Hal Jordan is a Green Lantern, a group of intergalactic police force, who faces the challenge of protecting the universe, from those seeking to destroy or conquer it. He uses a green power ring that is fueled by willpower, the ring does run out of juice, but can be easily charged. He is the first human to join to corps because the ring chose him. The evil he faces are those in other color corps. Each corps is fueled by a different emotion. The Sinestro Corps aka the Yellow Corps, the Red Lanterns, and Agent Orange are his main enemies. Hal Jordan defends people with his power ring, fueled by will power. He isn’t protecting just because he has too, but because he believes it is the right thing and it is the way of the Green Lantern Corps. He represents the emotion will power, and light. He never gives up and will continue to fight when there are no other options.
Ash Ketchum is a simple Pokémon trainer from Pallet Town. In the first movie, the evil Pokémon Mewtwo cloned all the trainers’ Pokémon to battle the originals. Ash saw all the Pokémon suffering and tried to stop them by getting in the way of one of the attacks. By doing so he was turned to stone. In doing this all the Pokémon whether clone or original, and Mewtwo saw that fighting was wrong. The Pokémon’s tears brought ash back to life. Ash is like Beowulf because both of them did whatever was required to stop what they believed in. Whether it was getting the treasure from the dragon or stopping the Pokémon from suffering, they are both heroes; pushing themselves beyond the limit of the person’s capability.
Grendel isn’t like other animals with horns; he has the ability to speak. Grendel’s mother does not have this ability. Grendel has a love- hate relationship with language. At the beginning of the story he didn’t quite understand the basics of language. The language in Grendel deals with philosophy and as he continues to narrate his philosophy and language changes. As the story progresses the way Grendel narrates begins to mature. He knew him and the humans shared a common tongue. He understood most of the things humans talked about, but he also learned new things, like curse words. He falls in love with what the shaper sings, and then he begins to hate it because the shaper lies. He trusts what the dragon says and realizes everything the shaper says is wrong, and gives Grendel an anti- life point of view. That language doesn’t matter. Nothing will ever matter because it has already been predetermined and this is where Grendel begins not to care so much.
Beowulf reveals Anglo- Saxon values of the society. Heroism is one example of these values. If one committed acts of heroism he was song about by the shapers, and said to have lived forever. Beowulf is a hero who was praised after his death, “They extolled his heroic nature and exploits and gave thanks for his greatness; which was the proper thing , for a man should praise a prince whom he holds dear and cherish his memory when that moment comes when he has ro be convoyed from his bodily home.” (Line 833-837) Loyalty and bravery are other themes highly value, “ ‘I remember the time when mead was flowing, how we pledged our loyalty to our lord in the hall, promised our ring- giver we would be worth the price, make good the gift of the war-gear, those swords and helmets, as and when his need required it. He picked us out from the army deliberately, honored us and judged us fit for….now the day has come this lord we serve needs men to give him their support” (Wiglaf, lines763-779).
Grendel is a monster that acts very childish as if new into the world and as a bully. Grendel acts out of rage and begins to snatch people from their beds and kills them. He is doing this out of the hatred for the Harper’s music and the people of the mead-halls attitude. “I no longer remember exactly what he sang. I know only that it had a strange effect on me: it no longer filled me with doubt and distress, loneliness, shame. It enraged me. It was their confidence, maybe- their blissful, swinish ignorance, their bumptious self satisfaction, and, worst of all, their hope.”(76) Grendel also spares little Unferth from death multiple times because Grendel thinks it is funny. Unferth wants to be a hero and be sung about in the shaper’s song, but Grendel won’t let that happen, being an example of a bully. It is as if he is throwing a giant tantrum for not getting his way, or in this sense for being “picked on.” His response is to take it out on others. Even though Grendel is in the fourth century A.D. in Denmark he acts very much like people of later times. The people do not like Grendel because he is coming in and destroying the livelihood of the village under Hrothgar’s rule. Though Grendel is a babied monster he is still thoughtful and very self conscious. He shares language and emotion much like humans do. He gets scared, angry, happy, sad, or bored. Grendel is moved by the beauty of Hrothgar’s queen and wants to kill her to set an example. Right as if he was going to do it Grendel stopped and let the queen go, showing that he has a better side. “I decided to kills her. I firmly committed myself to killing her, slowly, horribly. I would begin by holding her over the fire and cooking the ugly hole between her legs. I laughed harder at that. They were all screaming now, hooting and yawling to their dead-stick gods. I would kill her, yes! I would squeeze out her feces between my fists. So much for meaning as quality of life! I would kill her and teach them reality. Grendel the truth- teacher, phantasm- tester! It was what I would be from this day forward-my commitment, my character as long as I lived- and nothing alive or dead would change my mind!”(109-110) “I changed my mind. It would be meaningless, killing her. As meaningless as letting her live. It would be for me, mere pointless pleasure, an illusion of order for this one frail, foolish flicker- flash in the long dull fall of eternity.”(110) Grendel proved that he can do such horrible things but he does not have to. Grendel is like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He has an evil and nice side to him. So although he was going to kill the queen and be a monster like he was born to be, he reluctantly let her go in the sense that he would get nothing for killing her.
At the beginning of the story, Grendel is formulating a world- view as if he was a child. In chapter two Grendel begins to form a solipsism that one’s own mind is all that exists. The shaper has an ability to make others believe what he says. He sings about the origins of the Earth and the bringing together of people. Grendel believes the shaper when [the shaper] says Grendel and his mother descended from Cain in the bible. Cain is a biblical character who murdered his brother because of jealousy. This is believed to have created a race of devils. God casts Cain to wander the Earth without rest and nothing will grow at his hand. Grendel wanted to join the human society after this, but the people attacked him when he showed to repent and join them. This is how Grendel believes he is the only one that exists in the world. At chapter five Grendel is introducing Alfred Whitehead’s philosophy of natural existence consists in and is best understood in terms of processes rather than things –of modes of change rather than fixed stabilities. This is because of the dragon that Grendel goes to visit. The dragon tells Grendel about the importance of material things. Grendel rejects materialism in favor of a philosophy centered on the “concepts of life, organism, function, instantaneous reality, interaction, and order of nature.” At chapter six Grendel accepts that other beings do exist, but he marked them as his enemies. Wealthlow in chapter seven is like the zodiac Virgo, she is the server of the cup, and she brings a symbol of hope and unity. This is also a sign of Christianity- communion and fellowship, with Wealthlow being a peacemaker. Grendel was infatuated by Wealthlow and wanted to take her from Hrothgar and the Danes. When the moment came to where he would take the woman and kill her he let her go and then fled. Chapter eight introduces a character named Hrothulf, whom symbolizes Machiavellian Statecraft. Machiavellian is typically a term claiming that an action is cruel, manipulative, or overly dictatorial. Ork is introduced in chapter nine and brings the hypocrisy of young priests. Ork tells that: the king of Gods is the ultimate limitation; his existence is the ultimate irrationality. No reason can be given for the nature is the ground for rationality. The ultimate evil is that time is perpetual perishing, and being actual involves elimination. The nature of evil may be epitomized in two propositions: Things fade and alternatives exclude (132-133). Chapter ten incorporates the pessimism of Nietzche . Nietzche is a nihilist. He believes there was no longer any real substance to the traditional social, political, moral and religious values. In chapter eleven and twelve Grendel’s evolved philosophy is nihilism. Humans are isolated in an accidental world where God does not exist. Man must create his values, even though these values have no meaning outside the individual consciousness.
In Anglo- Saxon poetry, Beowulf, “The Seafarer”, and “The Wife Lament”, you see the same ideas reoccurring. Death is a theme portrayed in all of the stories. “So he came to place, carrying the treasure, and found his lord bleeding profusely, his life at an end; again he began to swab his body. The beginnings of an utterance broke out from the king’s breast-cage. The old lord gazed sadly at the gold.” (Beowulf, line 796-801) “Certain which of Fate’s three threats would fall: illness, or age, or an enemy’s sword, snatching the life from his soul. The praise the living pour on the dead Flowers from reputation: plant an earthly life of profit reaped even from the hatred and rancor, of bravery flung in the devil’s face, and death can only bring you praise and a song to celebrate a place with the angels, life eternally blessed in the hosts of Heaven.” (Seafarer, line 69-79) “So in this forest grove they made me dwell, under the oak-tree, in this earthly barrow. Old is this earth-cave, all I do is yearn the dales are dark with high hills up above, sharp hedge surrounds it, overgrown with briars, and joyless is the place. Full often here the absence of my lord comes sharply to me.” (The Wife’s Lament, lines 28- 34) As you can see death is a big theme within Anglo- Saxon poetry. Each poem has someone dying it, whether they die before the ending or they are about to die, death is still written about.
Grendel is a parody of Beowulf. Grendel is the story of Beowulf from the monster Grendel’s point of view. The story is also written in first person, while Beowulf written in third person. In order to understand the story, Gardner assumes that the reader is familiar with the story Beowulf. The number twelve is an important number that reappears multiple times. There are twelve chapters in Grendel. Grendel is at war with Hrothgar for twelve years. There are twelve months in a year, with twelve corresponding zodiac signs. As the story progress Grendel gains a sense of humor and language. Being that he is a dumb beast this is mocking Beowulf. Grendel also gains a philosophical view as he continues to narrate. Even though he is a monster Grendel falls in love with poetry and Wealthlow, because of their beauty. Beowulf is also a story of a hero, where Grendel is the anti- hero. He provokes Unfearth about being a so called hero. In Beowulf Unfearth was no hero.
The most important bond in Anglo- Saxon society was that between a lord and his retainers. In “The Seafarer” the old sea captain is loyal to the sea. He has been away from land for many years being alone and separated from the rest of the world. He has no love but the sea, but at the same time he hates the sea. He regrets being on the sea for so long, for not finding a wife or making friends and being popular. The separation in “The Seafarer” is from the land. The land is symbolic for his lord, and he has been exiled from it. In “The Wife’s Lament” the woman is loyal to her husband. She was exiled from her husband, or lord, by his friends. They did not like the wife and they cast her away onto an island, where now she has a foot in the grave.
Gardner made the decision to use Grendel as the narrator to create a parody of Beowulf. He uses Grendel to develop his philosophies and to be against other philosophies. As a monster Grendel tells the story not like a human would. He tells more in a destructive and slower way, as if he doesn’t know exactly what to say. Grendel has the best view of the whole story; he is able to explain it like no other thing would either human or other monster. Grendel sees the world differently because he is curious and goes out not like his mother or the dragon. He takes a step away from the situation and looks at the whole while a human wouldn’t have. If a Dane would have told the story, they would only talk about the war and how Grendel is evil. The shaper told lies and the Danes believed him, Grendel however knew the truth. He had witnessed everything the shaper describes.
