Grendel by John Gardner

Review by Gerti

“Beowulf” is an Old English epic poem that many of us had to read in high school or college. Esteemed writer John Gardner takes the classic work, and turns it on its head here in “Grendel”, much in the way “Wicked” retells the story of “The Wizard of Oz.” Like that novel, Gardner takes the monster of the story, Grendel, and allows him to tell the tale, and like “Wicked”, once the bad guy starts talking, the heroes and villains are not as black and white as they appeared.

We see the humans around King Hrothgar after we've already met Grendel, and after Grendel has already established that he is more than your ordinary monster. Gardner sets him apart from the animals early, but instead uses animal terminology when referring to the humans in the story. Like vermin, Grendel is always seeing them with rat faces, or acting like snakes. And just as humans find it easy to kill rats, it is believable and nearly forgivable that Grendel would have little trouble killing them when the time came.

Grendel is conflicted about his role in the universe, and Gardner sometimes shows him to be a superman character since he is much stronger than humans and can even see in the dark. Grendel himself, however, has heard the humans talk about how he is an outcast, the descendant of the Bible story’s murderous brother, Cain. Humans, he hears, are from another lineage altogether. It is during a scene where Grendel tries to approach the humans in friendship that they begin their attack on him, as they don’t understand his form of language, even though he keeps crying out “friend”. He is so strong, even his fingernails are capable of killing the humans, and the survivors of the Danes drive him away from their gathering place, the mead hall.

Grendel is a tormented soul, for although he has other creatures with whom he can speak, namely his mother and a dragon (who calls him son and treats him with more civility than the humans do), he wants to be accepted among the humans, and that’s just never going to happen. He is obsessed by the humans, and spends most of his life watching them from mountain tops and in the shadows of their village. He sees how badly they treat animals, how they kill for sport, how they set careless fires in the forest. He begins to think that nothing matters, and this novel becomes a nihilist anthem. Finally, hero Beowulf arrives to fight Grendel, but the creature has already lost his will to live.

Among other adjectives of praise heaped on the book, the cover blurbs call “Grendel” original, poignant, witty, intelligent and delightful. It is all those things, and will most definitely appeal to a teen audience, as well as to anyone who share the mindset of one of society’s outsiders. Grendel is a modern “Frankenstein” and I highly recommend this memoir of his, created by the very talented writer, John Gardner.