1. What do you think of Grendel as a character?

2. For a narrator, main character, and monster, Grendel spends a lot of the novel just observing and (we assume) thinking. What do you make of that?

3. What is Grendel’s attitude toward humans, and where does it come from? What is it about humans that makes him angry?

4. What kind of mother is Grendel’s mother? And what does their relationship tell us about him?

5. What does Grendel take away from his rather one-sided conversation with the dragon?

6. At one point, Grendel mentions an impulse to follow the moon and stars. Did you notice any references to astrology in the book?

7. What effect does the Shaper have on Grendel? Does Grendel’s opinion of the Shaper and his storytelling change during the novel?

8. Why do you think Grendel makes the fateful choice to invade Herot, the mead hall? Or is it even a choice?

9. Why does Grendel imagine he’s fighting the dragon when he’s fighting Beowulf?

10. What do you make of Beowulf’s forcing Grendel to sing? Is he just being cruel, or is there something more?

11. What is the significance of Beowulf calling Grendel “my brother” as he kills him?

12. What do you make of Grendel’s words at the end, claiming he’s had an accident? A word he uses several times as he’s dying.

13. Gardner once said that Grendel represents a monster precisely because he “doesn’t believe in anything.” What do you think he meant?

Possible Answers

5. The dragon tells him that his life is meaningful only insofar as it gives purpose to the men who fear him

6. Twelve chapters, twelve signs. Ch. 1 Aries, the Ram; Ch 2 Taurus, the Bull…

11. A reference to the story of Cain killing his brother Abel, which the Shaper relates in Ch. 3.