82 pages • 2 hours read
John GardnerGrendel
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1971A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
Isolation and Otherness
In both the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf and the novel Grendel, Grendel is characterized as an outsider. He lives in isolation on the edge of the wilderness, within earshot of the celebration at the meadhall but excluded from its warmth and community. Both literary works suggest that it is this sense of isolation that causes Grendel the acute anger and frustration that manifest in his violence against the Danes.
In the original epic poem, the explanation behind Grendel’s monstrosity primarily concerns his evil nature, his inherited corruption as a descendant of Cain, and his separateness from God. In Gardner’s novel, however, Grendel’s behaviors are a response to tragic alienation: Hostility and misunderstanding characterize his dealings with humans, and he grows up in an isolated environment. In fact, Grendel recalls that when the Shaper sang about Grendel’s ancestors and their link to his terrifying behavior, he was indignant before ultimately submitting hopelessly to the Shaper’s story. To Grendel, this fiction was unjust, and the Shaper’s beautiful song allowed the Danes to feel no responsibility for Grendel’s wrath.
One of Grendel’s defining characteristics is his sensitive nature. He learned about the pain of rejection and fear when he first met humans (a memory shared in Chapter 2), and this first meeting sets the unfortunate 
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