Grendel

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key plot points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Chapters 1-3

Reading Check

1. Who is the narrator?

2. Who is the narrator’s only companion?

3. For what do the men mistake the narrator when they meet him in childhood?

4. Why does the narrator admire the Shaper?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is the narrator’s 12-year war?

2. Why does the narrator hate spring?

3. What do readers know about the narrator’s mother?

4. What pattern does the narrator note in the lives of humans?

Paired Resources

“Grendel’s Mother” by Heidy Steidlmayer and “Grendel's Mother to the Spear Danes” by Erin Lynn

• Notably, Grendel’s mother does not speak. Here, Steidlmayer and Innes give her a voice.
• How does giving Grendel’s mother a voice affect her characterization? How do these poems connect to the theme of Isolation and Otherness?

Chapters 4-6

Reading Check

1. What does the Shaper say about Grendel that upsets him?

2. What is the result of Grendel trying to befriend the Danes?

3. What does the Dragon reveal about the way he views time?

4. How does the Dragon alter Grendel’s battles with men?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What conflict does Grendel identify between Hrothgar and the songs sung about him?

2. What is the conflict between Grendel and the Dragon over existence?

3. How is the battle between Grendel and Unferth different from Grendel’s other battles?

4. How does Grendel undercut Unferth’s desire to be a hero?

Paired Resource

“The Healing Power of Poetry”

The Healing Power of Art: Christopher Bailey on Monet’s Water Lilies

• Both resources offer personal reflections on the power of art to enrich people’s lives and even help them survive.
• What role has art played in the lives of physician and poet Rafael Campo and Christopher Bailey, arts and health lead at the World Health Organization? How might Grendel respond to their ideas? Does Grendel believe in The Redemptive Power of Art? What do his emotional responses to the Shaper’s art suggest?

Chapters 7-9

Reading Check

1. Which two creatures does Grendel resolve to kill before abruptly changing his mind?

2. What do readers learn about Unferth in Chapter 7?

3. Who poses a threat to Hrothgar’s heirs, and why?

4. How does Grendel describe priests?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Wealtheow come to marry Hrothgar?

2. Why doesn’t Grendel kill Hrothgar?

3. What exchange does Grendel have with Ork?

4. Why is the fourth priest rapturous over Ork’s report?

Paired Resource

Introduction to Resisting Structural Evil by Cynthia D. Moe-Lobeda

• This book examines environmental destruction, poverty, and racism through a lens of structural evil. The first section of the introduction, through the top of page 5, raises issues that can be connected to Grendel.
• What is the difference between structural evil and the evil of an individual’s character or a particular action? How does Moe-Lobeda’s discussion of The Nature of Evil connect to the comment overhead by Grendel in Chapter 8 that all systems and governments are evil? What might be a middle ground between all systems being evil and the boy’s idealistic views?

Excerpt from “The Feast” pp. 241–243

• This telling of Beowulf by Zenaide A. Ragozin describes a meeting between Beowulf and Wealtheow.
• Consider the ways in which this description of Wealtheow compares and contrasts with Grendel’s description.
• Also consider the ways in which Wealtheow’s circumstances enhance the theme of Isolation and Otherness.

Chapters 10-12

Reading Check

1. What are the Shaper’s dying words?

2. What story does Grendel overhear an old woman telling children?

3. Why does the leader of the Geats say he has come to Hrothgar’s kingdom?

4. To whom does the dying Grendel call?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why is Grendel pleased about the arrival of the Geats?

2. How does the leader of the Geats trick Grendel?

3. How do the leader of the Geats and Grendel describe each other?

4. To what does Grendel attribute his death?

Paired Resource

Sections XII and XIII of Beowulf: “Grendel and Beowulf” and “Grendel is Vanquished”

• The monster Grendel first appears in this earliest Old English poem. After Grendel plagues Herot for years, King Hrothgar calls upon the warrior Beowulf to slay Grendel.
• Consider the ways in which giving Grendel a voice affects his characterization and the characterization of Beowulf, whom Grendel never calls by name.
• Also consider The Nature of Evil as represented by these two characters.

Recommended Next Reads

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

• In this classic horror novel, Dr. Frankenstein’s creation laments his origin and his isolation, turning his anger toward humanity.
• Shared themes include Isolation and Otherness and The Nature of Evil.
• Frankenstein on SuperSummary

Circe by Madeline Miller

• In this retelling of the Odyssey, Circe, the temptress, relates events from a female perspective.
• Shared themes include Isolation and Otherness.
• Circe on SuperSummary

Wealtheow: Her Telling of Beowulf by Ashley Crownover

• Wealtheow, Queen of the Danes, narrates this retelling of the Beowulf story. Along with Wealtheow, Grendel’s mother becomes a more interesting and sympathetic character in this version.
• Shared themes include Isolation and Otherness.

Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney

• Nobel laureate Heaney translates the Old English epic for the modern reader.
• Shared themes include Isolation and Otherness, The Redemptive Power of Art, and The Nature of Evil.
• Beowulf on SuperSummary