Journal 8: How is Grendel a parody of Beowulf?

Gardner’s novel, Grendel, can be seen as a parody of the epic poem, Beowulf, in many ways. In Beowulf, the character of Grendel is seen as a cruel monster that does not express emotions or feels any emotions. On the other hand, the character of Grendel in Gardner’s novel is depicted still as a monster, but he, Grendel, feels and expresses emotions. Readers are also able to see the reason of why Grendel does the things that he does; in Beowulf, the reader is not able to see that and assumes Grendel is a heartless monster who kills and tortures for no reason. In addition to the character of Grendel being portrayed in the two different ways in Grendel and Beowulf, the character of Beowulf is also described differently. In the epic poem, the character of Beowulf is the embodiment of an Anglo-Saxon hero. In contrast, the character of Beowulf in Grendel  is seen as the enemy because the point of view if from the monster’s , Grendel’s, point of view.