Grendel notes
Grendel Notes
Chapter 4
- Hrothgar builds Mead Hall on top of hill=glory & justice of H. Danes
- Inspired by Shaper’s Song “shine to the ends of the ragged world”
- Sit & give treasures out, and generations after would do the same.
- Called it “Hart”
- Shaper- built halls by power of his songs “created with casual words its grave mor(t)ality”
- Boy- only knows tragedyà Grendel takes credit
- Grendel scoffs at the grand stuff, but can’t help but be swept up by the excitement
- W/ grief & shame @ his own nasty, bloodthirsty ways, he slinks away crablike.
- G hears the forest whisper, thinks of “something deeper, an impression from another mind, some live thing old and terrible”
- G wonders about Shaper’s powers- changing men’s minds, sang for pay, for praise of women, & for honor of the King’s hand on his arm
- Whisper & mysterious presence unnerve G. Grabs vine, thought it snake, but it’s just vine, presence follows G until edges of town.
- G sees couples, steps on dead man( throat cut and clothes stolen)
- G baffled at contrast bet. Innocent couples & violent murdered corpse
- Shaper sings of the creation of world by the greatest of gods, & of the feuding bros. Cain and Abe which split the world bet darkness and light. G dark side and cursed by God.
- G believed him, & takes corpse to hall, crying for mercy, peace & declaring himself friend.
- Men chased him out w/ axes & spears
- G cursed them w/ words he learned, realized that men are doomed
- 2 nigths later, G returns to hear Shaper. Enraged but also addicted to song about God, and wanted to believe in it at the same time
- Presence returns.
Chapter 5 Leo
- G goes to red-golden dragon live in cave w/ gold & gems
- D laughs @ G’s fright & discomfort, points out that it’s the same how the humans were scared and discomforted by him.
- Mad, G throws an emerald @ dragon, but stops
- G decides to stop scaring the humans for sport
- D, asked “Why not frighten them?”
- D claims to know everything about everything, also can see future
- Seeing future doesn’t really help cuz he doesn’t have power to change it
- G asks about shaper
- D says that humans approximate by gluing isolated facts together & try to link them together into logical chains & rational systems.
- Nonsense systems- Shaper provides illusions to make it real w/ his songs
- G doesn’t understand, and D tries to make it simplier.