Welcome to Grendel's Lair, the grendel.org site on the various Grendel characters in literature, media, and the internet community. The site has finally reached maturity as an overview of Grendel-related issues and a nexus for more thorough material on the web. We now have discussion boards, academic papers, and a healthy set of links.We're hoping that this site will be of use to teachers and students of Beowulf and Gardner's novel, as well as of interest to fans of Matt Wagner's epic series. To that end, we need your help-- the more material we receive, the more we can post. Please help out!
Contents
There are three established incarnations of Grendel in literature. We've got bits about them, some papers, and links to other sites with more thorough information:Beowulf -- The original Grendel was a monster in the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf. Descendant of Cain, mere-dweller, and with the meanest mother around, he was the hero Beowulf's first foe in the work.
Beowulf: Plot | Characters | Links | Discussion Board Gardner's Grendel -- In 1972 (?) John Gardner published the novel Grendel, a retelling of Beowulf from Grendel's point of view. He portrayed the "ridiculous hairy beast torn apart by poetry" sympathetically, and walked him through the Great Concepts of western civilization, considering them from the outside with an existentialist edge.
Gardner: Plot | Characters | Links | Discussion Board Wagner's Grendel -- In the back of issues of his comic Mage, Matt Wagner began a storyline about criminal mastermind, assassin, anti-hero Hunter Rose, a.k.a Grendel. After a single short book and several separate short story arcs about Hunter Rose, the series spun out into a 50 (?) issue epic spanning centuries and the world.
Wagner: Plot | Characters | Links | Discussion Board Papers --Some (academic) papers sent in by students and thinkers. Not in any way a definitive collection, but some thought-provoking material that should be seen rather than "turned in" and forgotten. Use this to get a sense of some issues in the field.
Papers Retellings-- A collection of stories based on or retelling some of Grendel's stories.
Retellings Netizens -- Grendel is a popular handle for many users, websites, and organizations. We've listed all that we could find-- URLs, not e-mail addresses, obviously.
Netizen Links