To Eastern Danes had the valiant Geat his vaunt made good, all their sorrow and ills assuaged, their bale of battle borne so long, and all the dole they erst endured pain a-plenty. Violence and shame have lined the old man’s face with mysterious calm. The protagonist and narrator of the novel. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans. Hrothulf, Hrothgar's 14-year-old nephew, comes to live at the meadhall after his father dies. Summary. SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4. Beowulf, a warrior from another Germanic tribe called the. No one in the kingdom is convinced that the gods have life in them. Grendel' s one thought was to run From Beowulf fle, e back to his marsh and hide there: This was a different Herot than the hall h e had emptied. Unferth armed and ready to compete with Beowulf to see who slays Grendel’s mother first. His brother. 99/month or $24. This stylistically and thematically postmodern novel is an example of a metafiction—fiction about fiction. I no longer remember exactly what he sang. Next section Beowulf. Next section Beowulf. I no longer remember exactly what he sang. I feel my anger coming back, building up like invisible fire, and at last, when my soul can no longer resist, I go up—as mechanical as anything else—fists clenched against my lack of will, my belly growling, mindless as wind, for blood. 99/month or $24. Beowulf receives praise for his victory from all the men. Character Analysis Hrothgar. After establishing the novel’s linear plotline in Chapter 1 —namely, the twelve-year battle between Grendel and the Danes—Chapter 2 takes us an unspecified number of years into the past to tell the story of Grendel’s first exposure to the human world. A summary of Chapter 1 in John Gardner's Grendel. She began writing The Outsiders at the age of fifteen, inspired by her frustration with the social divisions in her high school and the lack of realistic fiction for high school readers. I shake my two hairy fists at the sky and I let out a howl so unspeakable that the water at my feet turns sudden ice and even I myself am left uneasy. Do you want to know more about the characters in John Gardner's novel Grendel, a retelling of the Beowulf epic from the monster's perspective? In this webpage, you will find detailed analysis of Grendel, his mother, the dragon, and other important figures in the story. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of Grendel and what it means. SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4. She enters the poem as an “avenger” (l. In the original Beowulf epic, Grendel displays nothing but the most primitive human qualities. Grendel's mother (sometimes called his "dam") is not as huge or as powerful as the son, but she is motivated by revenge. Swift on the billows, with boar-spears well hooked and barbed, it was hard beset, done to death and dragged on the headland, wave-roamer wondrous. Chapter 1. The Consolation of Philosophy Summary. The song's about the death of Halga, Hrothgar's younger brother, and the coming of his orphaned son Hrothulf to Hrothgar's house. Vandergrift British Literature H. Find all books from John Gardner. Grendel (SparkNotes Literature Guide) by John Gardner Making the reading experience fun! Created by Harvard students for students everywhere, SparkNotes is a new breed of study guide: smarter, better, faster. SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4. Grendel is the protagonist and narrator of the novel. The yellow polar head groups separate the grey hydrophobic tails from the aqueous cytosolic and extracellular environments. . As spring begins, he encounters a ram and, irritated at the stupidity of the creature, tries to scare it away. Literary Context: Gardner and Postmodernism. It enraged me. Grendel Chapter 10. He lives in Geatland, a realm not far from Denmark, in what is now southern Sweden. Full Book Summary. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. In the author's note at the end of the novel, A. Grendel’s mother is evil, not because she seeks sorrowful revenge but because she is a creature of hell who hungers for death. Hrothgar’s orphaned nephew Hrothulf comes to live with his aunt and uncle. Ward still lives in DeLisle, the rural community in Mississippi in which she was raised. Grendel recognizes the great power that comes with such a skill. The thought of Wealtheow causes Grendel to recount an. Beauty!First, he fights Grendel when he attacks the hall of Heorot. After the gifts have been distributed, the king’s scop comes forward to sing. A few months shy of his twelfth birthday, Gardner inadvertently killed his younger brother Gilbert in a gruesome accident, running. Its status as a symbolic object is renewed when we learn that Hygelac died in battle wearing it, furthering the ideas of kinship and continuity. The story of Hildeburh (ll. What is the sign’s relevance? What does it come to signify in Grendel as a whole? 5. #2,045,568 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books. The scream sounded ugly compared to the Shaper’s beautiful music. When Grendel grabs a vine to reassure himself, what does the vine turn out to be? A spear. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. A detailed description and in-depth analysis of Beowulf in Grendel. A corpse. Under welkin he walked, till the wine-palace. I shake my two hairy fists at the sky and I let out a howl so unspeakable that the water at my feet turns sudden ice and even I myself am left uneasy. Get the entire Beowulf LitChart as a printable PDF. Lines 1-193. When Hrothgar’s brother, Halga, is murdered, Halga’s fourteen-year-old son, Hrothulf, comes to live at Hart. I know only that it had a strange effect on me: it no longer filled me with doubt and distress, loneliness, shame. Soul of fidelity, decorum. Death of a Salesman Frankenstein Pride and Prejudice Romeo and Juliet The Catcher in the Rye Menu. 1355), and their hoards of. He notes that the weak humans observe the rituals, while the strong ones ignore them. The poet chooses to relate much of this struggle from Grendel’s. King Hrothgar of Denmark, a descendant of the great king Shield Sheafson, enjoys a prosperous and successful reign. The snakelike face indicates from the beginning that Beowulf is someone that Grendel should fear. Heorot shakes with the force of their fight. SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4. 99/month or $24. 99/year as selected above. Grendel is described as a "walker in darkness," who is "wearing God's anger" and "lacking in joy" because he has inherited the curse the Biblical Cain received as a result of his murder of his brother Abel. Vivian Bearing, the play’s protagonist, is a fifty-year-old woman with stage-four ovarian cancer. Grendel is a beast whose sole priority is to destroy mankind. Shortly after Beowulf's arrival, Unferth, full of mead, insults the guest at a banquet. The humans tried to attack him bravely, but their weapons were useless against the dragon’s charm. Hrothgar was skeptical, but then the king brought out a beautiful woman, his sister, and offered her in marriage to Hrothgar. Beowulf, a warrior, lands in Hrothgar’s kingdom and kills Grendel but then must contend with Grendel’s mother who comes to enact revenge for her son’s murder. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of Grendel and what it means. There is no conviction in the old priests’ songs; there is only showmanship. See full list on sparknotes. Rising action Grendel’s attack on Heorot, Beowulf’s defeat of Grendel, and Grendel’s mother’s vengeful killing of Aeschere lead to the climactic encounter between Beowulf and Grendel’s mother. The play opens on the scene of an abandoned farmhouse. SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4. 772 Words4 Pages. He commits extreme violence against a mountain goat. I stamp. Suggestions. Wiglaf. In his youth, he personifies all of the best values of the heroic culture. The hero is valiant, strong, noble, and mighty, a legend in his own time and loyal to his leader Hygelac. Wears it as a bib. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of Grendel and what it means. Back More. After first visiting the humans, Grendel asks ___ why Grendel cannot have someone to talk to. Edinburg, Texas: Pan American University School of the Humanities, 1983 . Summary. Unferth accuses Beowulf, as a lad, of entering a. I understood that, finally and absolutely, I alone exist. Afterward, will cover all fundamental of Spark components. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. Beowulf and Grendel, 2005. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of Grendel and what it means. Important Quotes Explained. A man-eating monster descended from the Biblical Cain. He builds a great mead-hall, called Heorot, where his warriors can gather to drink, receive gifts from their lord, and listen to stories sung by the scops, or bards. John Gardner’s work is often classified as postmodernist. Important quotes from Chapter 2 in Grendel. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of Grendel and what it means. 46K views. I feel my anger coming back, building up like invisible fire, and at last, when my soul can no longer resist, I go up—as mechanical as anything else—fists clenched against my lack of will, my belly growling, mindless as wind, for blood. As Beowulf feels his own death approaching, the dragon emerges. It enraged me. More a palace, Heorot is decorated with gold and fine tapestries. Huge and exceedingly strong, Beowulf is cold and mechanical, showing little emotion or. Imitating an epic, heroic style, Grendel tells of how Hrothgar’s brother was murdered and so his young nephew Hrothulf came to live at Hart. The idea that violence and shame would make Hrothgar calm seems contradictory. Two middle-aged women, Mrs. THEN from the moorland, by misty crags, with God’s wrath laden, Grendel came. Grendel is a novel by John Gardner that was first published in 1971. Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Grendel is extremely embittered. Lines 837-1062. Evil. Crucially, Grendel is never clearly. But the ram stays; the season is upon us. ”. The Danish King offers a reward for the death of the creature, attracting to Herot the brave Geat warrior Beowulf (Ray Winstone) that seeks for glory. PLUS. The monster was minded of mankind now sundry to seize in the stately house. But his words are also an incantation. He laughs obscenely and points out that Grendel’s reaction to him is just like the humans’ reaction to Grendel. At the house of the Shaper, people come and go, solemn faced, treading softly, their heads bowed and their hands folded for fear of sending dreadful apparitions through his dreams. Why is the use of grotesque, exaggerated humor appropriate in the novel?Beowulf’s second combat is with Grendel’s mother. Tone Grendel attempts to maintain a satirical, mocking distance throughout the novel, but often finds himself slipping into an impassioned. And so I discovered the sunken door, and so I came up, for the first time, to moonlight. Beowulf (/ ˈ b eɪ ə w ʊ l f /; Old English: Bēowulf [ˈbeːowuɫf]) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. A summary of Part X (Section7) in John Gardner's Grendel. Analysis. In Beowulf, the major themes reflect the values and the motivations of the characters. His sister. 3 of 5. Suggestions. Ah, ah, it must be a terrible burden, though, being a hero. Chapter 10. In his youth, Grendel explores his vast underground world with childlike abandon. The dragon is cut altogether. Hrothgar tries to attribute the boy’s malaise to the trauma of losing his father, but he also suspects that. “Grendel” by John Gardner details the life of Grendel, a monster, who observes and interacts with the human world. His people give him a glorious funeral, but they have been left unprotected, and they foresee “enemies on the rampage, bodies in piles, / slavery and abasement” (ll. ” He. As a break in the monotony, Grendel confronts a goat lingering near his cave. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. Spring, for example, the time when cold weather retreats and new vegetation appears on the earth, has become a. Wiglaf, one of Beowulf’s kinsmen and thanes, is the only warrior brave enough to help the hero in his fight against the dragon. A summary of Chapter 9 in John Gardner's Grendel. Beowulf Summary. Chapter 3. John Gardner: True Art, Moral Art. The winter after Hrothgar marries, whose presence keeps Grendel from attacking the meadhall? After Hrothgar marries, the Shaper's songs turn to what subjects? When Grendel finally gets his hands on Wealtheow, what does he consider doing before releasing her? Take a quiz about the important details and events in Chapter 7 of Grendel. Grendel is evil because he is a demon from hell and thus a “foe of mankind. I listened, felt myself swept up. Midway through the course of his life, Dante wakes up in a dark forest, having lost his way from the right road. Explore an in-depth analysis of Ponyboy Curtis, the plot summary, and important quotes . Quotes related to Communication within Grendel. Likely the poem’s most memorable creation, Grendel is one of the three monsters that Beowulf battles. The date of composition is a matter of contention among scholars; the only certain dating is for the. Although she is smaller and weaker than. SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4. Enjoying being out under the open night sky, Grendel walks to some nearby cliffs. Section 1. Chapter 8. . Grendel is sick of the scent accompanying the dragon’s protective charm. He recalls once having destroyed the images of the gods. Chapter 7 breaks structural consistency with the rest of Grendel, as an omniscient narrative voice breaks in to describe Grendel observing three lightning-struck trees, portents that point to Christianity and the three. ”. Grendel. After first visiting the humans, Grendel asks ___ why Grendel cannot have someone to talk to. The livelong time after that grim fight, Grendel’s mother, monster of women, mourned her woe. A great, bearlike monster, Grendel is the first of three monsters defeated by the Geatish hero Beowulf in the sixth-century poem Beowulf. Aeschere’s head at the edge of the cliff and sea monsters down below. Gardner’s twist on the tale is his choice to narrate the story from the. Grendel cries out that this is unfair, since he has never killed a deer (since cows have more meat). Grendel knows it is because spring has come and the ram is now fueled by lust. 4:37 The Battle with Grendel; 5:37 Analysis; 6:46 Lesson Summary; Save Timeline Autoplay Autoplay. (line 52) 3 MULTIPLE CHOICE OPTIONS. In-depth Facts: Narrator Grendel. The Shaper. Readers can learn some things about Grendel in Beowulf but in order to dive deeper into the character and who he is, people go to the book Grendel. The sky. The eyes slanted downward, never blinking, unfeeling as a snake’s. Gravely injured, Grendel flees the mead-hall. Chapter 1. Grendel tried to free himself, but Beowulf's grip was to strong. Read a summary of the battle with Grendel in Beowulf. Emerson concludes by noting that self-reliance is the true path to peace. Genre. Scyld Scefing A mythical figure, Scyld was the founder of the tribe of the Scyldings long before Beowulf's story begins. Grendel Chapter 8. John Gardner and Grendel Background. Chapter 9. The snakelike face indicates from the beginning that Beowulf is someone that Grendel should fear. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of Grendel and what it means. What does Beowulf bring back to King Hrothgar as a prize? Grendel’s decapitated head and the hilt of a melted sword. Grendel Quotes. A summary of Part X (Section1) in John Gardner's Grendel. Its plot and characters come from the 6th-century Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf. Important quotes from Chapter 7 in Grendel. ”. Director: Sturla Gunnarsson. Writer and artist Matt Wagner is returning to the origins of his best-loved creation, the masked assassin Grendel. Her "hall" is inaccessible to society. Many readers have seen Beowulf ’s monsters as embodiments of evil, representing the idea that evil is a mysterious, inhuman force. 99/year as selected above. Grendel kills it again and again, feeling under threat “by. One of the central themes of Beowulf, embodied by its title character, is loyalty. I stamp. Next. All the rest, I saw, is merely what pushes me, or what I push against, blindly—as blindly as all that is not myself pushes back. Chapter 1. Grendel. In Grendel, however, he is an intelligent and temperamental monster, capable of rational thought as well as irrational outbursts of emotion. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. When two hunters from different bands came together in the woods, they would fight until the snow was slushy with blood, then crawl back, gasping and crying, to their separate camps to tell wild tales of what happened. Rumors of witchcraft spread through the town and a crowd gathers. The main action of Grendel takes place in the last year of that war, but the novel skips back in time in order to illuminate the origins of the conflict as well as Grendel’s personal history. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. We assign a color and icon like this one to each theme, making it easy to track which themes apply to each quote below. With this description, the author introduces Grendel as he rages at the ram standing on. 99/year as selected above. . He’ll kill Grendel before nightfall. Next. 440 But Higlac' followes r remembered his final Boast and, standing erect, stopped The monster's flight fastene, d those claws In his fists till they cracked, clutched Grendel Closer. Section Three: The Battle between Grendel and Beowulf. I thought they were only in poetry. Grendel is a postmodern novel as well as prose poem modeled after the 6th century Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf, on which it is modeled. I no longer remember exactly what he sang. Several offshoots came about because of that experiment and one, which earned the code name. Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1971. Read an in-depth analysis of Beowulf. LitCharts makes it easy to find quotes by chapter, character, and theme. A young boy playing dangerously close to the cliff’s edge. The humans’ religion is another example of their systems of theories and beliefs. 649 Words3 Pages. , People in the fields reported seeing two monsters, and one was a and more. H. She was doomed to dwell in the dreary waters, cold sea-courses, since Cain cut down with edge of the sword his only brother, his father’s offspring: outlawed he fled, marked with murder, from men’s delights warded the wilds. Hard grip. Provides an illusion of reality--puts together all their facts with a gluey whine of connectedness. 649 Words3 Pages. Summary. Here, the dragon tells Grendel the ultimate meaning of his existence. 99/month or $24. The incredible scope of the dragon’s. Grendel anticipated a battle, but the king asked for a truce and offered Hrothgar gifts. Then, Grendel tries to kill and eat Beowulf but does not succeed. Grendel observes Hrothgar, noting how drastically his face has changed over the years. The rivalry between Unferth, a Danish warrior, and Beowulf has formed a subplot of the story since Beowulf’s first appearance at Hrothgar’s hall, when Unferth challenged the hero’s claims. " -Graham S. No total vision, total system, merely schemes with a vague family resemblance, no more identity than bridges and, say, spiderwebs. In Beowulf’s bloody battle against Grendel, the first part of the story reaches its climax. Study Guide. The alliteration helps emphasize the descriptive nature of the words. ”. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans. S. With this description, the author introduces Grendel as he rages at the ram. The narrator also comments on the action, usually to draw out moral implications: “Behavior that’s admired / is the path to power among people everywhere” (ll. The idea that violence and shame would make Hrothgar calm seems contradictory. Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. A man-eating monster descended from the Biblical Cain. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. For this reason, some readers have seen Grendel’s mother as an embodiment of ancient Northern European society’s tendency toward unending. uk: Gardner, John: 9781586638184: BooksHeroism is the glorification of the warrior hero and of the heroic code of conduct. Hrothgar rewards Beowulf with the bond of kinship as well as with treasure. Grendel. Grendel’s first description of the dragon includes many common features that come to mind when thinking of dragons except for one: his eyes. SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4. Summary. I hurl a skull-size stone at him. Which quote from Beowulf contains a kenning used to rename one of the two main characters. E. The eyes slanted downward, never blinking, unfeeling as a snake’s. I snatch a time when I crouched outside the meadhall hearing the first strange hymns of the Shaper. Knowing that Grendel comes to Heorot to find victims, Beowulf and his warriors stay at Heorot. Her son has returned to their cave mortally wounded, one of his two arms (or claws) ripped from its shoulder socket and hanging, now, beneath the roof of Hrothgar's mead-hall. The tribe has taken its name from Scyld Scefing, a mythological hero who, many years earlier, reached their shores as a castaway babe on a ship mysteriously laden with. Gardner’s twist on the tale is his choice to narrate the story from the point of view. Grendel is based on the sixth-century Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf, a work in which Grendel is a grotesque, violent monster who terrorizes a small community of Danish warriors. Grendel recognizes the great power that comes with such a skill. This segment describes the monstrous creature Grendel, who, in the first arc of the epic, battles Beowulf. The Spear-Danes in days gone by. The dragon, too, lies slain on the ground. Hrothgar was skeptical, but then the king brought out a beautiful woman, his sister, and offered her in marriage to Hrothgar. Instead, Beowulf grips Grendel’s arm with the strength of 30 men and rips it off his body all the way from his shoulder. 5,250+ Quick-Read Plot Summaries. After that, the Danes abandon Heorot to Grendel after nightfall. But the jubilant noise from Heorot angers. He is fourteen years old, yet he despises how Hrothgar runs his nation. The humans tried to attack him bravely, but their weapons were useless against the dragon’s charm. Chapter 10. At the conclusion of the feast, Beowulf pledges to Queen Wealhtheow that he will either defeat Grendel that night or die in his efforts to do so. A summary of Chapter 11 in John Gardner's Grendel. At the end of the poem, Beowulf goes to fight the dragon, anticipating that it will be his last battle. The Dragon. Beowulf lies dead, and Wiglaf is bowed down with grief at the loss of his lord. When he was eleven years old, who did John Gardner accidentally kill? His father. Grendel, Hrothgar, Unferth, Wiglaf, Grendel’s Mother, and the dragon. For this reason, some readers have seen Grendel’s mother as an embodiment of ancient Northern European society’s tendency toward unending. Even more surprising, though, is who wrote the novel, relative to its contents and the conceptual tricks it deploys. Beowulf’s father. A close analysis of. And the fact that Grendel remembers his face from a forgotten dream hints that Grendel may know. Tolkien. Read Beowulf here, with side-by-side No Fear translations into modern English. Chapter 1. The corpse expands in significance, becoming not only a symbol of man and Grendel’s twinned fate, but also of Grendel’s desire to be accepted by the human community with which he has so many similarities. Preface. 99/year as selected above. In Beowulf’s bloody battle against Grendel, the first part of the story reaches its climax. Point of View. The book takes a closer look at Grendel and how he discovers the order and disorder of people and the world (Sanchez). This is more than an awkward moment for the hosts. Fifty years later, during which Beowulf has ruled nobly, a treasure-guarding dragon is awakened. The dragon. His night-work pleased him, his deed and its honor. He kills and eats one of the men, but he finds his next intended victim, the stranger, is only pretending to sleep. Our cover-to-cover analysis of many popular classic and contemporary titles examines critical components of your text including: notes on authors, background, themes, quotes, characters, and discussion questions to help you study. He succeeds in killing his opponent, but he is mortally wounded. Ona escaped to freedom in 1796, absconding from Philadelphia to New Hampshire. The dragon provides Grendel with a glimpse of the true nature of time, which the dragon is able to see stretching out toward both its beginning and its end. In Grendel, heroism, beauty, patriotism, and political eloquence ultimately provide little solace in a violent, chaotic world. Starts a fire. Beowulf introduces himself and requests to speak to the king. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of Grendel and what it means. As an outsider, Grendel observes and provides. 2 of 5. Important quotes from Chapter 8 in Grendel. In the first scene, Wealtheow welcomes Hrothulf to Hart. He recalls once having destroyed the images of the gods. His praise of God reflects Christian values. KS2 English. On the train, Eric and Four divide the initiates into two teams to play capture the flag, a Dauntless tradition. 5 of 5. #2,045,568 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books. At the house of the Shaper, people come and go, solemn faced, treading softly, their heads bowed and their hands folded for fear of sending dreadful apparitions through his dreams. Grendel is oddly protective of his space and attempts to shoo the goat away, although the goat remains standing after Grendel rolls a tree at it and. Beowulf is loosely divided into three parts, each of which centers around Beowulf’s fight with a particular monster: first Grendel, then Grendel’s mother, then the dragon. Search all of SparkNotes Search. The seasons are common motifs in literature, with each season having come to symbolize certain archetypes or ideas. Those three goals were to kill Grendel, kill Grendel's mother, and kill the dragon. What does Beowulf say when he is thanked for his heroic deed? He mocks Hrothgar for the king’s inability to kill Grendel for so many years. How, in Grendel’s estimation, do the Geats appear when they first arrive in Denmark? 19 . A summary of Part X (Section1) in John Gardner's Grendel. He does not know how he strayed from the road or how he arrived in the woods, but he says that he will record his story. Take a quiz about the important details and events in Chapter 11 of Grendel. ” (42) This is known as the hero’s call to adventure. Grendel is described as a "walker in darkness," who is "wearing God's anger" and "lacking in joy" because he has inherited the curse the Biblical Cain… read analysis of Grendel. His mother. Along with Grendel, Unferth represents the theme of envy in the epic. She enters the poem as an “avenger” (l. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. Shakespeare No Fear Shakespeare Translations. 99/month or $24. Grendel, an outsider who spurns society, and Beowulf, an outsider who joins the Danes in fellowship, battle. Just as important is the way that the young warrior (not much more than 20 years of age) carries himself; the Geat has the bearing of a noble leader, a champion, perhaps a prince. Again the Beowulf poet reminds us that she is a descendant of Cain; but there is something very human about her motivation, which John Gardner explores compassionately in his novel Grendel (1971). The Duchess of Malfi takes place in Roman Catholic Italy, which English audiences at the time when the play was written would have associated with corruption. In his prime, Hrothgar built the Scyldings into a powerful military and social entity, symbolized by the erection of his great mead-hall, Heorot. Grendel study guide contains a biography of John Gardner, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. The hero is exultant. 46K views. But they rush across chasms on spiderwebs, and sometimes they make it, and that, they think. Beowulf is divided into three main parts, each of which centers on the hero’s struggle against a particular monster—first Grendel, then Grendel’s mother, then the dragon.