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Study Guide Questions forGrendel

To help in your reading of Grendel, the chapters are outlined through a series of questions. Respond to each question. Be sure to read the questions before, during and after your reading.

Mark in your novel the passages that answer the *asterisked* questions.

Be sure to identify the question type next to each question (RT, TS, AM, OMO).

Chapter 1—The Attitude of the Narrator

  1. In the opening chapter, what season is it, and what year is it in the war against Hrothgar?
  1. Grendel comments how undignified the mating of the animals is. What does this tell us about his character after 12 years at war with Hrothgar’s kingdom?
  1. *What is Grendel’s perception of himself? (6)
  1. How does the quote“Talking, talking. Spinning a web of words, pale walls of dreams, between myself and all I see” reveal Grendel’s attitude about the meaning of his life?(8)
  1. *Why might Grendel threaten the dark chasms to smite him? What does this reveal about his character? (10)
  1. Grendel describes his mother on page 11. How does he perceive her?
  1. What do we find out about the dragon? (12)
  1. *How does Grendel characterize Hrothgar? (12-13)
  1. Overall, how would you describe Grendel’s narration?

Chapter 2—Making Meaning & the Language Barrier

  1. *What do we find out about Grendel’s childhood or youth?
  1. Grendel seems to have an obsession with the way people “look” or “observe” the world around them and the way they look and observe him. What might this suggest about the character?(17)
  1. *What was Grendel’s relationship to his mother like? (17) How might this parallel humanity’s mother and son relationships?
  1. What does the scene in which Grendel is physically trapped or pinned on earth perhaps symbolize? (17-20)
  1. Describe the way the bull fights. What does the bull symbolize? (12)
  1. *How does Grendel initially describe man? (23-24)
  1. How do the men describe Grendel’s presence in the tree? (25)
  1. What does Grendel deduce about mankind? (27)
  1. What does Grendel come to understand at the end of chapter 2? (28)

Chapter 3—The Role of the Shaper, the Power of Stories & Art as Falsehood

  1. What does Grendel observe about the habits of man? To what creature does Grendel compare them to? (32)
  1. Who is the Shaper and what is his role? What is the significance of his name? (34)
  1. What is Grendel’s perception of human war? How does that contrast with human’s portrayal of war?(35)
  1. *According to Grendel, how does Hrothgar gain power and loyalty? (39-40)
  1. How does Grendel describe the Shaper that comes to Hrothgar’s kingdom? (42)
  1. *What power does the Shaper possess? How do the men react to his stories? (43)
  1. *How does the Shaper’s tales affect Grendel? What is his reaction? How does this reflect the theme of “art as a falsehood”?

Chapter 4—The Power of Stories & Differing Perspectives

  1. According to Grendel, how is Hart created? Who does he attribute its success to? (46-47)
  1. What might the corpse that Grendel finds on page 50 symbolize?
  1. *What is Grendel’s reaction to the Shaper’s story of Cain and Abel? (51) What does his reaction tell us about his character?
  1. How does Grendel feel about the Shaper? Why? (54)
  1. *Grendel says, “It came to me with a fierce jolt that I wanted it” (55). What does he want and what is he willing to pay to get it?
  1. What is the presence that keeps following Grendel? What does he decide to do at the end of the chapter?
  1. Which people in this story thus far have the power to transform the world with stories/words? How are these characters similar yet different?

Chapter 5—Finding Purpose & Understanding the World

  1. How would you characterize the dragon based on what the dragon says, how he treats Grendel, and how Grendel reacts to the dragon?
  1. *How does the dragon’s knowledge differ from that of Grendel’s and of man’s?
  1. *What is the dragon’s advice to Grendel? What does he mean by each bit of advice? (62, 74)
  1. What is the dragon’s definition of mankind? (64, 71)
  1. What does the dragon mean when he says “Limited to a finite individual occasion, importance ceases to be important”? (68)
  1. What is the point the dragon is making when he says, “Things come and go”? (70)
  1. According the dragon, what is Grendel’s purpose? Why is his purpose important? (72-73)

Chapter 6—Defining and Destroying Identity: “Grendel” & “the Hero”

  1. *After visiting the dragon, what aura or sensation begins to follow Grendel? Why? (75)
  1. After realizing that no mortal blade can harm him, how does this affect Grendel and his attitude? (76)
  1. At the mead hall, Grendel gruesomely bites off a guard’s head in front of many of Hrothgar’s people. This incident causes Grendel to change the way he identifies himself. What is his new identity? (80)
  1. *When Grendel tries to speak to Unferth, Unferth’s impression of Grendel changes. How does Unferth’s opinion of Grendel change? Is Grendel more or less frightening and why? (83)
  1. *Why do you suppose Grendel takes more joy out of the “apple fight” with Unferth than any other fight? (84-86)
  1. After the battle in the hall, Unferth follow Grendel to his lair and delivers a speech on heroism. But Grendel identifies a contradiction in that speech. What is the contradiction? (88)
  1. *Why does Grendel refuse tofight Unferth? What effect does this have on Unferth?
  1. According to this chapter, what is the definition of a hero?
  1. Because of the battle between Unferth and Grendel what happens to the idea of a hero?

Chapter 7—Form of Narration & the Power of a Queen

  1. *What does Grendel mean when he says, “What will we call the Hrothgar-Wrecker when Hrothgar has been wrecked?” (91)
  1. *Why does the style of Grendel’s narration change? What does this suggest about Grendel’s development as a narrator?
  1. Hrothgar’s kingdom has been weakened because of Grendel. What other problem threatens Hrothgar’s kingdom, and what does Hrothgar decide to do about it?
  1. How does Wealtheow affect Hrothgar, the soldiers, the children, the Shaper’s stories, and ultimately Grendel? Why? What does she seem to possess such power? (100-103)
  1. *What parallel does Grendel draw between his mother and Wealtheow? (102)
  1. What idea infuriates Grendel enough to make him finally storm the castle again? (108)
  1. How does Grendel cure himself of Wealtheow’s charm? (109-110)
  1. *What new identity does he assign himself at the end of the chapter?

Chapter 8—Questioning Authority

  1. *What new character is introduced at the beginning of the chapter? Why has he come to Hrothgar’s kingdom?
  1. What is Wealtheow’s concern about Hrothulf and her family? (116)
  1. Who is Red Horse? How is he characterized?
  1. *How does a kingdom function according to Red Horse? (118)
  1. What is Red Horse trying to teach Hrothulf? Why?
  1. Do you think that Red Horse makes valid points about society, government and revolution? Why or why not? (119)
  1. *Grendel describes how self-aware Hrothgar and Wealtheow are about their relationship and their kingdom. Where does Grendel claim this self-awareness, dignity and nobility come from? (123)

Chapter 9—Failure of Religion

  1. Why does Grendel describe the hunting of the deer? What motif does the “click, click” sound reference? (127)
  1. *Describe the pagan religious ceremony. What are they asking of their gods? What comment do Red Horse and Grendel make about it? (128)
  1. Who does Grendel pretend to be? What effect does this have on the priests? (130)
  1. According to the priest Ork, what is the purpose of the King of the gods? (132)
  1. *What does Ork mean when he says that “beauty requires contrast”? (133)
  1. Do the people or the priests believe in their pagan religion? Why or why not?
  1. *Why does this chapter about religion take place in the dead of winter? What is Grendel trying to suggest about religion?

Chapter 10—End of Storytelling

  1. *What motif is represented in the scene with the goat? Why is Grendel obsessed with stopping this goat? What does it signify? (138-140)
  1. How does Grendel describe the winter scene of the Danes? What mood or tone pervades over it?
  1. How does Grendel feel about the Shaper’s ailing health and eventual death? (143)
  1. What do you suppose the Shaper was going to say about the Danes? (144)
  1. *Do you think that Grendel and his mother sense that Grendel’s end is near? What makes you think so? (145-146, 149)
  1. Do you think it is ironic that Grendel will die in the same year that the Shaper does? Why or why not?
  1. *At the end of the Shaper’s funeral Grendel says, “End of an epoch, I could tell the king. We’re on our own again. Abandoned” (149). What does Grendel mean?

Chapter 11—Arrival of a Hero & the End of an Era

  1. What does Grendel find humorous about the Geat’s arrival and the way they are initially received? (152-153)
  1. *How is Beowulf characterized both physically and in personality? (154-155)
  1. How does the arrival of the Geats affect Grendel emotionally? (156)
  1. *Grendel explains that the world is divided into two parts? What are those two parts? Why is this important to remember? (158)
  1. Are the Danes happy to accept the Geat’s help? Why or why not? (159)
  1. What does Grendel decide to do for the honor of the Danes? (159)
  1. *How does Unferth try to insult Beowulf? How does Beowulf respond to the insult? What is Beowulf’s “moral” at the end of the story? (162)
  1. *What is it about Beowulf that freaks out Grendel?

Chapter 12—Celebrating Humanity & Embracing Death

  1. *How does Grendel characterize Beowulf in this chapter? What mythological beast does he compare him to and why? (169)
  1. *Examine the whispered speech Beowulf gives to Grendel on page 170. What is Beowulf saying about time and the cycle of the seasons? Why does Beowulf call Grendel “my brother”?
  1. What effect does Beowulf’s whispering have on Grendel? (169-171)
  1. *Beowulf insists that Grendel sing of walls. Why? What response does Grendel give to that request and what does his response mean? (172)
  1. *Why does Grendel keep insisting that Beowulf has won by mere accident? (169-end)
  1. What is the final line of the novel and how does it reflect the ideology of postmodernism?

Key Quotations

Directions: 1. Identify the speaker. 2. Explain the context of the quote. 3. Explain the significance of this quote to exploring the themes/motifs/symbols of the novel. (Why is this important?)

1)I understood that the world was nothing: a mechanical chaos of casual, brute enmity on which we stupidly impose our hopes and fears. I understood that, finally and absolutely, I alone exist. 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 2)

2)Thus I fled, ridiculous hairy creature torn apart by poetry—crawling, whimpering, streaming tears, across the world like a two-headed beast, like mixed-up lamb and kid at the tail of a baffled, indifferent ewe—and I gnashed my teeth and clutched the sides of my head as if to heal the split, but I couldn't. (Chapter 3)

3)“Nevertheless, something will come of all this,” I said.
“Nothing,” he said. “A brief pulsation in the black hole of eternity. My advice to you—”
“Wait and see,” I said.
He shook his head. “My advice to you, my violent friend, is to seek out gold and sit on it.” (Chapter 5)

4)I had become something, as if born again. I had hung between possibilities before, between the cold truths I knew and the heart-sucking conjuring tricks of the Shaper; now that was passed: I was Grendel, Ruiner of Meadhalls, Wrecker of Kings!
But also, as never before, I was alone. (Chapter 6)

5)As you see it is, while the seeing lasts, dark nightmare-history, time-as-coffin; but where the water was rigid there will be fish, and men will survive on their flesh till spring. It's coming, my brother. . . . Though you murder the world, transmogrify life into I and it, strong searching roots will crack your cave and rain will cleanse it: The world will burn green, sperm build again. (Chapter 12)

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Vocabulary: Please make a note card defining each vocabulary word and key term. The key will be posted on the wiki.

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Presupposition

Introspective

Dogmatism

Degenerate

Enmity

Apocalyptic

Undulant

Tripe

Pervasive

Acrid

Vanquish

Petulant

Hoarfrost

Indignant

Concrescence

Inexorable

Stagnant

Key Terms/Concepts:

Nihilism

Modernism

Theism

Rationalism

Postmodernism

Paradigm

Paradox

Deconstruction

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