Summary
Hrothgar, inspired by the Shaper’s song of a glorious
meadhall emanating a light that would “shine to the ends of the
ragged world,” decides to build a magnificent meadhall high on a
hill to stand as an eternal testament to the mighty justice of his
Danes. Hrothgar plans to achieve glory by dispensing treasure from
his new meadhall, and he hopes for his descendants to do the same.
He sends to far-off kingdoms for artisans and builders to create
the marvelous building. When it is finished, Hrothgar names the
hall Hart and invites all the races of men to witness it. Grendel
scoffs at the pomposity of it all, but he still manages to get caught
up in the joyful celebration and the endlessly optimistic display
of Hrothgar’s supposed goodness. Overcome with grief and shame at
his own nasty, bloodthirsty ways, Grendel slinks away from Hart.
Grendel wanders through the forest, puzzling aloud over
the Shaper’s mysterious power. The forest whispers back at him,
but he feels as if a darker, more sinister force were speaking to
him as well. The chilly, invisible presence grows in intensity and
continues to unnerve Grendel. He grabs at a fat, slick vine, thinking
it is a snake, only to discover it is harmless after all. The presence
follows Grendel to the edge of town before mysteriously disappearing.
At the outskirts of town, Grendel observes young couples
courting. While circling the clearing, he steps on a man whose throat
has been cut and whose clothes have been stolen. Grendel is baffled
by the contrast between the innocent picture of the pairs of lovers
and the violently murdered corpse. Just as Grendel lifts the corpse
over his shoulder, the Shaper begins to play his harp. The Shaper
sings of the creation of the world by the greatest of gods, and
of an ancient feud between two brothers that split the world between
darkness and light. The Shaper claims that Grendel is on the side
cursed by God. The Shaper’s words are so powerful that Grendel almost believes
them, although he takes the corpse—a man murdered by his fellow
men—as proof that the notion of a clear divide between man and monster
is flawed. Nonetheless, overcome by the power of the Shaper’s song,
Grendel staggers toward the hall with the body in his hands, crying
for mercy and declaring himself a friend. The men do not understand
Grendel’s cries, and they chase him out of the town with battle-axes
and poison-tipped spears.
Grendel throws himself down on the forest floor, causing
a twelve-foot crack to appear in the ground. He swears at Hrothgar’s Danes
with curses he has picked up from human conversations he has overheard.
When Grendel regains his calm, he looks up through the treetops,
half expecting to see the god whom the Shaper described. Grendel
asks the sky why he cannot have someone to talk to, as Hrothgar
and the Shaper do. Grendel comforts himself with the knowledge that
the Danes are doomed: he knows enough about human nature to realize
that Hrothgar’s descendants are very unlikely to follow Hrothgar’s
glorious ideas of philanthropy.
Two nights later, however, Grendel returns to hear more
of the Shaper’s song. Though he is increasingly addicted, he nonetheless
is enraged by the Shaper’s hopeful words, convinced of the mechanical brutishness
of reality. Though Grendel dismisses the Shaper’s proposed religious
system as a crackpot theory, he admits that he desperately wants
to believe in it himself. Once again, Grendel hears sinister whisperings
in the darkness, and he can feel the mysterious force pulling at
him. He grabs a vine to reassure himself, only to discover this
time that the vine really is a snake.
Back in the cave, Grendel’s mother whimpers at him, straining for
language, but the only sound she manages to produce is the gibberish
sound “Dool-dool! Dool-dool!”Grendel
sleeps, only to wake up to the darkness pulling at him even more
inexorably than before. He leaves the cave and walks to the cliff
side. Grendel makes his mind a blank and sinks like a stone, down
through the earth and sea.
