Important Characters in the Chapter:
Grendel: Grendel struggles to rationalize whether the actions and ways he has lived his life are good or bad after hearing the songs of The Shaper.
Hrothgar: Hrothgar still continues to build his nation while covering up his lies as he makes radical changes in this chapter that make him appear as a hero to the people.
The Shaper: The Shaper's skillfulness with his harp begins to sway a larger audience to believe the stories he tells with them.
Grendel's Mother: Grendel's mother evolves slightly to be able to pronounce a sound.
Plot Synopsis:
Grendel observes the shaper's melancholic songs in Harothgar's court, which he believes are the reason for the meadhall's rise. Grendel hears laughter from the meadhall and approaches the body of a men who has been stolen. The shaper sings about a great god who created the world and two brothers who split the world between darkness and light. Grendel is mad and calls BS, because he thinks the Shaper should be the last one to be talking about God. He feels disdained, because his moral values aren't be expressed. He feels as if his view are right and the people at the meadhall are wrong. Grendal is upset that he can't seem to conform like the people at the meadhall. He feels as if he has no one to talk to, as shown when he says,"Why can't i have someone to talk to?"(Gardner 53). Grendal is frustrated at the fact he can't seem to express his moral values or even communicate with someone. He then gets petty and tries to come up with a reason for why he may be superior. He then believes he is superior by saying, "But they were doomed, I knew, and I was glad. No denying it. Let them wander the fogroads of Hell"(Gardner 53). He wants to feel some sort of superiority, and he wants to do this by comforming. Then later he gets back to his cave and his wish is completed; he sees the dragon.
Analysis Quotes
"Well then he's changed them" I said [...] "Why not?"(Grendel 48)
"'He takes what he finds', I said stubbornly, trying again. 'And by changing men's minds he makes the best of it. Why not?' But it sounded petulant;and it wasn't true, I knew. He sang for pay, for the praise of women [...] and for the honor of a famous king's hand on his arm. If the ideas of art were beautiful, that was art's fault, not the Shaper's. " (Grendel 49)
"Yet I wasn't satisfied. His fingers picked infallibly as if moved by something beyond his power, and [...] made a vision without seams, an image of himself yet not-himself, beyond the need of any old gold-friend's pay: the projected possible." (Grendel 49)
"The harp turned solemn. He told of an ancient feud between two brothers which split all the world between darkness and light. And I, Grendel, was the dark side, he said in effect. The terrible race God cursed." (Grendel 51)
"I staggered out into the open and up toward the hall with my burden, groaning out, 'Mercy! Peace!' The harper broke off, the people screamed." (Grendel 51, 52)
"'Why can't I have someone to talk to?' I said. The stars said nothing, but I pretended to ignore the rudeness. 'The Shaper has people to talk to,' I said. I wrung my fingers. 'Hrothgar has people to talk to.' (Grendel 53)
"It was a cold-blooded lie that a god had lovingly made the world and set out the sun and moon as lights to land-dwellers, that brothers had fought, that one of the the races was saved, the other cursed. Yet he, the old Shaper, might make it true, by the sweetness of his harp, his cunning trickery. It came to me with a fierce jold that I wanted it. As they did too, though vicious animals, cunning, cracked with theories. I wanted it, yes! Even if I must be the outcast, cursed by the rules of his hideous fable." (Grendel 55)
(Grendel is frustrated at the fact he can't seem to express his moral values or even communicate with someone. He then gets piety and tries to come up with a reason for why he may be superior. He wants to feel some sort of superiority, and he wants to do this by conforming.)
Chapter 4 Analysis
Gardener uses Grendel's interactions with the religion and community to build a critique of religion as a whole. At the beginning of the chapter, the king has proclaimed his meadhall the future center of a great empire, and the Shaper continues to sing his songs and move the people; As a result of this shared belief, the people are able to live happily despite the atrocities they regularly commit. Just outside of the clearing, Grendel finds a man who's been killed and stripped of clothing, showing the brutality of the people of Herod. Similarly to Chapter 3, Grendel struggles with discerning truth from fiction in the face of the Shaper's songs, and in this chapter he is seen to be deeply want this sense of community which comes from faith and religion, as seen in his repeated questioning of "Why not?"(Grendel 48, 49, 50) and him asking "Why can't I have someone to talk to?"(Grendel 53). His want for connection leads him to try and believe in the Dane's religion, despite them labelling him as evil. He runs into the mead hall begging for forgiveness and is greeted by violence. Throughout these events, Grendel builds an opinion on religion, which is presumably Gardner's opinion as well: Religious values are lies, but they form out of a want for community and a shared truth.