GRENDEL

"In the town, children go down on their backs in the drifted snow and move their arms and, when they rise, leave behind them impressions, mysterious and ominous of winged creatures." (pp. 125-126)
"He has wings. Is it possible? And yet it’s true: out of his shoulders come terrible, fiery wings." (p. 169)

In the novel Grendel, John Gardner reinforces the evil inherent in the villain from the epic poem, Beowulf, while simultaneously showing the monster’s point of view and seeking the audience’s sympathy. The above quotes illustrate the extent of Grendel’s evil by revealing his aversion, suspicion, and hatred of angels. Grendel looks at the children’s snow angels as "mysterious and ominous," and his imagination attaches "fiery wings" to Beowulf, his eventual killer.

"I twisted around as far as I could, hunting wildly for her shape on the cliffs, but there was nothing, or, rather, there was everything but my mother. Thing after thing tried, cynical and cruel, to foist itself off as my mama’s shape-a black rock balanced at the edge of the cliff, a dead tree casting a long-armed shadow, a running stag, a cave entrance-each thing trying to detach itself, lift itself out of the meaningless scramble of objects, but falling back, melting to the blank, infuriating clutter of not-my-mother." (p. 19)

During Gardner’s attempt to characterize Grendel, he gives him many qualities in addition to his evil. Here, Grendel has caught his foot in a crevice, and is seriously injured. He is a child, and is desperate and hysterical as he waits for his mother to arrive. The audience can naturally sympathize with Grendel; a mother’s love is, after all, a universal concept.

"The harp turned solemn. He told of an ancient feud between two brothers which split all the world between darkness and light. And I Grendel, was the dark side, he said in effect. The terrible race God cursed.
"I believed him. Such was the power of the Shaper’s harp! Stood wriggling my face, letting tears down my nose, grinding my fists into my streaming eyes, even though to do it I had to squeeze with my elbow the corpse of the proof that both of us were cursed, or neither, that the brothers had never lived, nor the god who judged them.
"‘Waaa!’ I bawled." (p. 51)

Once again, Gardner softens Grendel's initial evil characterization. Again the audience feels sympathy, this time for Grendel’s entire situation. Apparently, the Shaper wove a tale that condemned Grendel’s race and, eavesdropping, Grendel is emotionally devastated.