GrendelBy John Gardner, Emil Antonucci |
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ReviewsEditorial Review - Kirkus Reviews Copyright (c) VNU Business Media, Inc. As in Resurrection (1966) and The Wreckage of Agathon (1970) Gardner demonstrates his agility at juggling metaphysical notions while telling a diverting tale. Here he has used as a means of discovering man's unsavory ways that muzziest of monsters, Grendel, from the Beowulf chronicle. As in the original, Grendel is a bewildering combination of amorphous threats and grisly specifics -- he bellows in the wilds and crunches through hapless inhabitants of the meadhall. But Grendel, the essence of primal violence, is also a learning creature. Itc listens to a wheezing bore with scales and coils, a pedantic Lucifer, declaim on the relentless complexity of cosmic accident. He hears an old priest put in a word for God as unity of discords, where nothing is lost. And Grendel continues to observe the illusions of bards, kings, heroes, and soldiers, occasionally eating one. After the true hero arrives sprouting fiery wings, to deal the death blow, he shows Grendel the reality of both destruction and rebirth. Throughout the trackless philosophic speculation, the dialogue is witty and often has a highly contemporary tilt: ""The whole shit-ass scene was his idea, not mine,"" says Grendel, disgusted by a sacrificial hero. At the close one is not sure if the savior is ""blithe of his deed,"" but Gardner, the word-pleaser, should be. Related books
Common Terms and Phrasesashspear Balance is everything battle-axes bawl bellowed birds Breca cackled cave chilly fire click click cliffwall coastguard cows crab Danes Danish darted deer Dool-dool dragon firelight firesnakes forest Freawaru friend Unferth Geats ghostly Destroyer goat gods gold and burn harp helmets Hengest hooted hooves horses howl Hrothgar spoke Hrothgar's hall Hrothgar's meadhall Hrothgar's thanes Hrothgar's whole Hrothulf hurled hushed Hygmod icebergs javelins jerked John Gardner King Hrothgar laughed leering limits to desire lizards lunatic theory mead meadbowl meadhall door monster mumbling murdered Number old Hrothgar old Shaper Ork oxen Poor Grendel prowl pyre queen Random House screamed Scyldings searing SECOND PRIEST shaggy Shaper sang smile snake snatch snow falls softly spider stranger sword syllables lick terror THIRD PRIEST trees twisted roots venom vultures Wealtheow whispered wild pig wobbly wolves wrinkled young king References from web pagesGrendel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia John Gardner’s Grendel « Grendel’s Mere Lyrics: Grendel Grendel Essays - Good vs. Evil in John Gardner's Grendel Free Essay on An Analysis of Grendel and Frankenstein Beowulf and Grendel - Science Fiction Fantasy Chronicles: forums Free-Essays-Free-Essays.com - Grendel John Gardner's Grendel | A Way to Teach John Gardner, Grendel Book Sketch #1: Grendel References to this bookFrom other books
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