Grendel figures that the reader, after seeing Hrothgar
in such a pitiful state, must be wondering how Grendel can stand
to torment the Danes any further. Grendel responds by claiming that
his attacks give men dignity and nobility: he made men
what they are and, as their creator, has a right to test them. Grendel
grows angry with the reader for pestering him with questions, saying
that all this grief and energy must eventually lead to something
important. Grendel then comes up with a dream that he will “impute”
to Hrothgar, about a tree with two joined trunks that gets split
by an ax.
Analysis
With the arrival of Hrothulf and his revolutionary ideas,
the Scylding community moves into yet another stage of development,
with Hrothulf embodying the new era’s rising political consciousness. Hrothulf,
though young, is perceptive enough to notice the economic and political
divide between the haves and the have-nots, and he becomes determined
to rectify this imbalance of power. His ideas about the tyranny
of the ruling class and the disenfranchisement of the working class
are akin to concerns expressed by twentieth-century socialists,
who advocated political and economic systems that benefited all
of society, not merely aristocrats. In Hrothulf’s eyes, the Scylding
government has been built on violence and continues to be violent.
In the original Beowulf epic, Hrothulf actually
does usurp Hrothgar’s throne; this chapter in Grendel gives
us the history and psychology behind that revolution.
Hrothulf’s development in many ways parallels Grendel’s
own. Grendel, like Hrothulf, is sad, lonely, and frustrated with
the state of the world around him. Isolated and bitter, both characters
try to find theories and systems that will fix or explain what they
see as the essential problem in their respective worlds. Furthermore,
Red Horse’s relationship with Hrothulf mirrors the dragon’s relationship
with Grendel. Both mentors share certain characteristics, such a
mocking tone and a superior air. Always a few steps ahead of their students,
both Red Horse and the dragon enjoy disabusing their pupils of their
idealistic notions. Both teachers take their students’ nascent philosophical
or political ideas and push them toward the extremes of thought.
Grendel, for example, has a general feeling that the world is meaningless;
the dragon responds that, yes, the world is meaningless and therefore
there is no point in anything. Hrothulf feels that the government
is unjust and violent; Red Horse responds that, yes, the government
is unjust, but then again, all governments are
unjust, so there is no point in government at all. Just as the dragon
opposes the senselessness of philosophical systems, Red Horse opposes
the senselessness of political systems. Red Horse is an anarchist,
a person who believes that all governments are violent and are therefore
inherently wrong and futile.
Among the Danes, Hrothulf is probably the one who most closely
resembles Grendel, which may be why he is the first human in the
novel to make an extended speech. Up until this point, Grendel’s
narrative has mainly been an observation of humans and a record
of their interactions. In the last chapter we have seen Grendel become
more inventive with his style and form, and in this chapter we see
him make another authorial leap. In Chapter 8, Grendel gives
us the first glimpse of the other characters’ inner thoughts, which
up to this point we have likely presumed he has no means of accessing.
Whereas in the earlier chapters Grendel watches the other characters
as one would watch a pack of animals, now he understands their psychology
as well. In fact, there is much evidence to support the claim that
all the human dialogue in this chapter is actually created by Grendel
himself. Hrothulf’s soliloquies in the yard and in the woods, for
example, are written in verse. As we may assume that Hrothulf does
not naturally burst into poetry, we may infer that Grendel has shaped
Hrothulf’s thoughts into verse when writing this chapter. Grendel
supports this inference by framing a large part of the chapter as
a script with scene titles, as if he is writing a play in which
Hrothulf, Wealtheow, and Red Horse are merely characters. This is
not to say, however, that Grendel is making the entire story of
the novel up in his head. Rather, he is learning to structure his
story imaginatively, turning his tale into a work of art rather
than simply recording events. As Grendel is learning more and more
about the power of language, he is becoming more and more like the
Shaper.
