just in the world to find joy in scaring humans. Grendel yearns to be a part of human kind, and he started to feel like he was one of them until they attack him. This causes Grendel to feel lonely again. When Grendel had a talk with the dragon, he tells Grendel that leads his philosophical view to exist along side with the humans. In the end, Grendel’s philosophical view is that everything happens be accident. Grendel tripped by accident before Beowulf rips his arm off. Grendel begins to accept this and finally finds his place in the world as he dies.

Journal 5

I think Gardner made the decision to use Grendel as a narrator because of his status in society. Grendel has no status in society. He is an interloper; therefore this reveals many thoughts and ideas from simply observing society. Grendel is not affected by views that are usually forced upon the society. He is independent of his views and this gives an unbiased approach on the human world in the Anglo-Saxon society in the novel. Gardner saw Grendel as an opportunity to expose a new world of thoughts from the villain instead of the hero. Grendel’s status as a monster in society affects the way he tells the story by gathering thoughts just by observing man. Being a monster causes Grendel to have dark, depressing, and angry thoughts which is the mood throughout the story.

Journal 6

Grendel is an obvious parody of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf. The main character of Grendel is the monster Grendel from Beowulf. In Beowulf, Grendel only has the most basic human and monster qualities. Unlike the in original epic, Grendel is far more complicated in John Gardner’s Grendel. Grendel is highly intelligent, very unpredictable, easily upset, and quite capable of rational thoughts. Grendel often appears just as human as the people he sees and describes. Not only is the main character in the novel mentioned in the epic but many other characters like Unferth and Hrothgar are mentioned in the epic as well.
In Grendel, Grendel seems to actually be an odd and funny character. In the novel you see a scary monster that kills and eats humans but is also someone that tries to be a poet of some sort. Even when Grendel and Beowulf face off, Grendel tries to come up with some poetry and he actually succeeds. But Beowulf kills him anyway. Grendel and Beowulf have similar themes such as: good and evil, the heroes and the villains, and so on. The difference is that Beowulf was told in a very serious manner and in such a way that shows Grendel only as a monster. In Grendel, Grendel challenges this role and existence as the monster by embracing language and the arts.