The Disparities Between Heaney's Grendel and Gardner's Grendel

In this class we’ve read Beowulf by Seamus Heaney as well as Grendel by John Gardner. Both books describe the same character with variations of emphasis on certain parts of the plot, but the monster they call Grendel remains in each one. Ideally, one would think that the monster would be similar if not mostly the same for each story, but after reading through Beowulf and Grendel it is obvious that this monsters characteristics and motives can be interpreted completely different from each other. Why do Beowulf and Grendel have such polarizing views of the same character and yet their stories follow the same characters and plot sequence? 

Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf focuses on the story of Beowulf, a young hero who seeks out monsters to slay them and assert his male dominance. The story also centers around the lineage of several groups of people like the Geats, the Danes, and the Swedes. In this story Grendel is one of the three monsters Beowulf comes into contact with and kills. In this version, Grendel is seen as this “powerful demon” with talons that had been cursed by God that wreaks havoc on individuals in Hrothgar’s mead hall (Heaney 9). Seamus Heaney really emphasized how Grendel was an outcast from God, highlighting that he was related to Cain’s damned lineage and how the monster was “the Lord’s outcast” (Heaney 9 & 13). In Beowulf, Grendel’s main characteristics are that he is a damned creature who selfishly murders Hrothgar’s people because he is tired of hearing the incessant noises. That’s his biggest motivation as well, stopping people from making so much noise, but there isn’t much character development past that. He’s been written as a true monster with little to none character development and a lot of problematic traits. Jumping to John Gardener’s Grendel, the reader can quickly see a difference. For starters it is written from Grendel’s perspective, so we are given more insight into the character and in a sense is getting a chance to speak for himself. Reading through Grendel it was obvious that in this version he possessed more human like qualities and personality traits. The biggest one I think this Grendel has is curiosity which is not something a reader gets from Heaney’s version of the monster. In the first chapter Grendel gets curious and goes and explores passed the mere where he gets himself into trouble, but that’s something that everyone has done at some point and it makes him easier to relate to and understand. In Gardener’s version of Grendel, he’s also given more positive characteristics than he is in Beowulf. He’s looked at as strong, intelligent, at least when compared to his mother, and able to think for himself. His motivations have also changed in this story, in this he is more purposeful, spurred on by the wisdom given to him by the dragon as well as wanting to not be outcast like in the songs sung by the shaper's. This Grendel is not motivated by rage and blood, but rather a thoughtful individual who wishes to be on apart of the in crowd.

Each book written from a completely different perspective with the same monster, yet the characteristics of that monster are polar opposites. One Grendel, out for blood and motivated by his own pain, another spurred on by his own curiosity, but why such different versions of the same monster? Possibly because each writer was trying to highlight a different side of humanity, each correct in their own portrayal, but still missing the other side giving the readers two extremes.