Gardner’s “Grendel” as a Nihilist and Existentialist

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Grendel is the 1971 novel by John Gardner. It is a unique novel that retells the epic poem, Beowulf, from the perspective of the villain, Grendel. It is about the large and frightening monster named Grendel who lives in a cave near King Hrothgar’s castle. Contrary to his beastly appearance he has considerable intelligence. He can speak, tell sophisticated jokes and even philosophize about the meaning of life. He tells this story as a series of flashbacks, mixed with “present-day” scenes. He lives with his mother who suffocates him with her love cannot yet speak or reason. Despite his inherent rationality, Grendel has no qualms about eating Hrothgar’s subjects and even relishes their screams. He was first discovered by the outside world after a chance encounter with Hrothgar’s men who immediately attacked him but were fought off by his mother. Grendal bore witness to Hrothgar’s rise to power from a minor chieftain to a mighty king. One of the people he interacts with is Shaper the singer who sings beautiful songs about battles to which Grendel disagrees because he believes that battles were just brutal and petty.

Grendel’s actions soon change the songs of Shaper and this stimulates confusion in him. The confusion ultimately leads to his encounter with the Dragon who is an important foil in the story. Like Grendel, the Dragon is also capable of philosophy he believed that cruelty was good and life was pointless. The dragon is a nihilist as will be discussed later it was his influence that led to Grendel’s nihilist stage later in life. The dragon enchants Grendel and makes him invulnerable. This sets the stage for Grendel’s boredom over life because he does not even have to fight to kill things. Unferth the unfortunate tries to kill Grendel but fails and in an ironic twist, Grendel protects Unferth from death despite his wish to die. As was foretold in Beowulf, Grendel will be slain by Beowulf. This paper will discuss Grendel as an existentialist and as a nihilist (Gardner J.)

For Grendel to be seen as an existentialist it is important to find a definition for this term. Existentialism is that explicit conceptual manifestation of an existential attitude (Solomon 1987) that begins with a sense of disorientation and confusion in the face of a meaningless or absurd world (Solomon 1974 and Cooper 1999). In layman’s terms, an existentialist is someone who lumbers on in a daily existence confused and witless, finding little meaning in the world. An example of this would be a blue-collar worker stuck in the droll of the rat race.

Applying this to the context of Grendel it is easy to see that his early existence become existentialist. From the very beginning Grendel sees the world as meaningless, his yearning for meaning aside, he does not consider himself important and he sees little meaning in the world. His existentialism is so heavy upon his heart that he considered men rebuilding their castle as engaged in a meaningless exercise in futility. He tries to impose existentialism on them by killing them trying to break their spirit and their belief that they are engaged in some sort of great work.

Another example of his existentialism is his confused and immature dealing with arts and culture. These things bring meaning to the hum drum lives of the Danes. Yet he shows contempt for them because he wants the people to believe that life is meaningless. For example, in his dealing with Shaper he can not accept Shaper for what he is and accept that Shaper is trying to shape the songs to make it sound like life and battle are noble and glorious. Instead Grendel goes on an unholy rampage to kill as many Danes as he can the better to torture the Shaper and make him feel miserable. The abuse works as Shaper’s songs become dowdy and depressed reflecting the crushing effect Grendel’s evils have rent upon the Danes.

The heights of Grendel’s existentialism are revealed when he encounters the hero Unferth. Unferth is a mighty hero with many celebrated deeds, his current heart desires to slay Grendel and end his rampages. Contrary to the meaninglessness that Grendel ascribes to life, Unferth believes that life’s deeds are worth something regardless of whether people know about it or not. He thinks that Heroic deeds are intrinsically valuable in themselves. However, Unferth is a human and like most humans, in this story, he is unable to express himself with the mental agility that Grendel can muster at whim. As a result, Grendel makes him look dull and ignorant despite the nobility of his words.

Unferth’s dogma is so noble and just that it pulls at Grendel’s heartstrings. Grendel is almost swayed to his dogma that life does indeed have some meaning. Unfortunately, Unferth is a warrior and not a philosopher so he is not well-spoken or sophisticated so Grendel quickly dismisses his words almost as soon as he considers them as valid. He thinks Unferth’s words are crass and unlike the sophisticated speech of the Dragon altogether unconvincing.

Grendel’s response to Unferth nobility is to dismiss it as a sham and knocks him to the ground. But Unferth is a man who believes in his convictions and despite his severe injuries he is able to crawl to Grendel’s cave and again attempts to convince Grendel of the nobility of his quest to kill Grendel. Grendel’s response is to show the hero his contempt for nobility and meaning in life. Not only does he refuse to kill Unferth but he also exerts great effort in order to prevent anyone else from killing Unferth denying him his desire to die a hero’s death.

Finally, Grendel’s life is so devoid of meaning that he decides to try and kill the queen. However, his existential existence is mired by confusion. Invulnerable thanks to the dragon his goal would have easily been within his grasp. Instead, he chooses not to kill the beautiful and kind queen because he thinks doing so would just be as meaningless as killing her, to begin with.

Aside from being an existentialist, Grendel also becomes a Nihilist after his encounters with the Dragon. Again it is important to have a working definition of Nihilism before it is applied to the story of Grendel. Nihilism comes from the Latin word nihil or nothing. It is the philosophical belief that values do not exist but rather is falsely invented (Pratt 2009). Nihilism is often represented as a form of existential nihilism which argues that life is meaningless, purposeless, and lacks intrinsic value. It is an assertion that morality does not exist and there are no moral values with which to uphold a rule or to practically prefer one action over another (Nietzsche). Nietzsche is one of the most famous proponents of this type of belief.

Grendel took for his example in Nihilism the Dragon. The sophisticated and terrible-looking wyrm was his model to upgrade his existentialism to one of existential nihilism. The Dragon also believes that life is pointless. He enjoys cruelty and believes that the Shaper’s beautiful songs are just a vain attempt to create meaning and community where there was none. His teaching is for Grendel to do whatever it wanted because there was no moral or ethical reason not to do precisely what he wanted.

As a result of this experience Grendel is emboldened. His desire to live a solitary life hunting people and animals at whim is supported by the Dragon’s words. This new found support coupled with the Dragon’s enchantment that makes him invincible drives him into further isolation and existentialism. He no longer sees any point in attacking villagers or warriors because he knows that he will easily master them anyway. This newfound hubris reaches its height when he encounters Unferth, a hero who tries to slay him, Grendel’s cynicism is such that he completely dismisses Unferth’s noble sentiments and even shows his contempt for it by ‘punishing’ Unferth by preventing him from dying a hero’s death.

Another example of his nihilism is his anti-religious behavior when he decides to toy with a priest. He pretends to be God and asks the priest to describe him. Instead of hearing fear or some other emotion that one would expect from one who meets an overwhelming monster like Grendel, the priest gives a surprising analysis of religion that shocks Grendel and moves him to tears. This experience makes him very angry and makes him realize that perhaps he has achieved his life’s goal. A later encounter shocks his nihilism further when a mountain goat ignores his threats and continues to climb. Contrary to his beliefs the dumb animal has a purpose and is just performing his function in the world.

During his mad haunts, he also shows his nihilism because he is unwilling to imagine that the people’s beliefs and right to life are any more valid than his own desire to kill them. At the same time, his purposeless ramblings around the kingdom are ultimately just his effort to impose his cynical desire for meaninglessness on the normal people who want to believe that their lives stand for something.

In summary, Grendel is an ironically intelligent monster. Instead of using his intelligence for something useful he is altogether a dark and cynical creature. He is an existential nihilist. He denies the worth of other people, their values and belief are nothing to him. He thinks that the pursuit of his desires is just as worthwhile as upholding the right of the people to exist. Ultimately he dies a bitter creature who believes that he has achieved nothing other than become prey to Beowulf. This cruel fate is just as well considering that he never believed that his life had any purpose or value anyway.

Works Cited

Gardner, John. Grendel. (New York: Vintage Books, 1971).

Solomon, Robert C. (1987). From Hegel to Existentialism. Oxford University Press.

Solomon, Robert C. (1974) Existentialism McGraw-Hill, Pratt Alan. “Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy”. Web.

Cooper D.E. (1999) Existentialism: A Reconstruction Basil Blackwell, “BookRags Book Notes on.” Web.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Complete Works Vol. 13.

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Gardner’s “Grendel” as a Nihilist and Existentialist

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