Grendel | Techniques/Literary Precedents
Much of the initial and continuing popularity of Grendel can be traced to its retelling of the first third of the Beowulf story through the point of view of the monster. In the epic, the monster was a mere brute presence, a son of Cain who killed the retainers in King Hrothgar's great hall. Gardner assumes the reader's familiarity with his original source, but he creates his Grendel as a perversely likable character who is far less inhuman than the monster in the original story. His Grendel is half-human, and therefore traces to other important monsters in literature such...
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