Grendel

The chapter begins with a script as though from a play, and while the script begins in present tense, the events are a recollection by the present Grendel. The script’s characters are Hrothulf, the orphaned 14-year-old nephew of Hrothgar whose father had been killed; and Wealtheow, who welcomed Hrothulf to their home. The boy was mute throughout his first year with Hrothgar and his followers, but Grendel observed that the young Hrothulf had violent tendencies. One day, when the boy walked in the forest with an older man who had become his adviser, Grendel heard them talking about power and freedom. The man challenged the boy’s idealistic views on violence, stating that all systems and governments are “evil.”

Now observing the situation in Hrothgar’s court, Grendel sees the potential for violence and treachery, noting Hrothgar’s age and his preoccupation with “abandoned hopes” as Hrothulf’s presence is a threat to Hrothgar’s own sons and heirs. Grendel feels pity for the elderly king, whose own wife appears aware of his failure. This pity protects the king, as Grendel finds he is unable to destroy Hrothgar. Grendel sends Hrothgar a haunting, recurring dream about two tree trunks that fuse together. The dream appears in verse on the page.

The month is December, and nature is frozen and dead. The town’s children make shapes in the snow, “winged creatures” (126), and Grendel recognizes them as he makes his way to the meadhall, feeling a sense of foreboding.

Grendel spies on a man hunting a deer, and the antlers of the deer appear as if they are reaching toward the sky. When the man kills the deer with his bow and arrow, “time is a rush for the hart” (127), and the image entrances Grendel.

Now, there are images of gods on the meadhall, and priests appear, begging the gods for relief from Grendel’s attacks. They sacrifice animals, and one man speaks to another of the past tradition of sacrificing virgins, calling religion “sick.” Grendel agrees, noticing that the priests are performers of rituals and nothing more. When he eats priests, he notices that they “sit on the stomach like duck eggs” (129).

One night, at midnight, Grendel stands in the ring of statues outside the meadhall and watches Hrothgar and Wealtheow lay awake inside. Others sleep, and the Shaper is feverish and mumbling. Snow covers the wooden statues of gods. An old priest named Ork senses Grendel’s presence and confronts him. Grendel introduces himself as “the Destroyer,” and he asks Ork to tell him about “the King of the Gods” (131). Ork’s speech is not what Grendel expects; the priest grows emotional and overwrought as he talks about the mysteries of creativity, purpose, and beauty. Grendel is unsure how to respond, so as other priests approach Ork, Grendel hides “behind a fat stone image of a god with a skull in his lap and a blacksmith’s apron” (133).

The conversation between Ork and the three priests appears on the page as a script. They discuss how Ork’s age has affected his cognition and how he tends to endanger himself, while Ork defends himself and explains that he has spoken with “the Great Destroyer” (133). The other priests dismiss his words as blasphemous and try to take him to bed. A fourth priest runs towards them, drunk, and he “listens in rapture” (135), believing Ork and expressing his gladness that Ork’s previously rational thoughts have been chased away by this “vision” of the Destroyer. Grendel’s impulse to kill them recedes.

Grendel sees that Hrothgar finally sleeps. Unferth gets up to relieve himself as the snow falls, and Grendel notices that he feels restless though he does not usually attack the meadhall in the winter. Grendel is bemused to see a sun surrounded by spiders in the distance, and he feels the vision must be a kind of dream.