Grendel
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Grendel is one of three antagonists, along with Grendel's mother and the dragon, in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf (c. 700–1000). In the poem, Grendel is feared by all but Beowulf. Grendel is referred to as a march-stepper, literally meaning a "boundary-land walker," a walker in outlands or desolate places.
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[edit] Story
- See main article: Beowulf
The poem, Beowulf, is contained in the Nowell Codex. As noted in lines 106-114 and lines 1260-1267 of Beowulf, Grendel's mother and Grendel are descendants of Cain. Beowulf leaves Geatland in order to find and destroy Grendel, who has been attacking Heorot. Barring his lineage, all motives for his attacks are left up to the reader. One cryptic scene, where Grendel sits in the abandoned hall unable to approach the throne hints that his motives may be greed or revenge. After a long battle, he does so and mortally wounds Grendel (its worth noting that he tears Grendel's arm off). He later engages in a fierce battle with Grendel's mother, whom he triumphs over. Following her death, Beowulf finds Grendel's corpse and removes the head, keeping it as a trophy. Beowulf then returns to the surface and to his men at the "ninth hour" (l. 1600, "nōn", about 3pm). [1] He returns to Heorot, where he is given many gifts by an even more grateful Hroðgar.
In 1971, author John Gardner published the novel Grendel, which was the telling of Beowulf from the monster's point of view.
[edit] Scholarship on Grendel
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In 1936, J.R.R. Tolkien's Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics discussed Grendel and the dragon in Beowulf. This essay was the first work of scholarship in which Anglo-Saxon literature was seriously examined for its literary merits—not just scholarship about the origins of the English language as was popular in the 19th century.
In the following decades, the nature of Grendel's identity would become a conundrum for scholars due in large part to a line where he is described as descended from the biblical Cain, the first murderer. For some scholars, this justifies a monstrous appearance. For others, it positions Grendel as a marginal (rather than monstrous) figure which bears the curse and mark of Cain. But, if one examines history closer, they will find that Christianity had not been introduced yet in the area that the story takes place, thus negating the merit of any references to God, biblical stories, or Christianity as canon to the actual story of Beowulf.[citation needed]
Kuhn (1979) was the first to raise questions about and the association of any of the above images with Grendel and in an essay which would launch fierce (and as of yet unresolved) debates for decades about the term áglaéca:
- There are five disputed instances of áglaéca [three of which are in Beowulf] 649, 1269, 1512...In the first...the referent can be either Beowulf or Grendel. If the poet and his audience felt the word to have two meanings, 'monster,' and 'hero,' the ambiguity would be troublesome; but if by áglaéca they understood a 'fighter,' the ambiguity would be of little consequence, for battle was destined for both Beowulf and Grendel and both were fierce fighters (216-7).
Other scholars, such as O'Keefe, identify Grendel with a Berserker, because of numerous associations that seem to point to this possibility. [2]
John Grigsby, in his Beowulf and Grendel :The Truth behind England's oldest legend' suggested that Grendel is a demonized version of the old Danish fertility god Freyr, and even goes as far as linking Grendel with the Green Knight of Arthurian legend.
[edit] References
- Jack, George. Beowulf : A Student Edition. Oxford University Press: New York, 1997.
- Frederick Klaeber, ed. Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg. Third ed. Boston: Heath, 1950.
- Kuhn, Sherman M. "Old English Aglaeca-Middle Irish Olach." Linguistic Method : Essays in Honor of Herbert Penzl. Eds. Irmengard Rauch and Gerald F. Carr. The Hague, New York: Mouton Publishers, 1979. 213-30.
- J.R.R. Tolkien, Beowulf, the Monsters and the Critics. (Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture, British Academy, 1936). First ed. London: Humphrey Milford, 1937.
[edit] Notes
[edit] External links
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