Grendel lets out a howl so terrible that it freezes the water at his feet, but the ram remains unmoved. He rhetorically asks the sky why the idiotic animal cannot discover any dignity, but the sky, like the ram, refuses to respond. Grendel responds with an upturned middle finger and a defiant kick. He admits, however, that he himself is no nobler than any of the brainless animals, calling himself a pointless, ridiculous monster who stinks of death. As Grendel walks through his realm, he notices the signs of spring all around him and also notes places where he has committed various acts of violence.
Passing the sleeping body of his fat, foul mother, Grendel swims through firesnake-infested waters up to the surface of the earth. When he reaches the edge of his territory, he stands at the edge of a cliff and stares down into an abyss. He yells into the chasm and is surprised by the volume of his own voice. Grendel continues down the cliffs and through the fens and moors on his way to the meadhall of Hrothgar, king of the Danes. As he makes his way to the meadhall, Grendel thinks of his mother, who continues to sleep in their underground haunt.
She is wracked by guilt for some unnamed, secret crime. They turn off the lights in an attempt to confuse Grendel, but Grendel can see in the dark, and he easily bests the humans.
In the chaos that ensues, Grendel sacks up several dead bodies and retreats to the woods, where he eats them and laughs maniacally. When dawn comes, however, the sour meat of the humans sits heavy in his stomach and he is filled with gloom once again. Grendel listens as the Danes attribute the attack to the whims of an angry god, and he watches as the slow process of rebuilding the meadhall begins. Plot Summary. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does.
Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of every Shakespeare play. Sign Up. Already have an account? Sign in. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better.
Literature Poetry Lit Terms Shakescleare. Download this LitChart! Teachers and parents! Struggling with distance learning? Our Teacher Edition on Grendel can help. Themes All Themes. Symbols All Symbols. Theme Wheel. Everything you need for every book you read. The way the content is organized and presented is seamlessly smooth, innovative, and comprehensive. The Shaper is an old, blind man who comes to Hrothgar offering to sing for money. He is the character through whom the novel most deeply explores ideas about language, art, and beauty.
He also inspires Hrothgar to construct his great meadhall, Hart. For Grendel , the Shaper has the unique ability to shape and change the world, creating a sense of order, meaning, and beauty out of a chaotic universe. While this may be true, the Shaper does possess real power and is able to make things actually happen in the real world such as the construction of Hart. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:.
Chapter 3 Quotes. Related Characters: Grendel speaker , The Shaper. Related Themes: Language. Page Number and Citation : 42 Cite this Quote. Explanation and Analysis:. Chapter 4 Quotes. Related Themes: Monsters and Humans. Page Number and Citation : 55 Cite this Quote. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance. Chapter 1. Each time, people cry out and an old blind man with a harp, called the Shaper , flees out a back window.
Chapter 3. He attempted to reason about how true or false the Shaper was. From the Chapter 4. Grendel says that the
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