Grendel

novel by Gardner

Learn about this topic in these articles:

“Beowulf” heroic poem

  • Beowulf
    In Beowulf: Editions and adaptations

    John Gardner’s Grendel (1971), for example, took the point of view of the monster, while Maria Dahvana Headley’s The Mere Wife (2018) was set in contemporary American suburbia and offered a more sympathetic portrayal of Grendel’s mother, who was presented as an army veteran suffering from PTSD.…

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character of Grendel

discussed in biography

  • In John Gardner

    …established with the appearance of Grendel (1971), a retelling of the Beowulf story from the point of view of the monster. His next novel, The Sunlight Dialogues (1972), is an ambitious epic with a large cast of characters. Later novels by Gardner include October Light (1976; National Book Critics Circle…

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