It can be argued that Grendel is, because of the the narrator/reader relationship a Platonic Dialogue; a novel where the reader is asked to engage in a conversation about the nature of knowledge and belief. While Grendel never tells us, we are asked to decide: can we KNOW anything, can we BELIEVE in anything (really), and is it worth it (after all) to attempt to imagine a better world?
Talking back Grendel: What are your beliefs?
- Chapter 6 (Virgo, the virgin): Do you believe in inner heroism?
- Chapter 7 (Libra)Do you believe in beauty?
- Chatper 8 (Scorpio, the scorpion): Do you believe in the necessity of government and law—even when you disagree with them?
- Chapter 8 (Scorpio, the scorpion): Do you believe that through political change the world can be improved?
- Chapter 9 (Sagittarius, the centaurian archer): Do you believe in a supernatural power (God) that gives purpose to all things? What is the nature of the supernatural power you believe in? Or, explain your disbelief in supernatural powers.
- The rest of the book (Capricorn, horned goat; Aquarius, water bearer; Pisces, fishes): Do you believe in the power of hope? (Do you believe in belief?)
Do you believe in inner heroism?
“A hero is not afraid to face cruel truth…. [Grendel,] you talk of heroism as noble language, dignity. It’s more than that, as my coming here has proved. No man above us will ever know whether Unferth died here or fled to the hills like a coward. Only you and I and God will know the truth. That’s inner heroism.”
…
“…I didn’t know how deep the pool was,” [Unferth] said. “I had a chance. I knew I had no more than that. It’s all a hero asks for.”
“I sighed. The word “hero” was beginning to grate. He was an idiot. I could crush him like a fly, but I held back.
“Go ahead, scoff,” he said, petulant. “Except in the life of a hero, the whole world’s meaningless. The hero sees values beyond what’s possible. That’s the nature of a hero. It kills him, of course, ultimately. But it makes the whole struggle of humanity worthwhile.”
I nodded in the darkness. “And breaks up the boredom,” I said. 89
Do you believe in beauty?
When drunken men argued, pitting theory against theory, bludgeoning each other’s absurdities, she came between them, wordless, uncondemning, pouring out mead like a mother’s love, and they were softened, reminded of their humanness, exactly as they might have been softened by the cry of a child in danger, or an old man’s suffering, or spring. The Shaper sang things that had never crossed his mind before: comfort, beauty, a wisdom softer, more permanent, than Hrothgar’s.
…
The queen smiled. Impossibly, like roses blooming in the heart of December, she said, “That’s past.” And it was. The demon was exorcised. I saw his hands unclench, relax, and—torn between tears and a bellow of scorn—I crept back to my cave.
…
I slammed into the bedroom. She sat up screaming, and I laughed. I snatched her foot, and now her unqueenly shrieks were deafening, exactly like the squeals of a pig. No one would defend her, not even suicidal Unferth at the door….
Do you believe in the necessity of government and law—even when you disagree with them?
Do you believe that through political change the world can be improved?
[Hrothulf] said angrily… “Nobody in his right mind would praise violence for its own sake, regardless of its ends!”
The old man shrugged and put on a childish smile. “But I’m a simple man, you see,” he said, “and that’s exactly what I do. All systems are evil. All governments are evil. Not just a trifle evil. Monstrously evil.” Though he still smiled, he was shaking, only half controlling it. “If you want me to help you destroy a government, I’m here to serve. But as for Universal Justice—“ He laughed.
Do you believe in a supernatural power (God) that gives purpose to all things? What is the nature of the supernatural power you believe in? Or, explain your disbelief in supernatural powers.
[The Chief God] is the eternal urge of desire establishing the purposes of all creatures. He is an infinite patience, a tender care that nothing in the universe be vain.”
…
“The ultimate evil is that Time is perpetual perishing, and being actual involves elimination…. Such is His mystery: that beauty requires contrast, and that discord is fundamental to the creation of new intensities of feeling. Ultimate wisdom…lies in the perception that the solemnity and grandeur of the universe rise through the slow process of unification in which the diversities of existence are utilized, and nothing, nothing is lost.”
Finally, do you believe in the power of hope? (In other words do you believe in the power of belief? Or to put it another way, do you believe in the power of imagining a better world?) Is this what the Dragon meant by gold?
