Grendel

Chapters 1-3

Reading Check

1. The narrator is a monster named Grendel. (Chapter 1)

2. Due to his fearsomeness, Grendel’s only companion is his shadow. (Chapter 1)

3. The men mistake Grendel for an oak-tree spirit. (Chapter 2)

4. The Shaper, through story, understands what men need and want from life. (Chapter 3)

Short Answer

1. For 12 years, Grendel has repeatedly attacked King Hrothgar’s meadhall, where Grendel eats the thanes. (Chapter 1)

2. Grendel hates spring because it awakens an “unrest” in the natural world he despises. (Chapter 1)

3. Grendel’s mother shares a lair with Grendel. She is protective of Grendel but does not speak. Grendel suspects she is related to humans. (Chapters 1-2)

4. Grendel notes that humans repeat patterns of destruction. (Chapter 3)

Chapters 4-6

Reading Check

1. The Shaper says Grendel is on the side of evil. (Chapter 4)

2. The Danes attack him. (Chapter 4)

3. The Dragon says that he sees past, present, and future concurrently and that there isn’t any free will. (Chapter 5)

4. The Dragon makes Grendel invincible against men’s weapons, which destroys Grendel’s only connection with men—his ability to do battle with them. (Chapter 6)

Short Answer

1. Grendel notes that Hrothgar is destructive, while the songs sung about him glorify him. (Chapter 4)

2. Grendel wants to believe his life has meaning, but the Dragon says that when Grendel dies, another brute existent will simply take his place. (Chapter 5)

3. Unferth recognizes Grendel’s ability to use language, making Grendel more human and less brutish. (Chapter 6)

4. Instead of giving Unferth a heroic death by killing him, Grendel allows Unferth to live and returns him to the meadhall. (Chapter 6)

Chapters 7-9

Reading Check

1. Grendel resolves to kill Wealtheow and himself and then changes his mind without reason. (Chapter 7)

2. Unferth killed his brother. (Chapter 7)

3. Hrothulf, Hrothgar’s nephew, poses a threat because he has violent tendencies. (Chapter 8)

4. Grendel describes priests as mere performers of ritual. (Chapter 9)

Short Answer

1. Wealtheow’s brother offers her to Hrothgar in marriage if Hrothgar will stop his attack on the young king. (Chapter 7)

2. Grendel pities the aging king. (Chapter 8)

3. Grendel reveals himself to the blind priest Ork as the Great Destroyer. Grendel asks Ork to tell him about the King of the Gods. Ork talks about creativity, purpose, and beauty. Grendel leaves when he hears others approach. (Chapter 9)

4. The priest is rapturous because Ork seems to have given up his extreme rationalism. (Chapter 9)

Chapters 10-12

Reading Check

1. The Shaper begins to make a prediction about the Danes’ future but dies before he can complete his thought. (Chapter 10)

2. Grendel overhears her describe a huge man who will sail to this land. (Chapter 10)

3. To give Hrothgar advice about Grendel (Chapter 11)

4. His mother (Chapter 12)

Short Answer

1. The arrival of the Geats from far away makes Grendel think he has achieved some significance. (Chapter 11)

2. He watches Grendel kill a man to learn his ways. (Chapter 12)

3. The leader of the Geats calls Grendel his brother, and Grendel describes him as crazy. (Chapter 12)

Grendel attributes his death to “an accident.” (Chapter 12)