ENTER THE SENTIENT ANTAGONIST
With this post, we find ourselves in the deeply weird. Of course, the weird comes in the form of one of the tale’s three, not-quite-human characters that Beowulf faces in mutual enmity. Even school children know that every good story of knights and wars, damsels and dark nights must have an antagonist – a monster, a devil, a ghost, or a sentient creature that cannot quite be categorized. (Ambulatory, severed hands aside.) Grendel is such a figure and perhaps, the most complex character in the story.
Grendel inhabits the shadows. He comes to Heorot at night. His “residence” is deep in the fens. His very mother is a creature of the dark tucked inside the earth. Because of this shaded essence, it is difficult to picture Grendel, although I dare say each of us can conjure his features from our own nightmares, our deepest fear, the “thing” we most fear will jump out of the dimness and cling to us while we are devoured.
What do we know about Grendel? We know he is tall, dark, and of unpleasant visage – a face only a marsh-dwelling mother could love. Strangely, for all his spooky characteristics (e.g. claws), he appears to have no magical powers. He is a hulking composite of a WWF star wrestler, a porno star, and a lumberjack. Size, strength, and prowess, but no mystical powers, no impish sidekicks, and no Penelope waiting in Ithaca. He does have human characteristics. He bleeds. He seems to think and plan in a rudimentary way – but is it really “rudimentary” when intending to carry off a few dozen knights for a tasty snack. He bleeds – copiously – thanks to Beowulf’s ministrations. He has a name; the other two “monsters” do not.
Seamus Heaney, in my opinion the best translator of this epic, wrote that Grendel “comes alive in the reader’s imagination as a kind of dog-breath in the dark.” Heaney also uses phrases describing Grendel as feeling “sick at heart,” and as he trudges home, “bleeding out his life.” Grendel has a hidden innocence about him. It may seem a paradox, but not surprising that in the 1971 novel, John Gardner writes Grendel as a young boy.
Perhaps Grendel is a young boy in heart and mind – a mother’s boy – perpetually hungry in the middle of the night. How innocent the scene’s intent. How gruesome his midnight nibble.
III
GRENDEL THE MURDERER.
Grendel attacks the sleeping heroes
When the sun was sunken, he set out to visit
The lofty hall-building, how the Ring-Danes had used it
For beds and benches when the banquet was over.
Then he found there reposing many a noble
5
Asleep after supper; sorrow the heroes,(1)
Misery knew not. The monster of evil
Greedy and cruel tarried but little,
He drags off thirty of them, and devours them
Fell and frantic, and forced from their slumbers
Thirty of thanemen; thence he departed
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Leaping and laughing, his lair to return to,
With surfeit of slaughter sallying homeward.
In the dusk of the dawning, as the day was just breaking,
Was Grendel’s prowess revealed to the warriors:
A cry of agony goes up, when Grendel’s horrible deed is fully realized.
Then, his meal-taking finished, a moan was uplifted,
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Morning-cry mighty. The man-ruler famous,
The long-worthy atheling, sat very woful,
Suffered great sorrow, sighed for his liegemen,
[6]
When they had seen the track of the hateful pursuer,
The spirit accursèd: too crushing that sorrow,
The monster returns the next night.
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Too loathsome and lasting. Not longer he tarried,
But one night after continued his slaughter
Shameless and shocking, shrinking but little
From malice and murder; they mastered him fully.
He was easy to find then who otherwhere looked for
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A pleasanter place of repose in the lodges,
A bed in the bowers. Then was brought to his notice
Told him truly by token apparent
The hall-thane’s hatred: he held himself after
Further and faster who the foeman did baffle.
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(2)So ruled he and strongly strove against justice
Lone against all men, till empty uptowered
King Hrothgar’s agony and suspense last twelve years.
The choicest of houses. Long was the season:
Twelve-winters’ time torture suffered
The friend of the Scyldings, every affliction,
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Endless agony; hence it after(3) became
Certainly known to the children of men
Sadly in measures, that long against Hrothgar
Grendel struggled:—his grudges he cherished,
Murderous malice, many a winter,
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Strife unremitting, and peacefully wished he
4Life-woe to lift from no liegeman at all of
The men of the Dane-folk, for money to settle,
No counsellor needed count for a moment
[7]
On handsome amends at the hands of the murderer;
Grendel is unremitting in his persecutions.
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The monster of evil fiercely did harass,
The ill-planning death-shade, both elder and younger,
Trapping and tricking them. He trod every night then
The mist-covered moor-fens; men do not know where
Witches and wizards wander and ramble.
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So the foe of mankind many of evils
Grievous injuries, often accomplished,
Horrible hermit; Heort he frequented,
Gem-bedecked palace, when night-shades had fallen
God is against the monster.
(Since God did oppose him, not the throne could he touch,(5)
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The light-flashing jewel, love of Him knew not).
’Twas a fearful affliction to the friend of the Scyldings
The king and his council deliberate in vain.
Soul-crushing sorrow. Not seldom in private
Sat the king in his council; conference held they
What the braves should determine ’gainst terrors unlooked for.
They invoke the aid of their gods.
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At the shrines of their idols often they promised
Gifts and offerings, earnestly prayed they
The devil from hell would help them to lighten
Their people’s oppression. Such practice they used then,
Hope of the heathen; hell they remembered
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In innermost spirit, God they knew not,
The true God they do not know.
Judge of their actions, All-wielding Ruler,
No praise could they give the Guardian of Heaven,
The Wielder of Glory. Woe will be his who
Through furious hatred his spirit shall drive to
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The clutch of the fire, no comfort shall look for,
Wax no wiser; well for the man who,
Living his life-days, his Lord may face
And find defence in his Father’s embrace!
(Footnotes)
(1) The translation is based on ‘weras,’ adopted by H.-So.—K. and Th. read ‘wera’ and, arranging differently, render 119(2)-120: They knew not sorrow, the wretchedness of man, aught of misfortune.—For ‘unhælo’ (120) R. suggests ‘unfælo’: The uncanny creature, greedy and cruel, etc.
(2) S. rearranges and translates: So he ruled and struggled unjustly, one against all, till the noblest of buildings stood useless (it was a long while) twelve years’ time: the friend of the Scyldings suffered distress, every woe, great sorrows, etc.
(3) For ‘syððan,’ B. suggests ‘sárcwidum’: Hence in mournful words it became well known, etc. Various other words beginning with ‘s’ have been conjectured.
(4) The H.-So. glossary is very inconsistent in referring to this passage.—‘Sibbe’ (154), which H.-So. regards as an instr., B. takes as accus., obj. of ‘wolde.’ Putting a comma after Deniga, he renders: He did not desire peace with any of the Danes, nor did he wish to remove their life-woe, nor to settle for money.
(5) Of this difficult passage the following interpretations among others are given: (1) Though Grendel has frequented Heorot as a demon, he could not become ruler of the Danes, on account of his hostility to God. (2) Hrothgar was much grieved that Grendel had not appeared before his throne to receive presents. (3) He was not permitted to devastate the hall, on account of the Creator; i.e. God wished to make his visit fatal to him.—Ne … wisse (169) W. renders: Nor had he any desire to do so; ‘his’ being obj. gen. = danach.
Background
Consider Beowulf, the classic hero – noble, enormously strong, if not terribly bright, a leader of men, a warrior who like almost all such heroes, endures bitter conflicts with worthy opponents, and for the most part, wins the day, if not the damsel. It seems he did not have effective socialization in childhood. After all, he was an orphan. He never married nor fathered children – we are told. (This may be a bias of the religious scribe(s) who penned the story.) Beowulf is not complex. He is total warrior. Wide him up and watch him slash, rip, and tear. These characteristics combine to a composite profile of a man outside social norms, no intimate relationships that we’re told about, and most critical, if this were a modern story, no internal life.
Exploration 1: In life or dreams or somewhere in between, have you encountered a sentient creature like Grendel? What was your experience?
Exploration 2: Can a person with Beowulf’s character profile really be a hero? Why or why not?
Exploration 3: What feelings do you have toward/about Grendel? Consider, for example, whether he deserves compassion.
Exploration 4: What is your reaction to the suggestion that Grendel can be experienced as a young boy?
1. No. It's insentient creatures that haunt my dreams: mostly cars that won't go, or disappear when I'm trying to get to the airport.
ReplyDelete2. Yes. He won some, he lost some. He's a tragic hero.
3. I feel sorry for Grendel. He ends up killed because the Danes neglected to build a wall around their beerhall and set a watch.
4. Writers come up with all kinds of stuff to fill the white spaces.