Grendel

Rating:
Summary: The REAL Grendel
Review: As with any well-written and popular novel, especially one that makes a few allegorical references, analysts and reviewers tend to get out of hand with various theories concocted in their idle minds. Grendel is no exception, it appears.

I first read this book some 15 years ago in High School and found it then an exellent book. ...and it has remained one of my favorites. I have re-read it many times and have discussed it at length with various scholars. Generally speaking, I still stand by the conculusions that I had made in High School: Grendel is about humanity defining itself. Grendel searches for meaning. The Dragon tries to explain the concept of a "Brute Existent", and that this is what "meaning" is all about. It is the means by which both the Protagonist and Antagonist define themselves. Grendel still doesn't understand... not fully. At the end, he does finally understand and goes even further to issue a curse or a warning: "Poor Grendel's had an accident, SO MAY YOU ALL." It is interesting to note that the whispered words of Beowulf, [imagined by Grendel or not], during the battle in the hall echo and repeat the words of the Dragaon. Who or what we choose as our Brute Existiant is very important. The traditional view of Beowulf is that the Hero is due his honor. Grendel's spin is that honor is due as much to the Anti-Hero as it is to the Hero himself. In this way, the author gives some much overdue kudos to poor Grendel. Our Brute Existent IS what will define us. So, let us be very careful indeed. THIS is the simple message that I believe John Gardner intended. You may disagree, but, I invite you to read this wonderful book very carefully with this theme in mind before you do! :-)

As for the other reviews, the words of the Dragon seem apt: "Ah, Man's cunning mind! Merely a new complexity, a new event, new set of nonce-rules generating further nonce-rules, down and down and down. Things lock on, you know. The Devonian fish, the juxtaposed thumb, the fontanel, technology--click click, click click..."

Rating:
Summary: well....
Review: This book had the potential to be great,i picked it up and read enthusiastically but the disappointment i got from just the first few chapters was beyond explanation!The background and time period history were typical stereotypical fantasy/hollywood crap!(Vikings with horned helmets?).I mean this was a concept that just could have been wonderful (The story of "Beowulf told in the point of view of the Grendel ...what more could you ask for?) instead i squandered away my time in pain reading this.......

AND the worst thing of it all was it was so dated to the authors mentality...the "dragon" seemed like a drugged out 1970s era hippie and the petty attempt at deepness and pathetic philosophy angered me to no end...listen you dont take a classic piece of literature and then murder it for your dated politics ! The only redeeming part of this book was that it was Grendel's side of the story...but oh the opportunity to write a good book (because this was a great topic idea) was squandered away senselessly.

Rating:
Summary: Grendel
Review: Grendel is a really interesting book, which will captivate your heart for the antagonist. The author, John Gardener portrayed Grendel as an innocent creature who is force to become evil due to humans and a dragon who steers him wrong. This book is mainly about how Grendel reaches the state in which he becomes total destructive. In the first part of the book Grendel wanted to become friends with humans, but humans feared him due to his physical apperance in which we all notice at first and judge a person by it , instead of what is truly significant their inner being. Grendel's first defense against a brusque universe is solipsism: the belief that the self can know only itself and that it is only existent thing. The main flaw in solipsism is that it contradicts every aspect of human experience. Grendel is unsatisfied and nervous under it's tenuous cover. In the second half of the book, after Grendel visits the dragon he has a different belief in which nothing has meaning;that life is a long series of accidents and is in itself an accident. He becomes the monster everyone portrays him to be. He then kills with no pity and brings raids upon the thanes. In the last Chapters Grendel meets his match Beowulf, who is the only level mind in the entire novel. Beowulf completes the journey that provides Grendel the answer to his puzzle. The meaning of life is in its living. Though it is too late for Grendel to react, he rejects Beowulf and all that the hero represents , and so Grendel's death , like his life, is merely an accident.

Rating:
Summary: read Burton Raffel's translation of the original
Review: I don't really know enough about John Gardner to be too confident in my analysis what he intended by this book, and the online reviews and essays are wildly contradictory. But personally I read it as a tale of Western Christian triumphalism over existentialism. Beowulf and the other humans, most importantly the Shaper, represent the idea that there is a purpose to life and order in the universe. Grendel, influenced by the dragon, believes that existence is its own end, that life is meaningless. But even Grendel is plagued by the realization that his world view is empty and unfulfilling, so when he hears the Shaper's song:

He told of an ancient feud between two brothers which split the world between darkness and light. And I, Grendel, was the dark side, he said in effect. The terrible race God cursed. I believed him. Such was the power of the Shaper's harp!

The Shaper's implicit message--that human existence serves a purpose and that man, through the cultivation of art, science and religion, is realizing a destiny--is more than Grendel can take:

Thus I fled, ridiculous hairy creature torn apart by poetry... I gnashed my teeth and clutched the sides of my head as if to heal the split, but I couldn't.

Unable to reconcile the beauty of the Shaper's vision and his own dark urge to deny existence any meaning, Grendel tries to destroy the humans. But, of course, the humans in following the vision have developed the capacity to withstand his primal fury and Beowulf dispatches him--thus ever the confrontations between light and dark. To this extent, except for giving the beast credit for a pretty well developed philosophical sense, the story is relatively traditional and follows the original. Moreover, it confirms our understanding of human history, that great societies developed following the adoption of structured belief systems, and that they overwhelmed those necessarily primitive groups which failed to comprehend a general purpose to their own existence.

The great innovation here, and the malignancy within the novel, lies in its narrative form. Gardner, by allowing the monster to narrate the story, implies that there are two equally valid sides to the story. This device has, not surprisingly, become quite common, particularly as a way to let female and minority characters give their own angles on great literature or history. Typically it is used to demonstrate that the generally white, male, and Christian authors of the classics have presented only a partial, perhaps propagandistic, and possibly simply dishonest, version of events that actually happened quite differently. This trend is part of the broader modern tendency toward moral relativism, political correctness, and denial of absolute standards of morality, truth, and beauty. In this instance, Gardner came down on the right side of the cultural divide, and merely used the device to flesh out the monster. But as a general proposition, the idea that the Western Canon presents only a partisan view of the world, one that we need not assume is valid, is truly destructive of our shared cultural inheritance and is to be abhorred. Stories do indeed have two sides; but at the point where we surrender our capacity to say that one side is right and one is simply wrong, we will have wrought catastrophic damage upon our own culture..

That said, the book, though far inferior to the original, is still entertaining.

GRADE: B

Rating:
Summary: Loved It - Laugh - Didn't enjoy the Philosphy
Review: Loved the story. I was really laughing and enjoying myself through most of the story. The only part I didn't like were the parts of the story where philosphy was being discuss. Lucky, that was a very small part.

Rating:
Summary: Nihilistic child wars against Danes!
Review: All teenagers are crazy, and Grendel in no exception. When he is first introduced, Grendel is cursing God and wishing for the end of life, yet when he meets Hrothgar and comes close to getting this wish, he "bellows" for Mama. Shortly after this initial run-in with Hrothgar, Grendel begins to spy on the kingdom, and after meeting the dragon, he starts his twelve-year war with the Danes. Toward the end of this war, Beowulf is introduced to the teen's muddled story, and they begin their fatal battle for honor.

Gardner's use of characterization in "Grendel" is crucial to the development of the story. Coming from a typical adolescent spirit trapped in a beast's body is the story of a twelve years long battle filled with gruesome death and bloodshed. Yet because Grendel is only a YOUNG monster, and since all adolescents are crazy, this gruesome tale becomes the comical and illusionary diary of a nihilistic child. Characterization is used to protray a suicidal, moody monster who talks to himself, dances ballet in the moonlight, and destroys most of what he comes in contact with. By cursing God, all of life's creations, and his own horridness and lack of friends, Grendel shows the emotions, reactions and reasoning that are so typical to a human spirit.

Rating:
Summary: Thank you John Gardner!
Review: Like many of you I was forced to read Beowolf in high school Lit. class. Then my teacher gave us Grendel, and I fell in love. What fun to get another perspective on the whole dreadful business. Even today it's one of my forever-favorite books, and my dog is named Grendel as well! When someone's face lights up when they hear his name, I know they're kindred souls. And I can get a private laugh at the neighborhood kids calling me "Grendel's Mom." Friends don't let friends read Beowolf without this one!

Rating:
Summary: Grendel: Not for everybody
Review: Although the author's idea to write a story in the view point of the "bad guy" is a good and interesting one, I must admit I thought the book was rather boring. Half asleep, I had to read lines and sometimes paragraphs over and over again, and in many cases (even when I managed to stay awake through this grueling novel), I still couldn't not quite understand what the author was trying to say. I'm not saying this book is terrible, I just don't think this book was for me. (You must understand I was required to read this book for my English class, and I don't usually agree with what I am forced to read.)

Rating:
Summary: deranged and delicious
Review: this book has been on my bookshelf since middle school, for so long that it fell apart at the last reading. i can usually finish it in a day, as its length is concise. but the slimness of Grendel belies how much is packed inside. Grendel's philosophical ramblings, placing him at a much higher intellectual level than the humans he tormented and is tormented by, are analogous to any reader's life: what's the purpose of anything? it's the question every sentinent, self-aware being asks. Grendel tries to drown his mind in violence, but of course it doesn't work. he thinks and emotes, and there's no escape from that. the dragon's apocalyptic words not only stay with Grendel, but will stay with the reader long after the book is closed. that is, of course, if you have the wherewithall to realize that this book is not really about a 'monster'.

Rating:
Summary: Grendel: Existential journey into the mind of a monster-chil
Review: A fantasmagorical journey through the struggles and triumphs of the classic monster-child we were first introduced to in Beowulf. A truly morbid tale. Well worth the read.