How we cite our quotes: (Page) Vintage Books, 1989
Quote #4
Two nights later I went back. I was addicted. The Shaper was singing the glorious deeds of the dead men, praising war. He sang how they'd fought me. It was all lies. The sly harp rasped like snakes in cattails, glorifying death. I snatched a guard and smashed him on a tree, but my stomach turned at the thought of eating him. (54)
There's no question about it: Grendel suffers physical and psychological pain at the hands (or the voice) of the Shaper. Perhaps it isn't intentional, but the torment Grendel feels when he hears about how great men are and how cursed he is does more damage than the useless swords on his charmed hide. The worst bit is that humans get to make the history—and to change what really happened—in order to glorify their deeds.
Quote #5
My chest was full of pain, my eyes smarted, and I was afraid—O monstrous trick against reason—I was afraid I was about to sob. I wanted to smash things, bring down the night with my howl of rage. But I kept still. She was beautiful, as innocent as dawn on winter hills. She tore me apart as once the Shaper's song had done. (100)
How ironic is it that Grendel is the only creature sensitive to Wealtheow's plight and beauty? (Answer: pretty ironic.) But there is an added dimension to Grendel's misery in the presence of Wealtheow. He feels his ugliness and cursedness fifty times more when she's in the room. In the end, he knows that Wealtheow is way out of his league, and he hates that the miserable humans get to have her.
Quote #6
And so in my cave, coughing from the smoke and clenching feet on fire with chilblains, I ground my teeth on my own absurdity. Whatever their excuse might be, I had none, I knew: I had seen the dragon. Ashes to ashes. And yet I was teased—tortured by the red of her hair and the set of her chin and the white of her shoulders—teased toward disbelief in the dragon's truths. (108)
Wealtheow tortures Grendel in the same way the Shaper does: she's the exception to the rule that defies all of Grendel's ideas about humankind. If only she'd been ugly or harsh, then Grendel wouldn't have to rethink what he's learned from the School of Hard Knocks. You might be tempted to think that any relief from the bitterness and cynicism of the dragon would be welcome. But remember that Grendel got a whole sense of identity from that visit. It's mighty inconvenient to have anyone challenging his hard-won ideas.