Ever since the beginning of time, religion has coexisted with mankind in a uniquely balanced interdependency. A brief glance at any culture, past or present, reveals a strong coherence to religion that physically weaves people of all ages together, for religion allows common individuals to feel connected to a power far greater and more loving than that of human nature. Religion transcends the rigor of daily life in search for a rational explanation to the fickle nature of life. However, in John Gardner's Grendel, an entirely different point of view pervades throughout the novel. The protagonist, a human-eating monster named Grendel, observes human life and discovers that though the humans are religious by their own terms, they still fail to prevent wars and bring peace; they merely perform ostentatious rituals in which innocent animals are brutally slaughtered for 'sacrifice.? Throughout the novel, religion exemplifies the evil, hypocritical nature of humans that is so well concealed by a fazade of self-adulation and nobility. .
Though deemed an evil monster by the humans, Grendel observes the sinister characteristic of humans through religion. They preach peace and prosperity yet their own practices disprove their principles. In a ritual, for example, the priests 'stab a calf and burn it? (128).In the old days,? too, 'they used to kill virgins? (128). Also, the priests, who deem themselves role models and pacifiers, preach nothing but destruction and death. For instance, the chief of the priests prays to the Great Destroyer to?defend the people of Scyld and kill their enemy, the terrible world-rim-walker?? (127). One of the statues, too, representsa god with a skull in his lap and a blacksmith's apron? (133), indicating the evil nature in which the priests envision their gods. The benevolent, pacifying intentions of the religion are masked by the reality that in this society, religion breeds a malevolent, hypocritical disguise.
