William Blake, a gothic poet born in the mid 1700’s, is greatly known for his cryptic point of view in life and the afterlife. I, personally (even though I’m really not a fan of poetry), see him as a great inspiration as a writer and I do admire his taste and ideas because they are actually original – yes, maybe a little mid-evil and worrisome, but to me he was so messed up and possibly crazy that he’s extraordinary.  Though I’m not a fan of John Gardner, he adopted the same tone in his novel Grendel.  He even inserts a small portion of William Blake’s poem “Mental Traveller” in the beginning pages:

                “And if a Babe is born a Boy

                He’s given to a Woman Old,

                Who nails him down upon a rock,

                Catches his shrieks in cups of gold”

               

                Other then the fact that the stanza is depressing, it creates a good outlook on the character Grendel. Firstly, one of the bigger conflicts within Grendel is that he lacks freewill. Though I do believe everything somebody does is a choice, I also believe Grendel was pushed into his fate. The Dragon convinced him that the only thing he can do that will ever mean anything is to torment men, and after a while he lost himself within his duty of torturing people. In other words, he did not start bad. Actually, I thought he was pretty innocent in the beginning because even though he did not want to do it, he tormented people because he thought it was for the greater good. He killed his soul to “mean something”. Of course, that reiterates the entire question again, “Is Grendel a monster?”  Because murdering innocent people is pretty bad, but is he a martyr? But, precisely because of the line “who nails him down upon a rock” I do not believe he is. I believe somebody else forced him to – Woman Old.

                As far as I know, the Dragon was a man, but you have to look at the entire emotional connotation of woman – emotional, motherly, “take in”. Though the Dragon really was not that nice of a fellow, he mentored Grendel. He helped him find the one thing he wanted to do – mean something. Of course, trusting the Dragon came with consequences, hence the “who nails him down upon a rock”.

                The last line always catches me, but I think I understand it. I believe it means the evilness – the darkness or whatever – is priceless. Or, in different words, the horrible stuff that is happening is actually good. In a way, this makes sense. Grendel tells apart the kingdom trying to obey the Dragon and cause a mess, and yeah, sure, some people are getting murdered, but in the end it’s the greater good because it makes people come together. It makes people have a reason to keep going and build society and fight. Or at least that’s what the dragon says to Grendel – who knows, maybe the whole thing is a bunch of lies.

                But, either way, William Blake is a genius and John Gardner may be too.