Once upon a time, in the land of Danes and Thanes, there lived a lonely creature, a monster of sorts. This lonely creature was called Grendel, or so it is told in the tales of old, and this Grendel was on a mission to discover his purpose. You could say his purpose was to find his purpose. Grendel hated the machine-like cycle that, seemingly, all life took part in. He despised its repetition because he couldn’t see a purpose in the actions of these automatons (life in general). What Grendel doesn’t realize is that it was the cycle itself that gave these creatures a purpose. Grendel searches for his purpose in vain while despising the very thing that gives other creatures their purpose, ultimately leading to his downfall.
Grendel searches for his destiny. Indeed, as Sartre says, existence does precede essence, for Grendel lives, and dies, before he is able to formulate a meaningful reason for his existence. Brute existent is the closest thing to a fulfilling role that Grendel is able to find, but it isn’t a perfect fit. In his first meeting with humans, Grendel tries to befriend the hunting party to no avail (Gardner 27). Then the shaper (51), and Wealtheow after (110), is able to shake his resolve. If humans, the very creatures he is hell-bent on tormenting, are able to make him second-guess himself, perhaps it isn’t the right job for him. Then again, there might not be a role that befits a creature like him.
The machines have the one thing that Grendel craves the most, a purpose. Life has been engineered, in one way or another, towards one end, to survive. The only way for a species to survive is to be able to successfully reproduce. The one alternative is to be immortal, but “being actual involves elimination,” as the old priest Ork decries, so this option isn’t viable (Gardner 132). When examined, every action and behavior of an animal can be linked to its innate need to reproduce. It could be argued that it’s an urge to reproduce rather than a need, but need fits more readily as the action is near obligatory. A human can restrain him or herself from reproducing with little or no consequence. A ram would gladly hump a tree stump (6). Therefore, this monotony, this repetition that Grendel so despises, actually serves to fulfill the overarching purpose. This purpose is one that Grendel cannot grasp and one that he cannot champion. It is impossible for Grendel to understand the need to reproduce for he is the only one of his kind. It is also for this reason that the animal kingdom’s purpose cannot be his. With no Lady-Grendel, there can be no Mini-Grendel. Alas, he is also unable to follow the examples of humans and turn to God (65), for he doesn’t believe it serves a purpose (some degree of secular moralism). Therein lies his plight. He is once again cut off from everything around him. He can’t step into the cycle of life, for he cannot perceive a purpose in his doing so.
Grendel’s failed attempt to give meaning to his life skews his perceptions, leading to his imminent demise. Throughout the twelve winters fighting the Danes, Grendel observes the creatures with which he walks the Earth. He searches maniacally for some semblance of direction, for he is unable to rationalize his lonely existence in the world. Every other form of life exists to prolong the existence of itself and others like it. Grendel has no one, but himself. On one of his early adventures into the world, Grendel encounters a bull. This bull, he soon deduces, fights only by instinct. All forms of problem-solving outside those learned by necessity are out of its grasp (Gardner 22). It knows only those things that will keep it alive in situations it encounters often. Spurred by the Dragon’s views of man, and further by the blade-turning charm that the Dragon places on him, Grendel underestimates the abilities of the human race (64). Grendel begins to toy with the Thanes of Hrothgar’s hall, not because he has a reason to, but because he doesn’t have a reason not to (122). Grendel takes a special ‘liking’ to Hart’s champion, Unferth, repeatedly frustrating the self-proclaimed hero by withholding an honorable death from him (89). The ease with which Grendel thwarts every human attempt to stop him engenders a false confidence in his superiority over all life and the sadistic joy he finds in tormenting the race of humanity leads him to engage Beowulf’s Geats without a second thought.
Had Grendel understood the ultimate wisdom that everything in the universe has a purpose (Gardner 133), he would not have despised the monotonous life led by the creatures of the Earth, understanding that their actions served their own, albeit mundane, purpose. By coming to understand the nature of their destiny, Grendel’s zealous search for higher meaning would have been quelled and he would not have desperately draped himself in the mantle of brute existence. By circumventing his long-winded engagement with the Danes, Grendel could have avoided his confrontation with Beowulf and, thus, an untimely death. Grendel brought his demise upon himself by failing to understand the purpose of life, life itself.
Gardner, John. Grendel. New York: Knopf, 1971.