grendel
... Grendel played these games he did so with his imaginary friends. Yes, it is true that many children have imaginary friends, but the difference with Grendel is that his imaginary friends are the only ones he would ever know, and he was oblivious to this fact. The way John Gardner described Grendel was very insightful. Gardner said Grendel was “Like a puppy nipping, playfully growling preparing for a battle with wolves.” In his early years, Grendel shares the naivete of all things youthful, unchained by the perceptions and limitations the mature mind places on reality in its attempt to instill order to a disorganized world. Unfortunately, Grendel is ignorant of the immutable life he would come to live. Grendels’ mother is the only being that truly loved and understood him, and was aware of the life he would lead. Grendels’ mother understood the sedulousness of living an isolated life. She detested the times when Grendel went to the above world, she had a valid concern with how Grendel would be treated by others. Grendel depended on his mother to always be there for him. When Grendel wandered a bit too far in the forest and became trapped in the tree, all he longed for his mother. Seeing the close relationship that existed between Grendel and his mother, validated the pain and anger she felt when Grendel was killed by Beowulf. The battle that ensued between Grendels’ mother and Beowulf was simply a mother protecting her son, not a monster fighting with an innocent soldier. Reading the Grendel chapters also may change ones’ opinion on the malicious nature in which Grendel exterminated the Danes. While Grendel was stuck in the tree he tried to communicate with the Danes. The Danes did not understand what Grendel was saying, so the King of the Danes, Hrothgar took it upon himself to throw a battle axe at him. As it said in the novel, “The king snatched an ax from the man beside him and, without any warning, he hurled it at me.” Even after this had occurred Grendel seemed to still admire these men. In “Beowulf” the reader learns that Grendel went to the mead hall, Herot, snatched thi...