Storytelling plays an important role in characterizing important figures in stories as giving personalities and traits specific to them. It also drives the plot, as in Homer’s The Odyssey and Virgil’s The Aeneid the epics are based on the telling of the protagonist’s journey. Another piece of literature, Grendel, written by John Gardner, utilizes storytelling in a different manner. The main character bases his self-understanding off of the storytelling done by the Shaper, a blind bard telling historical tales. The function of storytelling in Gardner’s, Homer’s and Virgil’s works is to personify the protagonist in what he does to truly define himself.
In John Gardner’s …show more content…
Grendel the Shaper acts as a largely contributing character that carries the plot in a historical sense. During the first encounter between the monster and the humans, Grendel hears of the stories and tales the Shaper is singing in Hrothgar’s mead-hall. Throughout the story the Shaper tells of the Danish history and the creation of man’s existence and Grendel is fascinated by this. From listening to what the Shaper is saying, Grendel starts to realize that what he is saying is not true, I too crept away, my mind aswim in ringing phrases, magnificent, golden, and all of them, incredibly, lies, ” and starts to question what is true and what is not (Gardner 43). The Shaper’s eloquent tales had a large effect on Grendel, “He told of an ancient feud between two brothers which split all the world between darkness and light. And I, Grendel, was the dark side...I believed him! Such was the power of the Shaper 's harp!” (Gardner 52). Gardner’s writing of Grendel gives light to a whole new side of Grendel as opposed to the monstrous being in Beowulf so much that we can see a divide in Grendel’s being. Through the Shaper’s storytelling, the character of Grendel is broken down into the light and dark side. The light side of Grendel is the intellectual, misunderstood and curious Grendel while the dark side is the malevolent-being terrorizing Hrothgar’s mead hall because there is no meaning to anything. The use of storytelling is a key device that Gardner chooses to embody in Grendel.
Storytelling not only is signified by the one telling the stories but is also signified by how the story is told and with what techniques. He does this by the conventional method of a story given through the eyes of Grendel himself. The story is told as being a twelve year feud with the Danes and ending with the heroic Beowulf fending off Grendel. However, the use of flashbacks in Grendel’s life shows what Grendel came to learn and understand growing up. This showed light of him being a curious and naïve animal as opposed to the monster depicted in Beowulf, until he breaches the surface where he sees the rise of Hrothgar’s kingdom. A key thing that Grendel learns when exploring in his early years is that the human race revolves around violence, and he learns this when he encounters the bull is constantly trying to thrust his horns at him. The theme of violence occurs now and again in many classical works, “we see men and women placed in a situation in which violence always threatens to spiral out of control and not only destroy them but also force them to act in ways that de-humanize them” (Norton 101). This theory is then solidified when he is attacked and almost killed by Hrothgar, at an early age, and other Danish warriors. When Grendel comes to the realization about the world and violence, he understands life has a meaningless value and that it revolves around “brute” violence. Referencing Grendel’s encounter with the bull he states, “Bulls do such things, though they don 't even know that the calves they defend are theirs” (Gardner 20). The Shaper in Grendel plays an important role in giving incite in underlying meanings and themes throughout the
story. There has been use of characters similar to the Shaper in Grendel in older classical works such as Homer’s The Odyssey and Virgil’s The Aeneid. Storytelling in the Odyssey is through the journey home of Odysseus and his crew after the long Trojan War. The use of storytelling is done through character’s that are not entirely key to the story but still play a role in defining the major character. Odysseus is defined through his own telling of experience in books IX through XII by how he continues his journey. In the first four books of the Odyssey, known as the Telemachy, King Nestor of Pylos tells Telemachus stories of the Trojan War and how his father, Odysseus, was praised in battle as being cunning, “And no one there could hope to rival Odysseus, not for sheer cunning-at every twist of strategy he excelled us all” (Homer 134). This use of storytelling through Nestor allows Homer to reason Odysseus’s epithet being cunning. Odysseus represents the ideal warrior that occurs in the classical age, relying on his witts to overcome the enemy. Comparing this to Grendel, the use of the Shaper does not tell tales of how great Grendel is however acts as a teller of warriors, Shield Sheafson for example, who contrast him. They contrast him because Grendel is considered an exiled being, misunderstood and cast out from society, as he is a descendent from Cain. This acceptance of identity is through discussion with the dragon hoarding the treasure. The dragon in a sense is a contrast to the Shaper as it tells philosophies of life and meaning as being worthless to Grendel. Grendel soon adopts this way of understanding and finally finds his purpose, “I had hung between possibilities before, between the cold truths I knew and the heart-sucking conjuring tricks of the Shaper; now that was passed: I was Grendel, Ruiner of Meadhalls, Wrecker of Kings!” (Gardner 80).
This can be compared to Virgil’s Aeneid, the story told by Aeneas of his journey from Troy to Carthage and then Italy, as an ascendant of the founders of Rome. The journey is told by Aeneas, similarly to the Odyssey, and exemplifies how Virgil envisioned him in the values similar to the Augustan reign. Virgil was a strong supporter of a Roman golden age and saw this through Augustus’ ruling, so he embodied all those values into the character Aeneas. Comparing this to Grendel’s understanding of himself as being in the dark side of the spectrum, Aeneas is seen as being in the light for he is forging his future and the future of Rome. Defeating Turnus, representing the dark, and conquering the lands in which Rome will begin has symbolized the triumph Virgil sees in the Augustan reign and bringing Rome in the light of a golden age. Storytelling acts as a major role in each of these works. In Gardner’s Grendel the use of storytelling through the Shaper contrasts with that of the dragon in helping Grendel find his identity and meaning in life. In Virgil’s Aeneid as well as in Homer’s Odyssey it is to define the protagonists Aeneas and Odysseus and elucidate who they are through what they’ve done in their journey. There are clear similarities amongst all three pieces of literature in the essence of how significant storytelling is in personifying the protagonists. Gardner’s use of storytelling in Grendel relates to Homer’s the Odyssey and Virgil’s the Aeneid, in a historical essence since the earlier works of literature are founded upon the use of storytelling as instilling moral values of the protagonist and what they have done to define themselves. Grendel understands his meaning of life through beliefs of the Shaper and philosophies of the dragon and ultimately discovers his identity.
Works Cited
Gardner, John. Grendel. 1971. New York: Vintage, 1989. Print.
Lawall, Sarah, ed. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. 8th ed. New York:
Norton, 2006. Print.
----. “Homer.” Lawall 100-106.
Homer. The Odyssey. Lawall 206-495.