About this title: A retelling of the Beowulf mythology from the perspective of Grendel, the monster who preys upon the Anglo-Saxons of Hrothgar's tribe. Grendel is a nihilist who opposes the rationalism and self-abnegation of human beings and fears the advent of the society they are attempting to construct. He is defeated by Beowulf in the end.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780679723110ISBN:0679723110
Description: Good. A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dustcover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "from the library of" labels. ******PLEASE NOTE****** Orders placed after Dec. 7 cannot be guaranteed delivery before Christmas unless you select EXPEDITED shipping! Thank you & Happy Holidays! read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Book shows minor use. Cover and Binding have minimal wear and the pages have only minimal creases. A tradition of southern quality and service. All books guaranteed at the Atlanta Book Company. read more
Description: Good. Book shows minor use. Cover and Binding have minimal wear and the pages have only minimal creases. A tradition of southern quality and service. All books guaranteed at the Atlanta Book Company. read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
"this review may or may not contain spoilers. i assume that most bookish people are familiar with the basic plot elements of beowulf, either through high school required reading or that video-game-looking movie, or cocktails at the heaney's. if not - this could ruin everything! but it wont. ah, existentialism... when i was a young lass with my fontanelle as yet unfused; when i still liked the doors and books about manson, i dabbled briefly and emotionally in existentialism. "l'enfer c'est les autres"...it just sounds so good, doesnt it? and not just because it is french and therefore inherently sexified.but it sounds so romantically world-weary and byronesque. and when you work retail, the surface of that statement rings true every single day. but at its core, it is of course infantile and selfish. and this book was when i first realized this.what i love about this book, beyond just the gorgeous simplicity of gardners prose (and, for some reason, the font) are its hidden depths. it isnt just a retelling, it isnt an apology or explanation - it does smooth out the rough warrior edges of beowulf (the work, not the character) and gives great powers of articulation to grendel with his almost genteel existential worldview, but there are subterranean caverns of philosophy tucked away in here. and i am not someone who digs on philosophy, but i do love the way it is explored here. there was some interview with gardner - must have been in the seventies, and someone was asking him about this book and "what it meeeeeans", and gardner just sighed and said "there are twelve chapters. there are twelve zodiac signs. you figure it out". which is douchey, yes, but it makes me laugh. and, yes, of course there are the zodiac elements, and the nihilism of the dragon and so many other things happening in this tiny little book. but what stays with me, besides grendels whole "i alone exist, i create the universe blink by blink" speech, is of course poor existential grendel losing his comfortable childish worldview and "growing up" as he is beaten with his own arm (why are you hitting yourself??) and being shouted at. "sing of walls, bitches!!" There are of course other stages of development at work here, but the one that affected me most powerfully at 17 was this renunciation of existentialism. i think it marked my entrance into womanhood, and it had nothing to do with menarche or penetration or tax forms. for me, the adult world became mine when i set aside childish things unexpectedly (and incompletely) in the wake of a monsters arm. grendels had an accident. so may you all."
"I must admit, I was completely surprised by this book. I came in with very low expectations (I never expect much from a book on the summer reading list) and came out of it a huge fan of Gardner's writing! Honestly, his prose his beautiful. His style, although hard to pin down (it literally changes each chapter), is always interesting and engaging. So you know Grendel. Well, maybe you don't. I didn't. I've never read Beowulf and now I wish I had because I think this book may have been much more amusing/englightening (kind of how you feel after learning the wicked witch's side in 'Wicked'). In any case, Grendel is a monster. The hulking, giant sort that roam the dark countryside and eat people for breakfast. I never knew whether to hate him or love him. Sometimes he seems like a lost puppy: lonely, confused, and at odds with his nature. At others he plays the part of devilish fiend all too convincingly. It was hard to pin down his character, or even his motivations - they changed constantly, on a whim. Gardner obviously put a lot of research into this. There's some very thinly veiled allusions to Neitzche type philosophy and a constant use of the term "void" that had me thinking of Nabokov when he said, "it is a violin in the void." His parallel structure is flawless, his word choice astounding. Really, so much better than I ever could have hoped for."
"A monster tries his hand at philosophy. He doesn't remember how he learned to speak the language of the Danes, but he also seems to have read Nietzsche and knows some Latin. There's a reference to the "will to power" and he says "nihil ex nihilo."
So this is really John Gardner deconstructing Beowulf. Tell it from the monster's perspective and turn the world on its head. "Sympathy for the Devil." The monster is capable of intelligence and admiring the beauty of the queen, but there's nobody to redeem him. He is shunned by humans who fear his ugliness and strength, the dragon gives him a crash course in nihilism, and the only person who cares for him is his drooling mother. So what's a monster to do but amuse himself with slaughter and mock the humans who can't stop him and try to construct meaning out of "copulating dust."
Grendel speaks of a wickedness inside him and being born of a cursed race but rejects the gods and ridicules the Shaper's songs for masking reality with a smile. Where does Grendel come up with wickedness and the idea of a curse if there's no such thing as Good and Blessing?
The problem with this tale is that Gardner arouses sympathy for Grendel by telling the story from his point of view, but Grendel's actions are objectively evil. The Bible does not encourage us to feel sympathy for evil, but to try to redeem it while also calling out for justice.
The original Beowulf story was Christianized by a monk and passed on to us. But those who refuse Christianity rewind the tape and undo the redemption, like with the recent movie.
In the end, Grendel calls his death at the hands of Beowulf an accident and wishes an accident on all those "evil" creatures who come out to watch him die. But Gardner's De-Christianized tale bears no resemblance to an accident. He's out to de-convert the world."
"Well, it had promise - i think it fulfilled some of it. What an idea of telling a very old tale - I understand it is one of the first english tales? - from the viewpoint of the monster Grendel.
"A" for enthusiasm and imagination, rather grim and dark of course, and yet when you've completed it, all you have immersed yourself in is a possible view of the inside motivations of a mythical monster...
Okay, there was some rather interesting stretches of philosophy - about time, order, whether guilt for something past is real, when in the moment is what existence is all about. Some rather bemused observations about humans warring against each other for apparently no reason than holding the other groups possessions until they come take them back.
I'll quote one of Grendel's thoughts regarding violence and order: "All order, I've come to understand, is theoretical, unreal - a harmless, sensible, smiling mask men slide between the two dark realities, the self and the world - two snakepits. The watchful mind lies, cunning and swift, about the dark blood's lust, lies and lies and lies until, weary of talk, the watchman sleeps. Then, sudden and swift the enemy strikes from nowhere, the cavernous heart.""
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