John Gardner’s novel, Grendel, tells the story of the life of the infamous monster in the epic “Beowulf”. The monster, Grendel, is a misunderstood, unaccepted, vile monster that seems much worse than what he actually is. In the novel, Gardner uses each of his twelve chapters to make a connection to the twelve zodiac signs and the astrology that accompanies them. The astrology hints at philosophical changes that Grendel experiences throughout his life; each sign is alluded to in its respective chapter. With this, Gardner gives readers insight into Grendel’s life, allowing them to discover for themselves his motives, thoughts, and feelings.
In the first chapter, which backtracks to Grendel’s childhood, describes him as adventurous, outgoing, and fun. As an adult, however, Grendel is misunderstood and evil. He often kills hunts and kills humans with a lust for blood, but why? In explaining the motives behind Grendel’s actions two things must be considered: what has happened to him throughout his life to cause his anger and what he himself feels that he should be. For instance, the first chapter alludes to the first zodiac sign, the ram, and represents Grendel’s need to be first. He explains that he has much to learn about hunting and killing, and desires the skills he needs to be the best. Further, the traumatic events Grendel underwent during his lifetime shaped his attitude and gave him anger toward humans. His unpleasant encounters with them pushes him to believe that they can be stupid and selfish. As such, perhaps he feels almost as if it is only fair that he bring them misery as they had done to him.
Evil, lonely, monster-like, misunderstood, feared, avenger—these are all words used to describe Grendel. These words reflect peoples’ common perception of Grendel, yet some of them are incorrect. The ways in which Grendel is described relates directly to the way people react to him. Take “evil” for example. As readers get into Grendel’s mind they see that he isn’t actually evil, but he appears to be so as he becomes frustrated with the world around him that fails to understand which leads to killing sprees. Likewise, because society fails to understand him, Grendel is feared and unaccepted, causing him to be lonely. One must consider that childhood Grendel, the person he really is, has been transformed throughout the years with cruel treatment and solitude. No one takes the time to actually explore Grendel, and therefore they mark him as they see him at first glance.
Grendel’s character makes a clear connection to those in society who are judged and misunderstood, but his character has less obvious symbolisms. Gardner’s second chapter is written with relations to the second zodiac sign, Taurus the bull. Taurus is associated with patience and greed. This greed can represent Grendel’s want to be the best and strongest around. In fact, Grendel begins to philosophize the idea of solipsism in chapter two. Solipsism is the idea that one’s own mind is all that exist, and nothing else matters. This shows that Grendel thrives to be the single greatest thing that has absolute power over Denmark. He wants fear and desires blood, which makes him a symbol of the zodiac sign Taurus.
Overall, the novel revolves around Grendel’s experiences and feelings and uses those to explain even the most complicated of happenings. The high level of symbolism draws readers into thinking for themselves and allows for allusions to numerous other things. In Grendel, Gardner left hints between the lines and in the zodiac signs he used to allow readers to draw their own conclusions about Grendel and actually get to know him like no character in the book could do.
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