Grendel john gardner pdf free download

The ram's stupidity makes him very angry. He thinks about how mindless the world is-the sky stares down at him, day after day--and about the people he's killed, year after year. Now it is spring again. A deer sees him and is terrified, and this insults him. He would never kill a deer: cows are meatier and easier to catch.

No one, not even humans, understands what Grendel is really like. All creatures except himself and humans, in fact, is too simple to understand anything. Grendel is depressed by how similar each day is to the next. He knows spring is coming: he feels it even from the cave where he lives with his mother, whose stupidity and ugly body disgust him. He hates his own biological needs: he comes out of hibernation in spite of himself, hungry for blood.

He goes out into the night, at first afraid of the darkness and the sound of his own howling. But then he realizes that the screams are just his own voice, and the landscape can't hurt him. He thinks about yelling some insult out into the night, and this cheers him up.

He notices how everything is afraid of him, and he remembers how he used to enjoy that, when he was younger. He knows his mother is waiting for him. She seems disturbed, though she does not speak. Grendel thinks of her as a fool; he does not believe she thinks about anything.

He used to believe she had some secret to tell him, but that was before the dragon told him the ugly truth. Everyone is fearfully expecting him. He takes several people and devours them outside, listening to the cries of those left behind. They think he has been sent as a curse, and they pray for him to leave them. He thinks this is ridiculous. He watches the Shaper, a blind musician, sitting alone, and sees that Hrothgar does not join the people in prayer.

The people begin gathering the body parts Grendel left behind, so they can be burned at a funeral ceremony. They faithfully begin to rebuild the door Grendel tore down, as they have done every year since he has come. Grendel watches them restore their castle and honor their dead, and it infuriates him.

He runs home. Chapter 2 Grendel talks to himself, though no one can understand him and he himself thinks of it as more automatic than intelligent. He remembers how he used to explore his cave when he was very young.

He discovered a secret door, guarded by snakes, and when he went through the door the snakes didn't bother him. This is how he discovered the world outside. He explored farther. He looked at the other creatures living in the cave, and decided that only his mother really cared about him or loved him--though sometimes he didn't understand the look in her eyes, either. Sometimes he would get so disturbed that he would throw himself at her, and though they fought, she also held him to her body as though she loved him.

Sometimes he felt mature and confident. Other times he felt confused and afraid. He cried for his mother, in terrible pain. He was terrified and angry that he would die and no one would even remember him.

He desperately needed his mother, but she didn't appear. A bull approached, angry because Grendel was near his calf. Grendel thought this was silly: "Bulls do such things, though they don't even know that the calves they defend are theirs.

But when the bull charged him and hit his knee, Grendel understood that the bull was only acting instinctively: there was no strategy to its attack. All Grendel had to do was pull his leg out of the way at the last moment, and he would be safe.

Musing, Grendel decides that there is no such thing as an objective reality. People create their own realities from their hopes and fears. Topic Tracking: Philosophy 2 The bull charges over and over, and Grendel doesn't even care if he gets hit anymore. He sleeps, and thinks about his mother. He wonders what he means to her. That night, he sees men for the first time. He is confused by the crowd, then realizes they are speaking his language, though with a strange accent.

They are small and annoying, and they move mechanically. The men who are Vikings puzzle over Grendel. They decide he is some kind of fungus.

Grendel is frozen, watching them. They decide not to chop him out of the tree, because they think he is a spirit.

They decide to feed him pigs, and he laughs suddenly. This frightens them. They don't understand him when he speaks, and though he wants to say they're crazy, his words come out like moans. The king Hrothgar throws an axe and Grendel cries out in pain. Afraid, the men surround him, and he realizes they are intelligent and rational--and therefore very dangerous.

They are about to kill him when they hear his mother coming, her screams terrifying. He wakes up back in the cave, and tries to tell her what has happened, but she just stares at him. He wonders if she ever knew how to speak. He thinks of reality as a pointless conflict between himself and the world around him. He thinks about what he knows: his mother's fur is bristly, and she smells like wild pig and fish. She clutches him to her.

They struggle, and he is afraid as he hears her heart all around him. Grendel explains that he doesn't hate Hrothgar because he threw the axe. In fact, he began tormenting Hrothgar long after that, when Hrothgar was an old man.

His men worked in teams, though they often fought amongst themselves. Though he hates himself for doing it, he can't stop watching the men, and one day he discovers a village that has been completely destroyed.

All the people and animals are dead. He learns that there has always been war: he just discovered these people at a time of relative peace. Hrothgar's men listen to the Shaper sing about the great things they have done and will do.

Then, every once in a while, another village attacks them, and many are killed. Grendel doesn't know what to feel: he has no connection to the men, but at the same time, he knows that since they speak the same language, they must be related somehow.

He is disgusted at the waste of all the dead: he tries to store as many of them for food as possible. Topic Tracking: Identity 3 The fighting between groups went on for years. Then Hrothgar began to understand how to grow strong. He made the nearest neighbors allies. He showed them how powerful he was, then forced them to give him gifts and supplies. He made himself seem like their leader, and they gradually came to believe he was.

Grendel watched all of this happen: the hard trips Hrothgar's men made to the other villages, and the way they beat their horses and oxen when they couldn't walk any further. Hrothgar and his people decided to build roads, so that they could communicate more easily with their neighbors.

Thus, his power increased. Grendel watched as the men destroyed everything around him: they killed animals for fun, set fires by accident that ruined the landscape, and scared away the wildlife.

Grendel watched, unable to hear what was being said. Then the man began to sing, playing his harp. He sang beautifully about the glory of Hrothgar's people, the Danes. Everyone was quiet, awestruck.

He is very skilled: his song about Hrothgar touched even Grendel, who suddenly felt that all the fighting he witnessed, which seemed petty and brutal to him, was grand and noble. Grendel left, confused. Which version of events was true?

The Shaper had strongly influenced him. He tried to regain his confidence, and screamed to clear his mind. Chapter 4 Twelve years later, the Shaper sings sadder songs: songs about how even rich kings like Hrothgar are unhappy when so many of their men are killed by Grendel.

The people are burning their dead from the last time Grendel. But still, they have not given up hope. Grendel believes that the Shaper built this kingdom: by singing about a great and powerful meadhall, he gave the people the inspiration to build one. Once it was built, the Shaper sang again about its greatness. Grendel listened, knowing the whole thing was ridiculous, but believing it nonetheless. Yet he began to think that maybe the Shaper had changed them. He tried to figure out what to believe, and suddenly felt like the forest was mocking him.

He began to think out loud, but felt self-conscious and arrogant. He wondered if the Shaper was just using his songs to gain power at the court. He tried to believe that the songs were just pretty melodies: they hadn't changed anything. But he felt that the Shaper sang as though he was meant to sing those very words. Thinking that the Shaper might be a good man after all, Grendel was terrified and confused. He felt paranoid, as if he were being watched by something out to get him.

Then Grendel went toward the town, and the feeling disappeared. Topic Tracking: Philosophy 4 He watches the townspeople talk and play games. Everything seems nice and innocent, but Grendel is bothered by something vague. Then he steps on a body: someone has cut the man's throat. Grendel picks the man up and listens as the Shaper begins to sing again. He sings about how the world was formed by the greatest god.

And I, Grendel, was the dark side I believed him! Such was the power of the Shaper's harp! Nevertheless, because of the song Grendel runs to the meadhall, trying to make peace with the people and become friends with them.

They try to kill him. He has no choice but to fight back. He runs away, crying, and swears at them with the words he learned from listening to them. He screams, but thinks it sounds silly and stops. He wants to talk to God, and asks the stars why he has no one to talk to. They don't answer, and he tries not to be offended. He at first thinks that everyone else has people to talk to, then decides he is wrong.

If Hrothgar and the Shaper really want to create a peaceful, powerful kingdom, and be remembered for it, they will be disappointed, he thinks.

No one else in the town understands these goals. They just want to fight and get rich. Grendel begins to think that this might not be true--the townspeople might be influenced by the king and his singer-but he knows in his heart that they are doomed, and it makes him happy.

The Shaper sings about Grendel's recent "attack"--Grendel says all of it is lies, meant to make the Danes feel important. Yet it makes him angry in a way he does not. He keeps thinking that maybe the Shaper's version of history is true: he can't shake the thought, and he feels like it's coming from outside of him--it feels older and darker than himself. He feels the presence pulling him in.

He brushes off the idea, and goes home. His mother is irritated that he hasn't brought any food, but he is busy thinking about the Shaper. It is a lie, he knows, that a god created the world and separated it neatly into good and evil, light and dark.

But what if the Shaper's songs could make the story true? Grendel realizes he wants it to be true, even if he has to be the evil side. He looks at his mother. She scratches at herself and tries to speak. Grendel is disgusted, and tries to ignore her. He goes to sleep, then later wakes up suddenly, knowing that the presence he felt earlier has returned. He gives in to it, and goes to the dragon Topic Tracking: Identity 4. Chapter 5 The dragon is a terrifying creature, even to Grendel.

He sits in his lair on a neverending pile of beautiful jewels, and his eyes look dead. The dragon knows him, and seems happy to see him. His voice sounds ancient. The dragon talks kindly to Grendel, but in a mocking sort of way. Grendel is too afraid to speak--the dragon speaks quietly and with disinterested amusement, and that is worse than a monstrous roar. He sees Grendel's fear, and begins to laugh horribly. Grendel gets angry and starts to throw a large emerald, and the dragon commands him to never touch his possessions again.

Grendel realizes that this is how men feel about him, and he decides never to frighten or eat them for no reason again. Suddenly the dragon interrupts his thoughts. He gives Grendel a terrible look, which almost kills him, and the dragon doesn't even seem to care. He saves Grendel from dying of fear with a laugh--not because Grendel matters to him in the least, but simply because he is amused.

He says, "You want the word. That's what you've come for. My advice is, don't ask! Do as I do! Seek out gold--but not my gold--and guard it! He says that dragons can see everything, past, present and future, as if from a mountaintop. He stresses that this doesn't mean dragons cause things to happen.

He says there is no free will: he always knows what will happen before it does. He says that men don't do anything worthwhile, they just think they do. All their theories and strategies amount to nothing. They just know a bunch of facts, without understanding the whole picture. They think the Shaper gives them that understanding, but it's a fake feeling of connectedness. It's made up. Grendel doesn't understand this at all, but the dragon thinks Grendel is a good listener, so he tells him about Time and Space.

He explains that creatures like Grendel think that because something is true for them, it must be true for the rest of the world, too, which is not logical. He begins to talk pompously about how limited most creatures' thinking is: they can only see certain ways of categorizing or naming things.

He sees that Grendel is very confused and bored, and gets angry. Grendel protests, assuring the dragon that he is interested in other things besides violence. Frustrated, the dragon changes course. He tells Grendel that it is very hard for him to talk to a creature of "the Dark Ages. Faltering, the dragon tries to explain that the universe is made up of both order and randomness. He stops, and continues in another vein, holding out a golden jug but being careful not to let Grendel touch it.

He rambles nearly incoherently about the difference between a jug and a living thing: living things exist individually, because they can express themselves, but objects like jugs are generalized, because they have no way of changing themselves. A jug can be nothing but a simple, complete, whole jug. The dragon seems to believe he is being perfectly clear, and gets angry when Grendel doesn't understand.

He tries again: vegetables are different from people because none of their parts are essential to their functioning: if you cut the top of a carrot off, it can still be a carrot as much as it was before. But if you cut a man's head off, he cannot function as he did before, because he has individual parts that are all essential in different ways.

The explanation is vague and half-baked, but again, the dragon gets angry when Grendel doesn't get it. He tries to tell Grendel that people relate to the world in different ways than do rocks: rocks "relate" to everything the same way, while people have different attitudes toward different things. Grendel gives up. For all I knew he might be telling me gibberish on purpose.

I sat down. Let him babble. Nothing is permanent, he says. This work of art and much-praised retelling of Beowulf pursues the beast Grendel as he finds out about people and battles the war at the focal point of the Anglo Saxon exemplary epic. Now you can read read your favorite book without any spam for free. Here are some features of our site which are loved by our users. So please feel free to report us for removal of your book, we take removal requests very seriously.

These files are taken from the internet and we are just helping others. So, if you can purchase this book please support book authors for their hard work so that they can continue writing more books. John Gardner July 21, — September 14, was an American writer, writer, scholarly pundit, and college teacher.

An inquisitive yet convincing read. It recounts the account of Beowulf, yet from the beast, Grendel. Grendel, whose lone buddy is his withdrawn mother, is a desolate animal, and every part is a selection from his lone thoughts as he endeavors to understand the world and his place in it.

Thusly he is insane, yet he is additionally extremely youthful, a pre-adult, which inspires hesitant compassion in the peruser. He is interested in the universe of men, with their organized deliberate movement and gregarious presence, and ends up attracted to them in spite of himself. In this manner, his ponderings on the importance of life are punctuated by savage scenes as the legend plays out, and he, at last, meets his match in his adversary, the saint Beowulf.

Howard by A. Hot Splintered by A. Hot Ensnared by A. Great book, Grendel pdf is enough to raise the goose bumps alone. Add a review Your Rating: Your Comment:. Hot No Deals, Mr. Bond by John Gardner by John Gardner. Splintered by A.

Ensnared by A. Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok.