Grendel Characters

A Monster of a ProtagonistSo, Grendel. On the one hand, he's about the most sensitive character we get in this novel, and he's susceptible to things like beauty and innocence. On the other, he's a...

Warlords, Are You Feeling Lucky?Grendel totally has mixed feelings about human beings. He'd like to think they're complete, blithering idiots, but his own initial observations show us why he has re...

Grendel's mother doesn't have all that much going for her. She's not good looking, she's not a sparkling conversationalist, and she's not a very good cook. She... okay, we'll be real: she smells of...

Brother, What a Thane!Unlike many of the characters in Gardner's novel, Unferth comes to us from the Old English poem pretty much as is. Though we don't get to pry into Unferth's head much in the n...

Killing Me Softly with His SongFor an old blind guy who sits around the meadhall playing on a harp all night, the Shaper sure wreaks a lot of havoc in Grendel's life. If you think about it, though,...

Not Your Average Fairy TaleGardner's dragon benefits from at least a thousand years of mythological development, so if you've "read the right sorts of books" (that's a nod to you, Mr. C.S. Lewis),...

Queen of All She SurveysOf all the characters in the novel, Wealtheow is the only one who doesn't leave us feeling like we have to scrub ourselves with turpentine. While she does have a slightly my...

The orphaned son of Hrothgar's sister presents a major problem in the meadhall—and everyone seems to know it but Hrothgar. He's just a kid, right? Yeah, maybe. But he's also a "sister son," which...

The women in Grendel live fairly predictable lives: they grow to be lovely women (must be those seasonal baths), they attract the notice of the menfolk, and they quickly become pawns in the politic...

In Old English, the name "Hygmod" might mean something like "mindful spirit"—not a bad description of this character. Wealtheow's brother is ambitious enough as king to want to kick Hrothgar's bu...

Hrothulf's stinky revolutionary partner seems a bad match for the young lad in more ways than one. First, did we mention that he smells? Okay, well, second: he's a definite agitator. Hrothulf may b...

GiftedWhat is it about the old, blind dudes in this novel? They seem to turn the weakness of their eyes into a superpower that can overcome the scariest monsters and the most loathsome lords. Ork d...