#beowulf.

grendel made a stone carving of his mother that was smaller than him because it made her more approachable and him talking to the carving instead of to her directly is because he frankly doesn’t feel at ease around her

beowulf and the dragon are, if not the exact same person, similar enough in behavior and ideology to which they both clearly demonstrate the dangers of romanticizing and blindly having faith in the word of a militant hero / the teachings of a society that does not and cannot understand you

grendel only hates authority in TWAU because authority abused him and ruined his life when he was far too young to fight against it or realize he was being manipulated until it was much too late to turn back.  of course he distrusts authority.  look at what the shaper, the dragon, and his mother all did to him.

beowulf left unferth’s body out there for grendel to find because he knew grendel and unferth had a connection.  he knew it would enrage grendel.  he knew it would make grendel lose whatever faith he had left in us.  it was a trap to lure him inside.  it was intended to catch him off-guard and emotionally vulnerable.  it worked.

grendel and wealthow also empathized with each other because they were wholly unable to make any choices in their own lives / fates.  everyone around them told them what to do, how to do it  --  what their purpose was  --  and made them feel helpless.  made them feel like they couldn’t retaliate.  like they were only half-person.  subhuman.  like their identities werent their own  --  like they existed only to serve as entertainment for men and nothing more

beowulf and hrothgar are the biggest slimebags to ever walk the fucking earth.  grendel isn’t evil or greedy;  grendel is inherently gentle.  it’s the men in power who should carry the title of monster, but they don’t, and it’s infuriating

there was a creature who was conflicted, but ultimately honest, about the reality of the world  --  the violence and revulsion that coexist with beauty;  the brutality and sadism involved in a world that is ultimately peaceless faced by a monster who desired a happy ending he knew he was damned never to receive  --  and there were, of course, people, who represented but a single side of the very same coin, a different face relaying identical information.  there was duality, and there was needless separation, and there was grendel  --  the truth  --  and humans, the liars.  there was a tragedy on either end, and everyone treated each other as poorly as they treated themselves.

it’s total bullshit.  never happened.  ever.  at all.

it’s only attached to his name because beowulf’s death was his mother’s doing, gren’s just a much easier target than her.  but grendel didn't orchestrate beowulf’s death.  he’s terrified of the guy.  he never wants to see him again in his life, and the worst part of all that is that beowulf is the one who’s been given protections against grendel  --  as if grendel were some homicidal piece of shit who holds fatalistic grudges.  ( he doesn’t, by the fucking way.  look at how he treats bigby after he rips off his fucking arm.  he forgives him.  he doesn’t even blame beowulf for hurting him, in the novel.  he blames his fucking self, even though beowulf and the geats set him up;  they trapped him.  angered him on purpose, terrified him, and then punished him with his life for trying to protect himself. )

but like  ...  if someone brings that supposed instance up in an argument against grendel  ...  he won’t even be confident enough in whether he did it or not to defend his honor against the claim.  beowulf gave him brain damage that night, as well as general psychological and bodily trauma.  the whole thing’s just a huge fucking blur, as are a good chunk of the years following the incident.  grendel is old, and after centuries of damage and aging, his head doesn't work the way it used to.  he legitimately doesn't remember who was the aggressor and who was the victim.  he doesn’t know if he’s responsible for a hit being put out on beowulf or not.  he has no fucking idea, with no testimony against him except beowulf’s  ( and beowulf, mind you, is a godawful slimy fucking prick with his head stuck so far up his own ass he’s forgotten what the sun looks like;  his whole damn character is just him lying / playing up his struggles in order to manipulate people onto his side ).