Traditional heroes grace the covers of comic books, the posters for films, and come to mind first when the word hero is mentioned. Traditional heroes are the Supermen of the world, the ones who are larger than life and embody every perfect trait everyone should aspire to have. Grendel, the hero of John Gardner’s novel of the same name, is not a traditional hero by any means. Not only is he not a human, nor attractive, but he storms meadhalls and eats people for entertainment; yet he still appears to portray very heroic qualities underneath the homicidal tendencies. Although he finds amusement in killing and consuming people, Grendel is a tragic hero and a victim of fate and circumstance.…