Our Discussion on Grendel

I think our discussion today might have made some of us even more confused than we thought we were. However, our discussion did open my eyes to a new light on Grendel.

The hardest question that I was faced with during the discussion was whether Grendel's final words "Poor Grendel's had an accident, so may you all," (Gardner 152) were positive words. It sounds so negative at first and when I finished reading the book the first time, I read these words like he was taking sympathy on himself. I took it as if Grendel couldn't live with him being defeated so he tried to blame it all on an 'accident'. Now that we have talked about it, I think I have come to a different understanding of these words. The fact that Grendel said may and not will has had a major affect on me. To me, if Grendel were still influenced by the dragon, I think Grendel would have said and so will you all; however, I think this is the point in the book when Grendel dismisses the dragon's existentialist views and decides on something for himself. If he said will it would have meant that Grendel would have already known that we would make mistakes and it will happen to us. Since he says may, it totally changes the meaning. He is instead inviting us, and it seems like he is not very sure about whether or not we will make the same mistake or accident. I kind of view it like Grendel has finally become a human because he doesn't know the future and things did not turn out the way he thought they were going to (hence an 'accident').

So... is this a positive thing? I think in the light of Grendel, it is because he has showed growth. To me, I think Grendel finally let go of the dragon's theories and instead, he accepted that this was something way bigger than him and that he had no control over it.