The last character that falls victim to Gardner's unfavorable portrayal of characters is Beowulf himself. Intelligent, strong, talented, and respected, Beowulf is the perfect epic hero. The seemingly perfect hero is not so perfect in the novel Grendel. Although Grendel acknowledges his wisdom and power, as he is the only one capable of defeating Grendel, Gardner shows him as insane and cruel: “Feel the wall: is it not hard? He smashes me against it, breaks open my forehead. Hard, yes! Observe the hardness, write it down in careful runes. Now sing of walls! Sing!”.
The above excerpt is what Beowulf whispers in Grendel's ear as he smashes him into a wall while fighting him. Just reading it makes it quite obvious that Beowulf is rather eccentric in this novel. What he says is rather disturbing as he tells Grendel to feel how hard the wall is and to sing about the hardness of the walls while they fight. A rather peculiar thing to say, it makes it seem as if Beowulf is even insane in the novel, as he tells Grendel to sing about walls. This is just one instance of Beowulf's change between the two novels. Additionally, he is also quite rude and unfriendly.
When he first lands on Denmark and the guard stops him, he calls the guard an “old man” and practically tells him to simply let Beowulf in whereas in the epic poem, Beowulf slowly and patiently explains the situation, gaining the guard's respect and admiration. In this case he seems to have neither respect nor admiration from the guard. He is even less respectful when he meets Unferth. After Unferth taunts Beowulf, Beowulf replies saying that he actually won the race against Brecca and adds that Unferth is to burn in hell for eternity because of what he has done, which drives Unferth to tears. Although Beowulf does scold Unferth in the original epic poem, he does not do so in such a harsh manner nor does he say that Unferth shall burn in hell.
To add to all of that, his relationship with Hrothgar seems to be a little tainted. Hrothgar is happy to see Beowulf, but there is really nothing more. In the original poem, Hrothgar shows much love for him and practically treats him as a son whereas in this one, he is just happy that someone's there to get rid of Grendel for him. The only display of fatherly affection that Hrothgar ever shows in Grendel is when he proclaims, while being drunk, that Beowulf is like a son to him. However, the display of affection is meaningless as Hrothgar is drunk he says this.
As seen, the novel obviously portrays Beowulf as a darker and scarier character, far from being the perfect epic hero. This goes along with the tone of the novel, the portrayal of all things that Anglo-Saxons value in a negative light.
Retelling the famous story of Beowulf, John Gardner's novel, Grendel, portrays every human character and everything that Anglo-Saxons respect in a rather negative light. Instead of being the grand and kind king that Hrothgar is in Beowulf, he is more flawed in Grendel than people would expect him to be. Following the example that Hrothgar sets, Unferth is a foolish coward and Beowulf is a cruel eccentric. Grendel, who tells the story, is one of the major antagonists in epic and the reader would likely expect all this negative portrayal.
But Gardner not only bashes all the main characters in his novel, he ridicules the values of the Anglo-Saxons as well. When Grendel gets into an argument with Unferth, he mocks the idea of heroism, driving Unferth mad with rage. In addition, Gardner portrays the Anglo-Saxons as people who would boast about their ancestors from meters away, shaking their spears, yet not dealing a single blow, which makes them look ridiculous. Also, he ridicules the idea of war and honor as the Anglo-Saxons would destroy everything in their path while at war, leaving nothing standing, be it buildings, fellow humans, or animals.
The author shows the idea of storytelling and scops as singers who would fabricate lies around history. Ultimately, the insulting tone of the novel adds up to make Grendel the antithesis of the Anglo-Saxon.
