dragon

Grendel- John Gardner

A major shift in Grendel comes with the appearance of the dragon. So what exactly does that mean for Grendel? Has he found ‘truth’ and ‘enlightenment’? And whatever he’s found, does he accept it?

What the dragon gives to Grendel is often compared to what Grendel gives to the people, fright and, in a very twisted way, ‘enlightenment.’ The dragon himself says it when he teases Grendel with the words, “Now you know how they feel when they see you, eh?” (50). Yet, whenever I look back, there seem to be too many differences. Even when Grendel terrorizes the humans, he does so in confusion and also what he feels is necessity, thinking that eating a human once in a while is “only natural: kept them from over populating, maybe starving to death, come winter” (52). He is searching for some sort of meaning.

On the other hand, the dragon is merely playing with Grendel, laughing at him constantly and, as previously mentioned, teasing him. From his actions, the dragon seems to get very little out of the exercise except for entertainment. Once again the dragon himself supports such an idea by saying, “I do not change the future” (54). If his actions hold no power, why call out to Grendel to impart on him these “truths” of the universe? He also points out to Grendel that “nothing” will come out of what is happening, acknowledging that his own actions are meaningless. All he wishes to do is “to seek out gold and sit on it” (63). The lack of interest in anything else suggests that Grendel is the same, just another treasure that would be fun to observe and play with. Given that, it wouldn’t be surprising if the dragon lied to Grendel about what he knew simply to watch Grendel’s reaction. Even Grendel thinks of this possibility stating that the dragon “was evil enough.” Such lies would hardly be considered enlightenment.

Even if the dragon was telling the truth, it’s likely that his words were not truths, but perspective. Throughout the dragon’s speech to Grendel, he never tells him everything he knows. Of course he doesn’t. If he does know everything including the future, it would be impossible for his to relate it to Grendel anyway. Therefore, whatever he tells Grendel is what he has interpreted the world to be and what he has learned from the knowledge he has access to. However, just like Plato suggested in his allegory of the cave, our interpretations of reality are not actually the truth of reality but only the limited knowledge we understand by seeing it from one perspective. Grendel knows that the dragon can see the future and takes what he says to be truth, but he’s really only been exposed to another perspective of the world he has already developed a perspective on.

Despite this, it seems that Grendel realizes that the ‘truth’ the dragon gave him was not necessarily true. He says to himself that what the dragon said is “what is” and even his aura becomes darker as a result, but Grendel is still not completely comfortable following the dragon’s words. Had he completely trusted the wisdom of the dragon, he shouldn’t be so plagued with worry about whether he should or should not be doing what he is doing, However, Grendel states after his violation of Wealtheow, an action the dragon probably looked upon with amusement, that he “resolved, absolutely and finally, to kill myself, for the love of the Baby Grendel that used to be” (95). Far from sounding enlightened, Grendel seems to look at his experience with the dragon as a corruption of his innocent younger self. He’s drawn to it, yet at the same time he’s repulsed. The dragon very possibly did not pass on anything enlightening to Grendel, but he’s started a war of confusion within him.