Grendel Study Questions & Topics for Discussion

Grendel Topics for Further Study

Comment on Grendel's progress as a poet, under the influence of the Shaper, by evaluating the style and poetic effects of the doggerel he produces in Chapter 7; the verse play in Chapter 8; the free verse at the end of Chapter 9; and finally the poem in Chapter 12.

Research the antiwar movement during the U S. war in Vietnam, during winch time Grendel was written. Relate the struggle between good and evil as depicted in Grendel to the struggle between different sectors of American society.

Compare the philosophy of William Blake, as expressed in his poem The Mental Traveller and in the character of ark, with the anarchistic philosophy of Georges Sorel, as expressed in his book Reflections on Violence and in the character of Red Horse, whom Gardner based on Sorel.

Gardner added references to the twelve astrological signs to Grendel, focusing on one...
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