Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- How does Gardner adapt the "source material" from Beowulf to create his characters and setting? Do you think that readers need to have read Beowulf before tackling Grendel? Why?
- Why does Grendel occasionally break out of traditional narrative mode to frame the story as a play or a poem?
- Gardner structures each chapter around a specific sign of the zodiac, but he does it in a fairly stealthy way. What is the point of this device? How might this structure help us understand something about the characters, themes, or purpose in the novel?
- What is Gardner's reason for providing a childhood and family interaction for Grendel? We don't see this done for any other character in the novel, and there's no precedent for it in Beowulf.
- In Beowulf, monsters get a lot of scare time, but we don't really hear their voices or get to know them. Gardner's Grendel was meant to fill that gap, but are there any characters in this book who get the "silent treatment"?
- How does Gardner bring beauty into an otherwise very ugly and bleak world? Is it considered a boon or a curse?
- Philosophy plays an important role in this novel, helping to define characters and the agenda of the work. In what ways do these larger concepts or beliefs help us to understand the novel as a whole?