A Game of Chess, Perhaps?

Almost all people know of the board game, chess. You move little pieces called pawns across the squares, following the rules of the handbook. The King and Queen are guarded by the pawns and other pieces. The objective of the game is to keep your King alive, essentially.

A King in reality, is similar to this game of chess. The King uses his men, as pawns for war and for keeping peace. Not only his men, but his Queen is used as a peacemaker between enemies of the King. 

With this general theme in mind, Gardner portrays Hrothgar as the King of a game of chess. He portrays Grendel as the narrator as well as through a first person point of view. We see what happens at the Mead hall and the village through the use of Grendel's eyes. Grendel, an adolescent monster, learns to obey the rules of society even though they are superficial. Gardner allows Grendel to explain his observations of the King to himself, as he conquers more land, expands his kingdom and gains allies through marriages and exchanges of gold and gifts. Although it takes some time, the monster finally learns his importance in the game.

As the novel continues, Gardner changes the way Grendel tells his story. Grendel begins to see the events as a scene by scene storyboard, where there are cuts and additional comments. This can be interpreted in many ways, but here is one potential explanation. 

After an incident where Grendel plans to kill the Queen, however, Grendel's tone and mood of explaining the events he sees changes. In chess, the Queen holds most the power. Ironically, Grendel is unable to kill the Queen. 

  He becomes the cinematographer. Gardner uses this to show that Grendel has finally learned how to play this "game." He is able to watch as those of the King's family create each of his scenes. Grendel becomes the "King" that he has watched carefully for so long. Gardner uses this change of structure to explain how Grendel has learned of his place. Through this scenic structure, Grendel mocks the King and mocks those who follow his command. 

Another noticeable sequence of events includes when Grendel provokes Unferth into an embarrassing frenzy of attempts to kill him. Grendel is able to use this to his advantage; he is able to beat down the "hero" and is able to get Unferth right where he wants him, just as Hrothgar, the King, is able to do with his people. 

This interesting, and what seemed to be random, scenic structure of writing, is actually not random at all. Gardner cleverly stitches the ideas of the King and the monster, as beings that are more alike than society likes to believe. 

Grendel becomes an enemy of the King, but does the King become Grendel's pawn?