Important Characters in the Chapter:
Grendel: We are give a backstory of Grendel's childhood, through the chapter he experiences pain without any aid from his mother until the end.
Grendel's Mother: Plays a large role in the chapter, Grendel's mother does nothing when Grendel screams in pain asking for help. She does not help Grendel until the end of the chapter
Danes: The group of men coming on horse back, looking at Grendel they are trying to make sense of what he is. They get scared by Grendel because of their decision making capabilities unlike the bull.
Plot Synopsis:
Grendel explains how he is alone in his younger days, the only he knows is his mother other than that there are strange unspoken beings living deep inside his cave. As he gets older he starts to go deeper into the underground, as Grendel is exploring he comes across a pool of fire snakes and jumps in, as he floats back he finds himself outside the cave in the moonlight. As the days go on he goes farther and farther outside of the cave exploring the outside world. Grendel had made a rule to be back in the cave before sunset, but one day he had been drawn out longer because of the scent of a newborn calf. As he was walking closer he got caught in a trap and was stuck hanging from a tree bleeding. Grendel cried out for his mama but she never came to rescue him. Son enough a bull finds Grendel n a tree and attacks Grendel, the bull hits him in ripping Grendel's leg. The bull continues to attack Grendel but he doesn't seem to care and goes to sleep, when Grendel wakes up he gets his first glimpse of humans.
Grendal was surprised when he found out that they speak the same language as him, the men spotted him in the tree, they first think he is a mushroom or fungus but then think he is a tree spirit. They think Grendel is hungry and try to feed him a pig, with excitement Grendel laughs and scares the men. They take the laughing as a sign that the tree spirit was angry, they start to plan an attack while Grendel tries to talk to them. He realizes that the hum`ans are dumb people, just as the men try to attack Grendel his mother comes to save him. When Grendel wakes up he finds himself in his cave with his mother staring at him and he gets mad at her unresponsiveness, the chapter ends with Grendel's mother sleeping on top of him and he can hear her heartbeat.
Moral Philosophy:
"I understood that, finally and absolutely, I alone exist. All the rest, I saw, is merely what pushes me, or what I push against, blindly--as blindly as all that is not myself pushes back. I create the whole universe, blink by blink." (22)
Grendel lays out the premise of his egocentrism, Gadrne described the philosophy and gave a possible reason for why it may form. This is a criticism beacuse it come's from Grendel not being able to understand, whoch could be seen as a negative.
"Of all the creatures I knew, in those days, only my mother really looked at me.-- Stared at me as if to consume me, like a troll." (17).
This is justification that Grendel begins to believe in solipsism, he is unable to understand and explain the world around him.
"Then all at once there they'd be again, the indifferent, burning eyes of the strangers." (17)
This shows that Grendel does't understand. He says this again in other places
"I seemed to see the whole universe, even the sun and sky, leaping forward, then sinking away, decomposing. Everything was wreckage, putrefaction. If she was there, the cliffs, the brightening sky, the trees, the stag, the waterfall would suddenly snap into position around her, sane again, well organized; but she was not, and the morning was crazy" (19)
After suffering an injury and being unable to call for his mother, Grendel begins to falsely hope that things are her. This illustrates the premise of the philosophical view, which that it is as though he is making the world.
"Bulls do such things, though the don't even know that the calves they defend are theirs. He shook his horns at me, as if scornful. I trembled." (20)
Grendel has unintentionally believed in solipsism without realizing it. He doesn't give an animal the ability for real thinking and acting.
"But I talked on, trying to smash through the walls of her unconsciousness. "The world resists me and I resist the world," I said. "That's all there is. The mountains are what I define them as." Ah, monstrous stupidity of childhood, unreasonable hope!"(28)
Grendel is only to able understand himself and not the world around him. Therefore, he avoids trying to understand the meaning of others around him, but instead decides to assemble his own definition.
Chapter Analysis:
When Grendel passes the physical border into the human world this represents more than just a geographical change: it's also is a symbol of Grendel's abandonment from his mother. Grendel leaving home is well known term used in human lifestyle, this is the children being old enough to choose their own path in life. With never leaving his mother Grendel believes that they both are completely the same, but once Grendel's reaches the outside world, he sees the differences him and his mother have. The newly disclosed information causes Grendel to have an existential crisis, and Grendel's mother tries to soothe him the only way she's knows by trying to bash him inside of her, so they are physically connected again. With this gesture makes Grendel reinsure that him and his mother are still connected. In releasing the stress Grendel is able to go back to his childish games.
While Grendel encounters the bull, he has a realization that he is all alone. This is shown, when nobody comes and helps him in the fight. While freaking out Grendel looks around with not being able to recognize anything around him. He still thinks that his mother is able to help him in this situation. But since he is not a child anymore, he is all grown up and separated from his mother. Causing her not able to help him in this situation. The world finally starts to make sense to Grendel which makes him learn that he has to find his own path in this world.
With this change Grendel starts his career as a solipsist. Grendel declares "I alone exist" in which he says that he is the only mind that counts in this world. While he says this, he is being attacked by a real-life bull which is not in his imagination. This causes a change in the meaning of solipsism which he is not alone in this world. This meaning comes from his mother. Grendel's youth is officially over, but this is the start of his adult years. Once Grendel's stares into his mother's eyes he realizes that he was a child that broke free from his mother's control.
Things exist outside of Grendel’s sight that can verifiably exist. His sight can be gone and there are stills things to see. He does not have enough (I am lack), and therefore is not a god in this realm he exists in (he does not impose order). His mother’s beating heart, which he cannot see, still has a use.