Grendel [Paperback]

From forest shadows, he views--through his primal lens--the duplicitous, scheming and barbaric true nature of the king's growing empire and the warring clans around it. No animal, points out Beowulf, would treat his own kind so cruelly.

Later in the novel, as Grendel grows out of young adulthood into complete monster maturity, he begins to interact more fiercely with the humans. He wants to show them how wrong they are, how vulnerable, how false their gods. To his surprise, however, the beauty of Beowulf's queen--who is completely inaccessible--enchants him. Rather than seriously persue the queen, however, he views the king as unworthy of her and this feeling builds his resentment toward the king and his domain.

Outside of the monster Grendel, there are two arresting figures in the book. The first is the dragon, who sits in a subterranean lair and, more importantly, stands outside of time and thus can see eons of events at glance--before and after they occur. From this perspective, the dragon attempts to school the young monster in the finer points of space-time. This is an entertaining sidetrack from the novel's main thrust, and the dragon's viewpoint of time (analogous to surveying a plain from a mountaintop) leaves a lasting impression on the reader. To Grendel, of course, the concepts are beyond him and the dragon becomes upset at Grendel's obvious boredom and disquiet.

The other captivating character is not that of Beowulf (who comes across as an irrational, primal force himself) but a young man in the king's court whom Grendel refuses to kill. The young man tries to die a hero by stalking Grendel alone, something everyone knows would lead to death. But Grendel sees what he's up to and, to deny him, leaves him a hairsbreath from death and deposits him back at the king's main hall. In subsequent encounters, Grendel also leaves the man unharmed while killing everyone else around despite the man's calls to fight.

The shame of repeatedly being the sole survivor disgraces the man. His self-image is wrecked and, in a time when dying in battle is a great honor, is publicly disgraced and laden with survivor guilt. It is this broken, dispirited man who over time is the only human to win Grendel's respect. It's as though, by finally abandoning the achievement of what's expected in human society, he lands closer to Grendel--the natural purist, the exile, the free thinker. Indeed, near the conclusion of the novel, this 'chosen' man scorns Beowulf's bravado.

The story broadcasts, more than anything else, the flaws of human societies: their impurities, iniquities, injustices. Nature, in the novel, is elevated and becomes something that is pure, vibrant, wholesome, and greater than petty and repetitive struggles of human society. Grendel and his kind symbolize the collective forces of nature.

The writing is casual, open, modern. That's a relief if you've read older translations of Beowulf. The character viewpoints of the three I mention here (Grendel, the dragon, and the defeated man chosen by Grendel) ring true and are innovative in their dialogue and description.

This is one of the best novels I've encountered. I recommend it!