40 Fun Facts About Grendel (John Gardner Novel)

In Beowulf and in John Gardner's Grendel, the monster descends from which cursed biblical figure?

Cain is the ancestor the blind court poet gives Grendel in verses about an ancient feud between brothers. Hearing it, the monster stumbles into the crowd begging for peace and is attacked.

What does Grendel call the blind harper whose verses recast King Hrothgar's bloody past as glory?

The Shaper sings so well that even people who lived through the events come to remember them his way. Grendel knows the tales are lies and is shaken by them anyway.

In John Gardner's Grendel, as in the original poem, how does Beowulf deal the monster a fatal wound?

Beowulf tears off his arm at the shoulder after pretending to be asleep among the other warriors. All through the fight he lectures Grendel on how life always renews itself.

Which Danish thane in Grendel follows the monster home to die a hero, only to be carried back alive?

Unferth tracks the monster to his cave and collapses from exhaustion before he can fight. Grendel carries him back to the hall and spares him in every later raid, so a hero's death never comes.

In John Gardner's Grendel, the monster answers a boastful Danish hero's challenge by pelting him with what?

Apples are his reply to the hero's fine speech: Grendel pelts him with fruit instead of fighting, then leaves him alive, which shames the man far more than defeat would.

Which queen in John Gardner's Grendel is handed to King Hrothgar by her brother to buy peace between two peoples?

Wealtheow moves Grendel so deeply that he stops raiding for a time. Later he seizes her, meaning to kill her, then decides that killing her and sparing her would be equally pointless.

In John Gardner's Grendel, which trait of the monster's mother leaves her son feeling utterly alone in their cave?

She cannot speak, and the sounds she does make mean nothing even to her son. Gardner enlarged her part to show, through her silence, how much language matters to a civilization.

John Gardner's Grendel opens in spring with the monster furious at the stupidity of which animal?

A ram on a mountainside sets him off in the opening scene. He then jeers at the sky, demanding to know why beasts have no sense or dignity, and gets no reply.

In John Gardner's Grendel, King Hrothgar's great meadhall, Heorot in the original poem, goes by which shorter name?

Hart is the modern form of the same word: Heorot meant a stag. The hall's glory has given way to horror by the time the novel opens, twelve years into the monster's raids.

After visiting the dragon in John Gardner's Grendel, the monster discovers he has gained which protection?

Weapons cannot cut him once the dragon's charm takes hold, as he learns when a sentry attacks him outside the hall. The gift sours quickly: he feels more alone than ever.

John Gardner said he modeled the monster in Grendel on which French philosopher he both loved and hated?

Jean-Paul Sartre struck Gardner as dreadful in his ideas yet so persuasive a writer that you believe him. Gardner claimed that everything the monster says, the philosopher had said in some mood.

Dying at the end of John Gardner's Grendel, the monster insists that his defeat by Beowulf was merely what?

An accident is all he will call it, because he slipped on blood during the fight. Blaming chance fits the creed he has held all book long: that the universe is mechanical and without purpose.

John Gardner tied each of the twelve chapters of Grendel to a member of which famous set of twelve?

Zodiac signs set the pattern: each chapter carries the emblem of one month of the monster's final year, ending under Pisces. The cycle hints that his story of death is also one of renewal.

What is unusual about how John Gardner's Grendel refers to the hero Beowulf?

He is never named anywhere in the book, though he kills its narrator. Grendel sees only a huge stranger from over the sea, and Gardner trusted readers to know who had arrived.

In John Gardner's Grendel, the cave the monster shares with his mother lies hidden beneath what?

A burning lake hides the entrance, and young Grendel first reaches the upper world by swimming up through a pool of firesnakes. Later a Danish warrior makes the same swim downward to challenge him.

Young Grendel first meets humans in John Gardner's novel while helplessly stuck, his foot caught in what?

Two tree trunks pin his foot during a night foray in the woods, and he hangs there crying for his mother. The Danes who find him cannot work out what he is, and fear soon turns them violent.

At their first meeting in John Gardner's Grendel, what does King Hrothgar hurl at the trapped young monster?

An axe thrown by the king is how the long war begins, and only the arrival of the monster's mother saves him. Years later Grendel plots to send the old king a nightmare recalling that very throw.

In John Gardner's Grendel, what advice about how to live does the bored, all-knowing dragon give the monster?

Hoard gold and guard it is the whole of his wisdom, offered after a long lecture claiming that nothing matters. Even he admits the goal is pointless, sneering at his own heap of jewels.

In John Gardner's Grendel, the strangers who sail to Denmark with Beowulf belong to which people?

The Geats arrive from over the sea, fifteen in all, though icebergs still choke the water. Grendel watches them come ashore and is struck by their sheer size, above all their leader's.

In John Gardner's Grendel, King Hrothgar outgrows rival chiefs by sparing his neighbors and demanding what instead?

Tribute turns former enemies into paying allies and makes him the strongest of the Danish kings. He even builds roads to link the bands under him.

John Gardner, the author of Grendel, was an English professor specializing in which field?

Medieval literature was his scholarly home: he had taught Beowulf for years at several colleges before retelling it. That standing made academics take a monster's memoir seriously from the start.

How did Grendel author John Gardner die in 1982, four days before he was due to marry?

A motorcycle crash killed him about two miles from his home in Pennsylvania. He was buried in his hometown beside the younger brother whose death on the family farm had haunted him.

Which short-story writer studied under Grendel author John Gardner at Chico State and later praised him as a mentor?

Raymond Carver once told Gardner he disliked an assigned story and was simply told to read it again. He told the story in his foreword to On Becoming a Novelist, where his respect for his old teacher is plain.

Which novel by Grendel author John Gardner, about feuding siblings in rural Vermont, won a major critics' award?

October Light took the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1976. It contains a whole invented pulp novel that the sister reads as the quarrel drags on.

Which 1978 book by Grendel author John Gardner angered fellow writers by attacking novelists such as John Updike?

On Moral Fiction argued that true art affirms life, and it put him on The Dick Cavett Show. He blamed the grudges it left for the cool reviews of his last finished novel.

In John Gardner's Grendel, which orphaned nephew of King Hrothgar arrives at fourteen and is schooled in revolution?

Hrothulf accepts his uncle's hospitality while brooding on rebellion, tutored by an old peasant who preaches violence. Yet he stays kind to the small cousins who stand between him and the throne.

In John Gardner's Grendel, what is the old peasant called who preaches violent revolution to the king's nephew?

Red Horse is a pun on Georges Sorel, the French thinker whose Reflections on Violence his speeches follow almost word for word. He holds that every government is evil.

Which old, blind priest in John Gardner's Grendel mistakes the monster for the Danes' great god, the Destroyer?

Ork answers the hidden monster's questions with a heartfelt account of the King of the Gods. His sincerity so puzzles Grendel that he lets the old man live, and three other priests then arrive to scold Ork.

Sizing up the newly arrived Beowulf in John Gardner's Grendel, the monster reaches which verdict about him?

He is insane, Grendel decides, seeing a lust for violence in the man's eyes and lips that do not move in time with his words. The verdict does not stop him raiding the hall that night.

In John Gardner's Grendel, as in the original poem, what does the monster do with the Danish warriors he kills?

Eats them, often after carrying the bodies off to feed in peace where he can still watch the survivors. He scoffs at the funeral rites they hold, yet the comfort they take in them enrages him.

While young Grendel hangs trapped and helpless in John Gardner's novel, which animal charges him again and again?

A bull defending its calf attacks him over and over by pure instinct, and he laughs at its mechanical stupidity. The episode convinces him the world is mindless and that nothing is real but himself.

In John Gardner's Grendel, the all-seeing dragon who lectures the monster stands for which philosophy?

Nihilism is his creed: life is a run of chance events with no meaning behind it. Gardner wrote the novel to argue against that view, not to preach it.

The 1981 animated film Grendel Grendel Grendel, based on John Gardner's novel, was made in which country?

Australia is where designer Alexander Stitt wrote, directed and designed the film, with Phillip Adams producing. It tells the story from the monster's side, just as the book does.

Which actor voiced the title monster in Grendel Grendel Grendel, the 1981 animated film of John Gardner's novel?

Peter Ustinov gave the monster a thoughtful voice in a film that casts one actor as both the dragon and Beowulf. That echoes the book, where the hero seems to voice the dragon's own ideas.

Which British rock band released a 17-minute track called Grendel, inspired by John Gardner's novel, in 1982?

Marillion put the epic on the 12-inch B-side of their first single, Market Square Heroes. Its lyric tells the legend from the monster's side, and singer Fish did not perform it again for almost thirty years.

Grendel author John Gardner faced plagiarism charges over his 1977 biography of which 14th-century poet?

Geoffrey Chaucer was the subject, and a scholarly review said passages had been lifted from other writers without credit. Newsweek repeated the charge the following spring.

In John Gardner's Grendel, the young king Hygmod shows his strength by leading which animal on a chain?

A bear on a chain walks beside him when he comes to bargain with the Danish army at his gates. His real offer is his sister, given as a bride so that the two peoples need not fight.

Which stage and film director co-wrote and directed the 2006 opera of John Gardner's Grendel in Los Angeles?

Julie Taymor staged the premiere at the Los Angeles Opera to a score by Elliot Goldenthal. The dragon was sung by a mezzo-soprano, Denyce Graves, and the monster by the bass-baritone Eric Owens.

When young Grendel first tries to talk to the Danes in John Gardner's novel, what goes wrong?

They cannot understand him, though he follows every word they say. The one-way barrier sets the pattern for his life: he grasps what people mean and they never grasp what he means.

In John Gardner's Grendel, the blind court poet wins his place by singing of which legendary Danish king?

Scyld Shefing was a foundling who grew up to unite a kingdom that had long lacked a ruler. The piece the poet performs is the opening of Beowulf itself, dropped into the novel.