Grendel's Last Words In Beowulf

With his dying words, Grendel clings to his limited understanding of existence. He demonstrates that despite Beowulf’s epic heroics, to believe that his death is anything other than an accident. Humans have the ability to plan and assign logic to their actions. They have two sides, both savage and rational and this sets them apart from Grendel. Humans use concepts like heroism and protection to rationalize their brutality. They pretend to have meaning while Grendel perceives violence as a natural, random part of existence. His last words are shaped by this difference. Grendel’s last words are layered with meaning. In order to understand his last words we have to look at the context of the narrative. Grendel’s role in the epic tale is cemented …show more content…
I understood that, finally and absolutely, I alone exist.”(Gardner)

Grendel abandons the belief that there is any reasoning in the world other than his own. It allows him to accept his role as monstrous butcher. Grendel has been at war with humans for many years. He sees the battle as a waste, without reason. “And so begins the twelfth year of my idiotic war, the pain of it…the stupidity!” (5) He is a monster but is still reviled by the nonsensical violence, his own violence, that dominates existence. He reviles both humanity and himself. Grendel accepts the reality of his situation. He is a savage, fiendish monster. He laments “Not of course, that I fool myself with thoughts that I’m more noble” (Gardner, 5). He refers to himself as a “pointless, ridiculous monster crouched in the shadows, stinking of dead men”. In just a few lines we see what Grendel thinks about life - things are as they are and nothing seems to matter. In his warped mind the war, his existence, his actions and the actions of others mean absolutely nothing. This gives us a lens to look at his final …show more content…
Although he is actually killed as the result of a long, arduous and ultimately heroic journey, he is a beast without feeling and to him nothing matters; there is no reason he is dying, no divine path or rule. Unlike humans he cannot perceive rational intent. Grendel has had an “accident,” a random act in an endless sea of violent events and the result is his death. Being so familiar with snuffing out life he accepts his death and wishes the same to all those around him. They too will have an “accident” as life is entirely random and savage. As he dies he is released from his existence as an instrument of irrational terror, but cannot perceive the significance of the event. Even on his death bed Grendel can find no reason, no rationale, no poetic means to explain life and death. He has become so familiar with decay that the difference between life and death is as inconsequential as an unintended collision. His final words are not so much a curse as a declaration of the