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Introduction
During the early medieval epoch the heroic epos was one of the predominant genres of literature. The people imagined different stories about supernatural power of ancient warriors who defeated cruel and devastating monsters and mythological beings. The heroes were immortalized in different kinds of myths, folklore and epical sagas. Various nations have their own folk heroes and epos. The Scandinavians have Nibelungs, the Slavs – Prince Igor and the English and German – Beowulf. This epical saga was revised in the literary work by John Gardner Grindel. This paper is dedicated to the study of the connection between classical epos of Beowulf and Gardner’s work through the analysis of Gardner’s toying with the conventions of the warrior code, the place of heroes in Grendel, and the challenging of the construction of Beowulf, the character and the text by Gardner.
The study of the connection between classical epos of Beowulf and Gardner’s work
During the Medieval epoch the war and battle were the things that only most honorable and worthy men were allowed to participate in. The honorable death in a battle was the most appreciated and desirable fate for any warrior. Thus, any ancient epos is based on the warrior code. The protagonist of Beowulf is a young, but extremely powerful warrior who releases local population from the violence of a terrible monster Grendel. Beowulf is a violent combatant, who turns into wise king and leader at the end of the epos. All of his actions are strictly subordinated to the serve of the warrior’s dignity or moral code.
The essential part of Beowulf’s text is dedicated to manifesting the theme of heroes’ subordination to the Germanic heroic code. According to this ancient moral code each warrior possessed such values as strength, courage, and loyalty. The code also manifested hospitality, generosity, and political skill as the major properties for kings and lords. The set of rules was strictly respected by every ruling man or combatant, it explained that time warriors’ overlook and relations to each other and moral judgments. Thus, any individual actions in epos are regarded only as prove or violation of the code.
Thus, the ancient manuscript demonstrates no instances of the personal thoughts or acts of the heroes, every scene or action manifests the supremacy of social opinion or moral code under a personal desire or will.
In contrast to classical epos, the author of Grendel, endows the characters of his novel by personal opinion or thoughts as for the action in progress:
I’m impressed. I’ve never seen a live hero before. I thought they were only in poetry. Ah, ah, it must be a terrible burden, though, being a hero—glory reaper, harvester of monsters! Everybody always watching you, weighing you, seeing if you’re still heroic. You know how it is—he he! (Gardner, 85)
This episode brightly depicts the inner nature of the protagonist of the novel – a monster called Grendel. His thought about epical heroes demonstrates his knowledge of the literature and general intelligence. Besides, his true amazement describes as a curios and naïve personality. Therefore, the novel supports the literary tendency of the nineteenth century in depicting ugly creatures like dragons and monsters as thoughtful and vulnerable characters. Grendel resembles the nineteenth-century literary trend which is also typical for Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Both of the novels are based on the contraposition of monsters to humans, which helps reader to examine the difference.
Gardner completely ruins the opinion about honorable code of warriors depicting the hero’s opposers as weak and harmless creatures who are disgusting by their appearance but more humanlike and intelligent then heroes.
Apart from this, the author of Grendel made a successful use of direct change of main protagonists in his novel. In contrast to classical epos, the main hero is the monster which was defeated by Beowulf. The author represents the story from the point of view of monster and in such a way describes his delicate nature of artist and poet. The monster is not an embodiment of the most primitive human qualities, but a thoughtful personality who demonstrates good upbringing. The origin of the monster is also treated in different ways. The epos presents him as aggressive creature due to the loneliness and jealous which is reasoned by the peculiarities of his descent. “Cain’s clan, whom the creator had outlawed / and condemned as outcasts.” (Beowulf, 106) In the novel the Grendel’s resemblance to Cain’s clan is described as a basic lineage and connection with the humanity.
As for Beowulf, the author further hyperboles his supernatural power. In contrast to epos, Beowulf is depicted not like a human, a wise king and warrior but like a machine.
The protagonist of Beowulf seems ideal and greatly hyperbolized in German epos. “If it seems ironic that a Germanic ideal that cannot exist in this world can exist in art, unifying the theme and structure of the poem, then Grendel’s Mother, warring antitype of harmony and peace, must seem doubly ironic”. (Chance, 167)
In Grendel this irony is strengthened by depicting Beowulf even more powerful, resembling to cold machine or walking dead man.
The change of the focus of the narration resulted in the reconsidering of the relation to the ancient heroes and their opposers-monsters. The novel by Gardner, manifests of the idea of human property to endow the monsters by the worst human features. Such personalization may result in the human delusion and assimilation to the moral monsters or losing every human emotion and turning into soulless mechanism.
The author of Grendel also makes use of the symbolization of other mythological creatures like Dragon. In many folk sources this creature is also depicted either evil or good. The author also redirects reader’s opinion as for the dragon’s significance in the epos and classical novel. The dragon in Grendel is not a classical monster with a fire breath from Western or Asiatic mythology, but vulgar and undeniably funny creature. Besides it is acknowledged which enables him to be cynical but fair. The author makes a wide use of grotesque to depict the mythological creature with the certain part of a modern cynicism. The rearrangement of the ancient myths also enables to understand the change of, the system of values and attitude to each other in the minds of society during the last ten centuries.
Conclusion
The novel Grendel and the epic saga of Beowulf are depicting completely various worlds with the same characters, antagonists and protagonists. The novel embraces modern treatment of the medieval system of values bringing in some humanistic ideas and trends typical for the nineteenth century. The use of different stylistic devices and rearrangements enables the author to depict characters and epoch from different points and discover their nature deeper.
Works Cited
Beowulf. New York: Publish House, 2005.
Chance, Jane. The Structural Unity of Beowulf: The Problem of Grendel’s Mother. New York: Response Book, 2006.
Gardner, John. Grendel. Chicago: Educational Printing, 2003.
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