Grendel: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

Grendel says that he didn’t decide to be Hrothgar’s enemy because of the axe he threw, and only decided to take that role once Hrothgar was already an old man. He remembers how, from the edges of the forest and up in the trees, he observed Hrothgar and his men going about their business. First, bands of hunters would occasionally fight each other and tell their comrades about the fights.

Eventually, the humans settled down and built houses, decorating the interiors with tapestries. They developed farming and the women worked the land and tended to animals while the men hunted. The men would drink and brag about their fights with other bands of men. Grendel was amused by the humans, observing of their violence that “no wolf was so vicious to other wolves.”

Grendel describes how humans would gather around meadhall tables and boast. Occasionally an argument would break out and one man would kill another. The killer would be put on trial and either executed, excused, or exiled. Grendel first tried befriending such exiles, and then ignoring them, but ended up eating them. But at this time Grendel would not usually murder humans. Rather, he would steal their cows while they slept.

One spring, Grendel noticed a change in the humans’ behavior. Groups of men would shout that they were going to steal another community’s gold and burn their meadhall. Though frustrated with himself at his compulsive need to spy on the humans, Grendel continued to observe them.

One night, around midnight, Grendel found a hall in ruins, the community’s cows slaughtered but not eaten, the humans burned and killed, and all of the gold stolen from the hall. Full-scale wars began amongst the humans. According to the songs of the men, war had always been around and the tranquil period Grendel experienced was merely a temporary peace.

From his place up in the trees, Grendel could often hear the singers in the meadhalls singing of glorious deeds of dead kings, to the delight of their drunken human audience. Grendel would occasionally see enemies arrive and watch the men fight. They’d stop twenty feet apart and yell at each other, boasting and threatening, talking about honor and justice, before finally fighting. Sometimes the aggressors would be repelled, and sometimes they would win and destroy the meadhall or capture the king and ransom him for gold and other goods. Grendel was frightened and confused by this behavior.

Grendel felt safe from the humans’ wars up in the trees. Though he and the humans spoke the same language and so were somehow related, the men were of little importance to Grendel. He was sickened by the waste of their wars, all the animals killed but not eaten. He tried to collect some of the waste and store it in his cave, but his mother didn’t like it.

As wars continued, some groups of humans formed alliances (though some allies betrayed each other). Grendel watched season after season, sometimes from the high cliff wall near his den, as Hrothgar gradually rose above the other men in power. Hrothgar collected tribute from nearby groups, who pledged to fight for him. His messengers and their carts often got stuck in the soft earth and the men would whip and hit the oxen until they bled and sometimes ran away. Carts would often get irretrievably stuck and had to be destroyed.

Hrothgar met with his council about these problems and decided to build roads throughout his realm. Now his men could easily go to the aid of their subjects and Hrothgar’s large army could easily defeat most bands of attackers. New roads were built as Hrothgar’s kingdom expanded and amassed more treasure. His meadhall became piled high with gold and other treasures.

Men hacked down trees and thinned forests, hunted large amounts of game, and killed birds for sport. Their own animals grazed and cleared hedges. Grendel says that “there was nothing to stop the advance of man.” He began to feel a vaguely violent unrest.

One night, watching from behind a cowshed, Grendel saw a blind man arrive at Hrothgar’s meadhall with a harp and a young companion. The harper went inside and talked to Hrothgar, and then played his harp and sang of old kings’ glorious deeds. Men became quiet, and Grendel says that the very landscape hushed “as if brought low by language.” The harp-player, known as the Shaper, offered to sing of Hrothgar’s glory for pay.

Grendel was swept up in the song and music of the Shaper even though he knows that the Shaper’s version of a heroic history is false. Grendel felt as though the Shaper had changed the world and the past. Grendel remembered the true past, with random bands of men slaughtering each other, but could now also remember the version of the past the Shaper invented as if it were true.

Grendel fled from the meadhall crying, feeling ridiculous and pained by the Shaper’s poetry. He attempted to reason about how true or false the Shaper was. From the top of the cliff overlooking Hrothgar’s realm, he screamed loudly. The scream sounded ugly compared to the Shaper’s beautiful music. He screamed again and ran back to his cave.