Grendel Chapter 9 Summary

  • It's the heart of winter. Grendel sees the snow angels made by children and they freak him out a little. Wait, little Danish warrior tots made snow angels? 
  • Grendel starts seeing omens and feeling uneasy. Something he can't name is coming, and it frightens him. No, it's not a creepy carnival, but how awesome would it be if it were? 
  • Even watching Hrothgar's men killing a deer makes an impression on Grendel. 
  • Grendel watches the priests go about their business (translation: they're praying for his destruction), but nothing bad happens to him. 
  • Red Horse thinks that religion isn't what it used to be: they used to sacrifice virgins, and now they use cows. No wonder it doesn't work, right? 
  • Grendel kind of agrees with Red Horse. There's no conviction to religious rituals anymore, he thinks; only the weak worship the idols. 
  • Grendel confesses to having wrecked the ring of stone idols once before. He would have done it again, but almost nobody but the priests cared about it. 
  • Now Grendel sits in the ring at midnight. He's thinking. 
  • Of interest: the Shaper has a fever. 
  • An old, blind priest appears, and Grendel decides to play a fun trick on him. He tells the old man that he is the Destroyer, the greatest of the gods. 
  • This old priest is called... wait for it... Ork. Ork claims to be the eldest and the wisest of the priests. 
  • Grendel clearly can't pass up the opportunity. He quizzes the old man about the theology of some god he's just made up. He just wants to see the old man squirm. 
  • But Ork does something Grendel does not expect. He creates a beautiful philosophy out of nothing, pouring all his desires for the ideal god into his descriptions. 
  • The old man's declarations that "beauty requires contrast" and "discord is fundamental to the creation of new intensities of feeling" ruin Grendel's fun. He can't make fun of that. 
  • Grendel runs away when he hears the other priests coming. This part is kind of fun for him. 
  • The priests question Ork, and he tells them about his encounter with the Great Destroyer. 
  • The priests talk it over, and their responses reveal a lot about their characters: one is pious, one is very anxious, and one is disbelieving. 
  • The irony? Grendel's little trick, meant to belittle the priest's life of devotion, has affirmed all of Ork's theories and his choice of career. Because Grendel pretended to be the Great Destroyer, Ork now believes that his entire career has been worth it. 
  • A fourth priest appears and listens to Ork's story. He praises the gods for showing rational Ork that a true ecstatic religious experience is possible. 
  • The fourth priest says that Ork's vision gives hope to all. Could this have backfired more on Grendel? 
  • Grendel can't believe it. He leaves the village behind (passing Unferth peeing in the bushes) but still he feels this strange something
  • Grendel himself has an unsettling vision: a twisted oak, a black sun surrounded by spiders. This can't be good. 
  • Grendel exits the chapter with a distinct feeling that evil is following him.