Chapter 10

Grendel is sick of the scent accompanying the dragon’s protective charm. Since he is also grappling with boredom simultaneously, Grendel is particularly volatile. He commits extreme violence against a mountain goat. He sees the goat climbing up a hill and creates obstacles for the goat before bashing the animal’s head. The scene ends with him picking up another stone. Following this, Grendel eats some children who had strayed out of their homes after dark. Spring approaches, and Grendel’s boredom has not yet subsided.

The Shaper falls sick and is on his deathbed. Grendel watches the king, queen, and the prince visit the Shaper to pay their respects. He taunts the Shaper in his mind by asking him whence his fine phrases have vanished. The Shaper dies, and his beloved takes this news with measured calmness. Grendel realizes that the Shaper’s passing means there’d now be a significant difference in the historical accounts of his engagement with humankind.

Grendel’s mother seems perturbed, and she does not allow him to leave the cave. He is unsure of her behavior, and since the two do not share a common language, she is unable to explain why she is concerned. Grendel pays no heed; regarding the Shaper’s death as the “end of an epoch,” he decides to attend his funeral. He wakes up at night feeling the hands of someone around his neck. The mountain goat seems to be climbing the hill.

Chapter 11

A boat reaches the kingdom with new men, the Geats. A guard tries to prevent fifteen armored Geats from entering the kingdom. The leader is unarmed, but looks especially muscled and strong, and readers soon realize that this is Beowulf. The Geats establish that they come as Hrothgar’s allies. They head toward the mead hall, and Grendel experiences a mix of excitement and fear as he watches on. He is also grateful for the Geats’ arrival; he hopes their presence would alleviate his boredom.

Taking the Geats’ arrival into account, Grendel plans his next set of actions on his way to the mead hall. The Danes are frustrated about having to rely on foreign help to deal with Grendel. Ork is especially displeased that it is humans who have come to their rescue, not God. Hrothgar is civil to the strangers because he needs their help; he thus hides his discomfort. Unferth attempts to mock the Geats’ leader, and his attempt elicits laughter in the mead hall. Beowulf responds to Unferth, who’d made light of his alleged defeat in a duel. Beowulf clarifies that the deck was stacked against him since he had to slay sea monsters before taking part in the duel. Tension rises as Beowulf adds that Unferth is bound to end up in hell as he’d killed his own brothers. Hrothgar then invites Wealtheow into the mead hall to ease the tension.

Having witnessed all this, Grendel is now concerned by the Geats’ arrival. Nonetheless, he also finds himself excited by the prospect of facing off with the Geats. The new Shaper sings, and the others retire to bed. Grendel decides that it is time for him to meet the Geats’ leader.

Chapter 12

The final chapter involves the duel between Grendel and Bewoulf, the leader of the Geats. Grendel enters the mead hall, where he first encounters Beowulf in person, who grabs Grendel by his arm and tries to twist it out of its socket. This is not just a physical battle but also seemingly an intellectual one. During the battle, Beowulf talks of theories that sound highly similar to the ones espoused by the dragon and the young priests. Grendel finds it difficult to concentrate and strike back; he even slips in a pool of blood.

He cautions Beowulf that if not for the unfortunate slip he’d have attacked him gravely. Grendel then has a vision in which he sees his opponent blessed with fiery wings; he shakes away this vision and reminds himself that Beowulf is only a human. Beowulf, meanwhile, declares that Grendel’s time is up, and that he is ready to kill him.

Grendel is thrown against a wall and, strangely enough, forced to sing a song about the wall. Beowulf, Grendel realizes, is trying to mock his existence and philosophy. He seems to suggest that the wall is Grendel’s own doing; the wall is to be seen as a hurdle. As Grendel’s arm is torn apart, Grendel shrieks and cries for his mother.

Running away from the mead hall in pain, Grendel finds himself experiencing more visions. When he snaps back to reality, he accepts that he is about to die. He notices that he is at the cliff that he had seen in an earlier vision. He is now surrounded by the indifferent eyes of animals. The novel ends with Grendel saying out loud that he has met with an accident. He also wishes a similar fate for all the other animals.

Analysis of Chapters 10-12

The mountain goat and its indifferent, pointless climbing of the mountain are a metaphor for the pointlessness that Grendel himself experiences. He is especially bored of his war with Hrothgar’s kingdom, having realized that humans are no match for him. He finds no excitement in the bloodshed, but persists with it, almost as if it is his duty to do so. This is also a premonition: Grendel, after all, is mindlessly playing his part and heading toward his own end. His mother is not the only one to have warned him. The old lady’s tale and his own visions also foretell the imminent doom. Death makes another appearance with the Shaper’s demise. Notably, the Shaper is swiftly replaced, which shows the dispensable nature of all beings. The mountain goat’s journey makes Grendel reconsider his own nature: he wonders if he is just another element of nature, doomed to endure the banalities of life.

The Geats’ arrival provides Grendel some much needed excitement. He experiences both fear and excitement as he observes his rivals through a crack in one of the mead hall’s walls. Strangely enough, Grendel feels quite protective of Hrothgar and his kingdom, as evidenced in his concern when the outsiders expose the weakness in Hrothgar’s kingdom.

The fight between Grendel and Beowulf occurs on two levels: the physical and the philosophical. As Beowulf tricks and attacks Grendel, he also spouts philosophical thoughts that Grendel has heard from different sources, such as the dragon and the young priest who is reassured by Ork’s faith. Grendel endures visions of Beowulf as a larger monster and tries to remind himself that Beowulf is just a human. Grendel’s cry for his mother is reminiscent of his cry for help when he was first attacked by humans. Beowulf’s radical heroism is at odds with the nihilistic philosophy Grendel has recently taken to.

Grendel’s last words, spoken out loud to animals (Grendel regards these animals as stupid; he also thinks they have “meaningless eyes”), reaffirm his rejection of such notions as righteousness and heroism.