nting on religion. Gardener accomplishes this by telling the epic from the anti-heroe’s, Grendel’s point of view. Grendel is developed as the anti-hero through his actions and thoughts. Grendel tells the reader of the times he has killed the outcasts from Herot because their presence by his home annoys him. The reader also learns of his nihilistic view that there is nothing worth existing for. Lastly, the reader meets Grendel’s teacher, the dragon, who tells Grendel that the humans are fools and Grendel would be best suited to leave them alone and then go out to “find gold and just sit on it.” While Grendel is an anti-hero Gardener does build up some sympathy for Grendel so the reader will seriously listen to his critique of the humans. Gardener portrays the cruel social world of the Danes to the reader through Grendel’s thoughts and descriptions while he spies on the humans before and during his war against Hrothgar. During the day the Danes must hunt and farm the land to keep themselves alive but during the evenings they all gather in the meadhalls to eat, drink, and tell stories. The Shaper sings of past battles and predicts future glory for the kingdom while the drunken knights boast of how they will kill their enemies to bring glory to their lord. Grendel is disgusted by the boasts and stories of the humans, they were “slightly ominous because of its strangeness – no wolf was so vicious to oth

Some topics in this essay:
John Gardener, Grendel Grendel, Shaper Danes, Beowulf Grendel’s, Danes Gardener, Herot Grendel, Grendel Shaper, Shaper Shaper’s, Hrothgar Grendel, John Gardener’s, world danes, shaper sings past, shaper sing, grendel humans, human society, grendel understand, sings past, shaper sings, john gardener, grendel grendel, grendel anti-hero, grendel’s view grendel,