Journal 4

     Grendel demonstrates an attitude of love and hatred towards language. According to Grendel, the Shaper sings about reality wrapped within lies. The Shaper uses language to pronounce the “lies” of his stories to the people of the mead hall. Truth falls before the Shaper as he turns losing situations into winning ones. He gives hope to the people, even if none currently exist. He distorts the truth within his story turning them into lies. When facing Grendel, Unferth also spouts lies with his bold words of “hero” and “courage.” When facing Unferth, Grendel is understood for the first time by a human being. This takes Unferth by surprise as he says “You can talk!” Grendel says “sooner or later or later the harvest virgin will make a mistake in your haystack.” Grendel tells Unferth what he believes about in heroes and he also displays how much is language has changed since the beginning of the story. Humans as a whole sing at funerals, turning what was once a sad, hopeless ceremony into a place of happiness and fun.
     It isn’t clear how Grendel can both understand and speak to the humans. The people, thinking he is a monster, are, therefore, somewhat surprised when they hear Grendel’s words. This occurrence brings attention to the subject of language. Grendel gives little thought to the language that connects him with the humans. Grendel use of language, however, shows his own attempts of being an “artist.” In Grendel, it is his account of life throughout the novel that is his crowning achievement. The monster, in a sense, becomes the “artist”. “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.” This passage occurs in Chapter 6, just after Grendel has bitten off the head of a Scylding guard, thus marking the beginning of his twelve-year war with Hrothgar’s Danes. For Grendel, taking this decisive step in creating his own identity is a liberating, empowering event. It is from his account that we know what he thinks of both the Shaper and humans. In addition to writing the novel as a whole, Grendel draws attention to the poetry he uses throughout the novel. “Grendel is crazy O, O, O! Thinks old Hrothgar makes it snow!” “Pity Poor Grengar, Hrothdel’s foe! Down Goes the whirlpool: Eek! No, no!” These quotes occur in chapter 7 and demonstrate Grendel’s transition from simple language to more complex sentence structures.  Grendel shows his improvement as a poet, by revealing the higher quality of poetry he uses later in the story. Grendel writes one of the chapters as a screen play. Grendel is witty, and is proud of it.  He, “a stupid monster”, is clever, humorous, creative, and highly intelligent, as he demonstrates his language. Ultimately, the novel is about reality vs. art.  Grendel's philosophy comes down on the side of reality, and humans on the side of art.  Yet, reaffirming his philosophical beliefs, Grendel uses his artistic style of view to entertain himself and survive his tediousness of existence.