Grendel (novel)
First edition 1971 cover
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| Author | John Gardner |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Emil Antonucci |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Genre |
European Mythology Fantasy novel Postmodern literature |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf (USA) & Gollancz (UK) |
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Publication date
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1971 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 174 pages (hardback edition USA) & 144 page (paperback edition UK) |
| ISBN | (hardback edition USA) & (paperback edition UK) |
| OCLC | 161732 |
| 813/.5/4 | |
| LC Class | PZ4.G23117 Gr PS3557.A712 |
Grendel is a 1971 novel by American author John Gardner. It is a retelling of part of the Old English poem Beowulf from the perspective of the antagonist, Grendel. In the novel, Grendel is portrayed as an antihero. The novel deals with finding meaning in the world, the power of literature and myth, and the nature of good and evil.
In a 1973 interview, Gardner said that "In Grendel I wanted to go through the main ideas of Western Civilization – which seemed to me to be about . . . twelve? – and go through them in the voice of the monster, with the story already taken care of, with the various philosophical attitudes (though with Sartre in particular), and see what I could do, see if I could break out". On another occasion he noted that he "us[ed] Grendel to represent Sartre's philosophical position" and that "a lot of Grendel is borrowed from sections of Sartre's Being and Nothingness.
Grendel has become one of Gardner's best-known and best-reviewed works. Several editions of the novel contain pen and ink line drawings of Grendel's head, by Emil Antonucci. Ten years after publication, the novel was adapted into the 1981 animated movie Grendel Grendel Grendel.
The basic plot derives from Beowulf, a heroic poem of unknown authorship written in Old English and preserved in a manuscript dating from around AD 1000. The poem deals with the heroic exploits of the Geat warrior Beowulf, who battles three antagonists: Grendel, Grendel's mother, and, later in life, an unnamed dragon. Gardner's retelling, however, presents the story from the existentialist view of Grendel, exploring the history of the characters before Beowulf arrives. Beowulf himself plays a relatively small role in the novel, but he is still the only human hero that can match and kill Grendel. The dragon plays a minor part as an omniscient and bored character, whose wisdom is limited to telling Grendel "to seek out gold and sit on it"; his one action in the novel is to endow Grendel with the magic ability to withstand attacks by sword (a quality Gardner found in the original).
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