Laura’s place

After reading Beowulf, I thought it only appropriate to read Grendel by John Gardner. Uhh…so I did.

Grendel by John Gardner is the Beowulf story but from the monster’s point of view, up until the point where he gets killed of course. I know, I know, this is supposed to be a spoilerless book review, but is it really any spoiler if I say Grendel dies? It’s what the book is about! Even if you didn’t read the book, it’s just how old folk tales go.

Reading Beowulf, I felt really sorry for Grendel. In Beowulf Grendel is really just a dumb animal looking for food. He really doesn’t know any better. Would you blame a starving wild animal if it attacked you? I thought Beowulf was fighting Grendel extremely single-mindedly, no matter how cool Beowulf is. Reading Grendel just strengthened my opinions. But in Grendel, Grendel isn’t just a dumb animal. Grendel can think, he can know what’s going on. That made it more interesting, but one get’s the idea Grendel could have stopped himself from killing everyone and acting like a jerk…until he starts going crazy. I think the most interesting parts of the book are when Grendel is acting crazy, which is most of the second half. He can still think and everything, but he does crazy things for crazy reasons. It’s…crazy. I have to say Beowulf is a whole lot more single-minded in Grendel, Hrothgar much more of a jerk, Unferth a lot more respectable, and Grendel’s mom a lot more…animal-like. This story sort of changes the characters, makes them more than what they seem in any other retellings of Beowulf. They seem so much more meaningful. John Gardner is certainly a great author and I highly recommend Grendel.