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SUMMARY IN BULLETS

Grendel responds to the spring time antics of a ram. The ram is looking for something to …. (you finish the sentence).
He lets out a “howl so unspeakable” that the water at his feet freezes, but the ram stays.
Grendel says that the ram is “like an elderly, slow witted king.” Theme
He says that this SPRING marks the 12^th year of his “idiotic war” with the humans.
Grendel talks to the sky about the need for the “creatures discover a little dignity, but the sky does not respond. So he flips it off.

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SUMMARY CONTINUED

Grendel thinks that he is a “pointless, ridiculous monster” but he is “neither proud nor ashamed” of that fact.
Patches of vegetation remind him of prior kills. This disgusts him.
He says that he is a “shadow shooter, earth rim roamer, walker of the world’s weird wall.”
A doe walks by him, and runs off when he is sighted. Scared of being killed. He says that it’s unfair to be judged like this because he has never hurt a deer.
He says that deer (dumb animals) are happy “because they see life without observing it.”
He talks again to his friend. His shadow. Damn, that’s a lonely dude.

SUMMARY CONTINUED

The beginning of spring (symbol) gets on his nerves.
Spring means a building of his anger “like an invisible fire.” He hungers for blood.
He goes to hunt. He realizes his mortality, the he “could die” and he “cackles with rage.”
He makes his way to Hrothgar’s mead hall (the bar).
All the animals along his way tremble in fear as he approaches.

SUMMARY CONTINUED

It is here that Grendel thinks of his mother. His mother can’t explain any meaning of life to him (he thinks she’s partly human because of her sense of guilt).
Grendel hints that an “old dragon” revealed the meaning to their existence. This is foreshadowing.
He arrives at Hrothgar’s mead hall. He says that he is a “respected guest.”
He “smiles like exploding spring” when he knocks and then breaks down the door.
The warriors blow out the lights hoping that Grendel can’t see him. But he sees in the dark. He laughs at this.

SUMMARY CONTINUED

Grendel goes off with his dead to eat. As the sun rises, he is “filled with gloom again.”
The town people start a funeral pyre and blame the attack on their sins against God.
The people burn the remains of the dead (vivid imagery) as Grendel watches.
They erupt into song and Grendel flees to his underground lair.

ANALYSIS

The importance of language and communication: Grendel is frustrated the he can not communicate with the ram, the doe, and his mom (who can not do anything but mumble and use hand signals).
Grendel is trapped in his one way communications. He talks to the sky. Then he talks to his shadow. He wants someone to talk to at his intellect.
Grendel becomes, basically, a dude with multiple personalities: A crying, sobbing child; a freaking raging beast; a cold killer; a philosopher (someone who seeks to find the meaning of life).

ANALYSIS

Art and society: Grendel is an outsider in his own world that stinks and has no beauty. The way that he thinks (talks to himself) is very poetic and beautiful with his constant uses of poetic devices.
He doesn’t like the animals and his dumb mother because they have no “dignity” and beauty which he finds in art. He is the “disfigured son of lunatics.”
I think his hatred of men stems from their ability to create and appreciate (or not) art.
He lives his life “spinning a web of words, pale walls of dreams.”

ANALYSIS

Morality: Society is represented here by King Hrothgar’s people.
He sees King Hrothgar as “hoary with winters.” That means old.
He questions their reliance and belief in religion when they sing at the funeral. It makes him so mad that he rages with anger. The song represents their “lunatic” belief in God.
The deer in the chapter is a metaphor for man. They “see life without observing it.”
He has been fighting this “idiotic war” for 12 years. He thinks it’s “stupidity.”
He sees society as being led by an “elderly, slow-witted king.”
Orphism: Mankind (society) in the book, according to Grendel, is in “a state of forgetfulness of its true, spiritual nature.”
Heraclitis: Grendel believes that “society lacks understanding, most people sleepwalk through life not understanding what is going on around them.
The fire at the end of the chapter “burns” Grendel. The fire is is one of natures elements.

ANALYSIS

Mortality and Meaning: Grendel is “aware of [his] potential” that he “could die.”
When he was younger, he “played cat and mouse with the universe,” but he is smarter now because he knows that he could die.
He is able to see in the dark, possibly symbolic of men (society) being blinded to the truth of life by their beliefs.
He doesn’t believe men’s “theories.” “They’d map out roads through hell with their crackpot theories.”

ZODIAC/PHILOSOPHY ALLUSION

The ram at the beginning. Stubborn and head-strong. It won’t leave. He refuses to be pushed around.
Grendel has been fighting this war for 12 years, figuratively butting his horns against the same obstacle until he breaks down.

Grendel is bold and devoted to his path, but not caring and devoted.

He is prideful, self-centered, impulsive, bossy, stubborn, reckless and competitive.