Grendel

Chapter 9

Summary

• It is now December. Winter. Symbol.
• Grendel finds dead wolves. Is a wolf the zodiac sign?
• In town, the kids make snow angels, and they leave “ominous” impressions of winged creatures.
• Grendel realizes that something is coming. He is afraid.
• He imagines “muffles footsteps overhead.” Could this be a reference to God?
• Grendel watches one of Hrothgar’s men pursue a hart (that’s a deer).
• He sees that the deer’s antlers look like wings.
• The hunter gets reading his bow. “Click, click.”
• Click. The deer is killed. Grendel feels “some riddle in it.”

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Summary

Will Grendel let the deer die?

• You should notice that Grendel is no longer writing poetically.
• Back at Hrothgar’s mead hall, the “gods” that the men worship are in front.
• The priests call for the death of “the terrible world-rim-walker.”
• Grendel smiles when he hears this, because nothing comes to hurt him.
• The people chant in a “language closer to [Grendel’s] than his own.”
• They talk to all of their gods, then stab a calf and burn it.
• Prince Hrothulf’s buddy, Red Horse says that “Religion is sick.” They used to kill “virgins.”

Summary

• Grendel see that the priests are all showmanship.
• Grendel says that years before he destroyed all of their god statues. And no one minded except the priests.
• The people rebuild the gods monuments, and Grendel decides to leave them as is. The gods are “inoffensible, dull.” The “hell with it.”

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• Everyone in Hrothgar’s home is having trouble sleeping.
• Everyone is asleep and the snow falls on the gods.

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Summary

• But “someone is awake.”
• It’s an old priest. And he approached Grendel, asks who is there.
• Grendel says that it is him: “The Destroyer.”
• The old priest is blind. He can not see Grendel. Only hear him.
• He says that his name is Ork, “the eldest and the wisest of the priests.”
• Grendel plans to kill him and spread his blood on the god statues.
• Grendel tells him to speak of the “King of Gods.”
• He says that the “King of Gods is the ultimate limitation.” .
• He says that God’s existence is the “ultimate irrationality.”

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Summary

• He says that God is not concrete, but he is “the nature of rationality.”
• He says that apart from God, there is “no relevant novelty.”
• God is the “lure of our feeling.”
• Grendel observes the old, blind man with “wonder.”
• Right here I am wanting to know if Grendel is going to kill him. The old man weeps and shakes.
• He says that God is “an infinite patience, a tender care” to the world.

• He says that the ultimate evil is “Time.”
• He says that “Things fade and Alternatives exclude.”
• The ultimate wisdom is that “nothing is lost” and that everything in life will be unified in time
• Others approach and Grendel leaves the old priest.

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Summary

• The other priests talk to Ork. And Grendel listens.
• One of them thinks that Ork is senile. He says that he talked with “the Great Destroyer.”
• They call BS on that.
• Ork says that he shared his beliefs with Grendel of the King of Gods “and didn’t deny it.” He believes that he is “approximately right.”
• A very young priest comes (and he has been drinking). He says that rational thought “leaves the mind incurable crippled.” Sweet fantasy has taken over.
• He believes that Ork’s “vision” offers hope for them all.

Summary

• Back at the hall, everyone sleeps, except for Unferth. He goes outside to pee.
• A wolf wakes to hear Grendel walk by.
• Grendel does not attack in winter, he just moves on. “uneasy; waiting.”

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• Done. Bed.