How we cite our quotes: (Page) Vintage Books, 1989
Quote #1
Not, of course, that I fool myself with thoughts that I'm more noble. Pointless, ridiculous monster crouched in the shadows, stinking of dead men, murdered children, martyred cows. (I am neither proud nor ashamed, understand. One more dull victim, leering at seasons that never were meant to be observed.) (6)
The good thing about giving in to nihilist thought is that you have no illusions about your own value. Grendel knows that on some level, he's no better than the brute creatures that annoy him so much.
Quote #2
"The world resists me and I resist the world," I said. "That's all there is. The mountains are what I define them as." Ah, monstrous stupidity of childhood, unreasonable hope...The fire in my mother's eyes brightens and she reaches out as if some current is tearing us apart. "The world is all pointless accident," I say. Shouting now, my fists clenched. "I exist, nothing else." (28)
Despite the fact that Grendel's worried, smelly mother is standing right there and trying to crush him in her arms, he still fights against the fact that she is actually... there. There are two things that Grendel can't bear to accept: 1) that there is a purpose to his and his mother's suffering, and 2) that the world can go on without him. It's a bitter pill to swallow—especially when he's on the brink of extinction in the last moments of the novel.
Quote #3
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, he said in effect. The terrible race God cursed. I believed him. Such was the power of the Shaper's harp! (51)
Though Grendel is torn between belief and utter scorn when he hears the Shaper's songs, this particular factoid affects him the most: Grendel is (the Shaper says) a descendant of the cursed Cain (you know, the guy who commits the first murder by taking out his brother, Abel?). Is it possible that Grendel could be suffering from an action that he had no knowledge of and took no part in? If so, and if there really is a God who rules the universe, how can this God be a fair and just ruler? If Grendel seems to be whining a lot about unfairness, don't judge him—someone else, apparently, already has.
Quote #4
"You are, so to speak, the brute existent by which they learn to define themselves. The exile, captivity, death they shrink from—the blunt facts of their mortality, their abandonment—that's what you make them recognize, embrace! You are mankind, or man's condition: inseparable as the mountain-climber and the mountain. If you withdraw, you'll instantly be replaced. Brute existents, you know, are a dime a dozen." (73)
Grendel wants out of the cruddy role he's been assigned in life, but the dragon is not doing much to encourage a "job change" here. In fact, he's encouraging Grendel to embrace his inner monster and do what he does best—terrorize the stuffing out of human beings. In a sense, the dragon has embraced reality in a positive way. If you're born to be bad, he says, you might as well be bad. It's just as useful as being good, and it doesn't force everyone else to think (you know, if you're a monster and don't act like a monster, people will have to question their assumptions).
Quote #5
Whatever I may have understood or misunderstood in the dragon's talk, something much deeper stayed with me, became my aura. Futility, doom, became a smell in the air, pervasive and acrid as the dead smell after a forest fire—my scent and the world's, the scent of trees, rocks, waterways wherever I went. (75)
The nihilistic, existentialist philosophy of the dragon has become a tangible factor in Grendel's life, even after he leaves the dragon's lair. He's definitely a changed monster. All of his admiration for beauty—as well as his desire to become something he was never born to be—has now vanished. In a way, although he's charmed by the dragon and invulnerable to things like sword blades, Grendel comes away a more wounded animal. The world of possibilities that once opened up before him has suddenly closed in around him.
Quote #6
I had become, myself, the mama I'd searched the cliffs for once in vain. But that merely hints at what I mean. I had become something, as if born again. 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! (80)
Grendel has taken the dragon's advice at face value: embrace the evil inside you, and help those humans define themselves as the opposite-of-you. After his first raid on Hart, he can feel the power of being the center of chaos. He's the guy everyone is watching out for now; he's no longer simply the target of all the slings and arrows of the universe. Grendel feels a kind of euphoria at this new definition of self—pretty heady stuff (pun intended).
Quote #7
"Ah, ah, it must be a terrible burden, though, being a hero—glory reaper, harvester of monsters! Everybody always watching you, seeing if you're still heroic... But no doubt there are compensations," I said. "The pleasant feeling of vast superiority, the easy success with women... And the joy of self-knowledge, that's a great compensation! The easy and absolute certainty that whatever the danger, however terrible the odds, you'll stand firm, behave with the dignity of a hero, yea, even to the grave!" (84-85)
We can hardly blame Grendel for hating Unferth so much. Pretty much everyone else does, too. Unferth makes us think about the idea of heroism and how variable that term is, depending on who's telling the story and whose side you're on. Grendel clearly wants to focus on the hypocrisy of these people's ideas of heroism by mocking Unferth and all his lame efforts to be courageous (the fact that he's chucking apples at Unferth's head helps us know this for sure).
Quote #8
I knew, for one, that the brother-killer had put on the Shaper's idea of the hero like a merry mask, had seen it torn away, and was now reduced to what he was: a thinking animal stripped naked of former illusions, stubbornly living on, ashamed and meaningless, because killing himself would be, like his life, unheroic. (104)
This is a total burn for a pitiful character. At this moment, Unferth has to come face-to-face with the creature he really is—and that's just not so attractive. It's no wonder that this marks a tipping point for Unferth: the moment when he lets go of his pretentions to nobility and falls into despair.
Quote #9
She came out, radiant, and crossed swiftly to the great golden bowl on the table by the hearth. As if she'd brought light and warmth with her, men began talking, joking, laughing, both Danes and Geats together. (163)
It's no secret that Grendel has a major crush on Wealtheow, but it's important to see that everyone else has one, too. She is the "peace-weaver" in Hart, making sure that the angry, unwashed warriors don't kill each other over stupid things, and making sure that the peace she has bought with her freedom doesn't crumble before her eyes. And she's just the woman for the job. With her gorgeous red hair and composure, she truly stands out in the dirty crowd.
Quote #10
I scream, facing him, grotesquely shaking hands—dear long-lost brother, kinsman-thane—and the timbered hall screams back at me. (168-69)
Picture the scene: the monster's clutching at the hero, they're staring at each other, and they match each other in size and shape. Grendel says this with bitterness and irony, but it's a great insight. These two could be brothers, and that raises a tough question: who is the monster, and who is the hero? Notice that the hall screams back at both of them (not just Grendel). If you were watching the fight, who would terrify you most?