Why?

Many new adaptations of Beowulf all seem to have one distinct difference in common: Grendel has a motive.

He is either:

A. Physically disabled,

B. A consequence of his deadbeat dad Hrothgar,

Or

C. A bit of both. (*cough cough* I’m looking at you Zemeckis… *cough cough*)

photo from: http://www.shmoop.com/beowulf/grendel.html

In the original text, Grendel just likes to take a dump on Hrothgar’s parade for the hell of it. Sure he doesn’t particularly like Heorot, and sure he apparently hates joy, but these are no justifiable reasons to commit murder. 

I think the reason why we now show a (more avengeful?) Grendel is because humans like to understand people’s motivations. 

                                                     (Gif from http://giphy.com/search/boo)

I know this seems like a lame conclusion, but follow me.

When random acts of violence occur, the first question we naturally ask is why.

Why did a mother drown her own children?

Why did a teenager shoot up his school?

Why did this person take their life?

Why is even the basis of our greatest question: “Why are we here?”

It has become one of our fundamental instincts to ask why. To us, there is always a reason; there must always be a cause to every effect.  ‘Just cause’ doesn’t cut it for us.  

I personally believe there are two reasons for this:

Closure

And

Faith

Ironically, I’ll start with closure.

Knowing the root cause of problems grants us closure. As long as we can identify what went wrong, we can theoretically prevent it from happening again. If Grendel has a motive, then he becomes more human and we can understand why he does what he does.  We can comprehend ideas such as:

Anger

Loneliness

Sorrow

And Rage.

           We know these traits and try to use our knowledge of them to solve the problems they cause. Knowing his actions were not random grants us peace of mind. We gain closure knowing that perhaps this problem could have been avoided if the right actions were taken. Perhaps if we solved Grendel’s problems before he caused ours, the result would have been different. Random acts with no rhyme or reason scare us. We don't like not understanding, and we certainly don’t like believing bad things occur for no reason. That brings me to my next topic: Faith.

            Having closure that everything happens for a reason inspires us to believe in things bigger than ourselves; whether that be an ideology, a deity, or an outlook on life. Belief in this higher power is what grants us closure to the greatest question ever asked-“Why are we here.” Most people don't like the idea that there is no reason for us to be here. It makes us uncomfortable to think that we as individuals serve no higher purpose. If we have no purpose, and serve no higher purpose, then life seems meaningless. This is the basis of nihilism. Ironically, John Gardner’s Grendel is the very personification of nihilism. Gardner’s Grendel views the world as meaningless. On page 21 of Grendel, Grendel himself proclaims, “I understood that the world was nothing: a mechanical chaos of casual, brute enmity on which we stupidly impose our hopes and fears.” All of his violence reflects this outlook. 

Why does he murder?

                                                      (gif from http://tjbaer.com/tag/snape/)

Well why not?

Nothing matters anyway, so why not pillage and murder?

After we see Grendel truly buy into nihilism, we see him transform into a more and more monstrous creature.

Could this transformation symbolize humanity’s fear of being meaningless?

Could it be that we don’t want to acknowledge that life could be meaningless, so we cast that trait upon a monster instead?

                                             (Gif from http://rammfan518.com/2015/08/04/)

Who could tell.

I mean what are the reasons for me writing this?

Is it just for a grade?

Or is it possible that this blog post and analysis could serve a higher purpose?

Who knows.

All in all, my point is, every modern day portrayal of Grendel gives him motive.

All we can ask ourselves, is why?