Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Individual
Group Discount
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews October 5, 2023 September 28, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan - Group Discount
Qty: 00
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
But they were doomed, I knew, and I was glad. No denying it. Let them wander the fogroads of Hell.
After the men chase Grendel out of town, Grendel considers the possibility that the Shaper could change the men’s minds about him and there would be peace for everyone. However, he quickly dismisses the idea, seeing a deadly future for all of the men. Even though he wanted to befriend them at first, he now feels happy at the thought of their demise in retribution for rejecting him. Just as the men cannot control their fate, Grendel cannot control his own monstrous tendencies.
And even if, say I interfere—burn up somebody’s meadhall, for instance, whether because I just feel like it or because some supplicant asked me to—even then I do not change the future, I merely do what I saw from the beginning. That’s obvious, surely. Let’s say it’s settled then. So much for free will and intercession!
Here, the dragon explains to Grendel that while he is able to see everything in the past, present, and future, he cannot do anything to change the events that have happened or will happen because everything is already fated. Even though the dragon can have some control over events, he can only do what was meant to be in the first place. According to the dragon, there is no use in taking action to change the course of one’s life, or even in asking the dragon for a favor, because one’s fate is already set in stone.
Nothing was changed, everything was changed, by my having seen the dragon. It’s one thing to listen, full of scorn and doubt, to poets’ versions of time past and visions of time to come; it’s another to know, as coldly and simply as my mother knows her pile of bones, what is.
After Grendel talks with the dragon, he suddenly feels different. Although nothing has actually changed, and cannot change based on what the dragon said, Grendel notes that his whole world has been altered. Before talking with the dragon, Grendel seemed to know that he and the men had a certain fate, but he could not be sure. Now that he knows the full truth, as confirmed by the dragon, Grendel feels that life is as meaningless as ever and trying to change one’s fate seems futile.
Please wait while we process your payment