How we cite our quotes: (Page) Vintage Books, 1989
Quote #10
I will fall. I seem to desire the fall, and though I fight it with all my will I know in advance that I can't win. Standing baffled, quaking with fear, three feet from the edge of a nightmare cliff, I find myself, incredibly, moving toward it. I look down, down, into bottomless blackness, feeling the dark power moving in me like an ocean current, some monster inside me, deep sea wonder, dread night monarch astir in his cave, moving me slowly to my voluntary tumble into death. (173)
The dragon isn't there to tell Grendel "I told you so," but he's probably around somewhere, thinking it. Despite his fine philosophies about life, the universe and everything, Grendel finds himself at the point of death. He's in disbelief that such a thing could happen to him, yes. But we can see that this involuntary journey—kind of like his last one to the meadhall—becomes something he yearns for and chooses. In the end, we're left with a conundrum: can a person (or a monster) choose something that is inevitable?