Important Characters in the Chapter:
Grendel: In this chapter Grendel is affected by the Shaper's song and it drives him insane because he is confused about what is actually true.
The Shaper: In this chapter the Shaper arrives at Hrothgar's meadhall and replaces the old harper because his songs are powerful. The songs talk about old stories, which Grendel realizes have lies in them, but these songs inspire the people in Hrothgar's meadhall.
Hrothgar: In this chapter Grendel recalls how Hrothgar was able to build his kingdom and how he came to be the most powerful in the region. Then about how the Shaper went to Hrothgar's meadhall and Hrothgar allowed the new Shaper to keep playing for him and his people because he spoke of great stories and about how powerful Hrothgar was.
Plot Synopsis:
Grendel starts this chapter by explaining how he is set on defeating Hrothgar painfully slow. He recalls how different camps would start wars, fight each other, boast about their wins through stories, and capture other camps' riches and animals. Hrothgar had organized his own society. He made sure surrounding tribes obeyed his rule and if they decided to fight, Hrothgar would overcome them.
One evening, a blind man showed up at Hrothgar's meadhall. As this harper came into the meadhall and sung of Hrothgar's glory as Grendel still watched from the outside. The harper, also known as the The Shaper, had twisted the truth into a good-looking lie. Even as everyone in the meadhall knew that what he sang was false and saw what actually happened before their own eyes, they still accepted it as the truth.
This baffled Grendel as he also knew the truth but The Shaper had warped his reality. Grendel becomes increasingly uneasy as he cannot grasp how a poem could change his perspective on the history he knew to be true.
Moral Philosophy Quotes:
"The people were hushed. Even the surrounding hills were hushed, as if brought low by language. He knew his art" (Gardner 42).
The shaper was knowingly lying about the history, but continued to recount it this way, and used his knowledge of language to convey it so convincingly. He obviously had no regard for spreading the truth, he just wanted the people to believe what he was saying.
"Even to me, incredibly, he had made it all seem true and very fine" (Gardner 43).
Grendel had been bothered by the events for so long, but once the Shaper retold them with a lie, even Grendel couldn't help but be satisfied with the simplicity of his argument, even though he knew the truth.
"What was he? The man had changed the world, had torn up the past by its thick, gnarled roots and had transmuted it, and they, who knew the truth, remembered it his way -- and so did I" (Gardner 43).
The Shaper was so convincing with his false argument that all of the people immediately dropped their own opinions and believed him.
“I knew the truth… I remembered the ragged men fighting each other till the snow was red slush… Yet I also remembered, as if it had happened, great Scyld, of whose kingdom no trace remained, and his farsighted son, of whose greater kingdom no trace remained” (Gardner 44).
The Shaper was so assured in what he was saying that the manner in which he conveyed what had happened caused Grendel to question what he had seen with his own eyes.
"“Thus I fled, ridiculous hairy creature torn apart by poetry -- crawling, whimpering, streaming tears, across the world like a two-headed beast, like mixed-up lamb and kid at the tail of a baffled, indifferent ewe -- and I gnashed my teeth and clutched the sides of my head as if to head the split, but I couldn’t” (Gardner 44).
Grendel was so torn between what he knew was true and the sophist words of the Shaper. The conflicting points of view on history were competing in his head and became too much for him to handle.
Chapter Analysis:
Grendel remembers how he observed Hrothgar and the other humans in the village. He saw the humans fighting and was amused at how violent the people are. He attempted to befriend exiled killers but ended up killing and eating them. He becomes frightened by the the humans because they were often fighting for greed in cruel ways. Grendel felt safe from the humans wars up in the trees. He watches as Hrothgar's kingdom grows and he does not like how his men kill animals. At least when Grendel killed it was to eat, so he felt that it was morally wrong that the humans would kill for other reasons.
One night, Grendel saw a man arrive at Hrothgar's meadhall with a harp. Grendel felt very conflicted about the Shaper because he enjoyed the sound of his songs, but did not agree with the lies it was saying. Grendel witnessed the village's history, filled with war and death, and it was nothing like the wonders and victories that the Shaper described. The Shapers poems were fake and they sang about a good history rather than the truth for their own personal benefit, to feel good about themselves. This confuses Grendel and drives him mad, he screams the word "Lost" from the top of the cliff.