“Murderers, in general, are people who are consistent, people who are obsessed with one idea and nothing else”   -Ugo Betti

            Ladies and gentlemen of the jury.  Good Morning.  My job, today, is to come before you and prove to you that the accused, Grendel, is guilty of crimes of monstrosity, for which the penalty is death.  I will do this by presenting to you facts and evidence that prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that Grendel truly is guilty of crimes of monstrosity.

            For the past twelve years Grendel has filled the Danes with terror as he ravaged their meadhall and killed their men again and again.  He killed without remorse and even took joy in tormenting, killing, and… eating them.  He has only now stopped, because a great hero, Beowulf, caught him.

            I will prove to you that Grendel is not some dumb animal that can’t control its own actions.  No, Grendel is an intelligent, rational being capable of thinking and controlling his actions.  I will also prove that he did kill without remorse, took joy in killing the men of Hrothgar, and he did this all, not in self-defense, but because he wanted to.  I will prove to you that he not only killed, but he in fact defined himself by his killing.  He will try to tell you that he did it because of his rage-filled, violent nature, and it is true that he is violent and rage-filled, but what monster isn’t?  When you hear him say that he killed only because of his rage and violence, keep in mind that rage and violence are not an excuse for mass-murder.  Grendel knew that he had a choice to not kill all of those people, but instead of controlling his rage, he chose to kill.  And not only kill, but to eat his victims as well.  Victims who were rational, intelligent beings a lot like himself. I will prove all of this to you with words from his own mouth.

Grendel killed hundreds of people and never once did he feel a drop of remorse. “…I saw myself killing them, on and on and on… ” (Gardner 81).  He tormented his victims in front of others before killing them and eating them. “I held up the guard to taunt them, then held him still higher and leered into his face… As if casually… I bit his head off, crunched through the helmet and skull with my teeth and, sucked the blood that sprayed like a hot, thick geyser from his neck” (Gardner 79). 

Also, as a joke on his last raid, he tied a cloth around his neck, because he thought that what he was doing was funny. “For pure, mad prank, I snatch up a cloth from the nearest table and tied it around my neck to make a napkin… I seize up a sleeping man, tear at him hungrily, bite through his bone-locks and suck hot, slippery blood.  He goes down in huge morsels, head, chest, hips, legs, even the hands and feet.  My face and arms are wet, matted.  The napkin is sopping” (Gardner 168).  Grendel knew what he was doing and knew that he was sending hundreds of people to his death, but didn’t care, even though many people that he killed didn’t deserve to die. “But they were doomed, I knew, and I was glad,” (Gardner 53).  Aren’t these the words of a true monster?

Killing without remorse is indeed a monstrous act.  We are taught our entire lives that killing is wrong and it is ingrained in us that if we do kill we should feel remorse about what we’ve done.  Grendel had no remorse and was glad his victims were going to die.  He didn’t care that he was killing many people who did not deserve to die.  Therefore, Grendel was monstrous.

Grendel not only had no remorse about killing, but he actually enjoyed what he was doing.  He felt great joy from ripping people apart and then eating them. “I burst in when they were all asleep, snatched seven from their beds, and slit them open and devoured them on the spot.  I felt a strange, unearthly joy… I was transformed” (Gardner 79-80).  “… My wild heart laughs, but I let out no sound.  Swiftly, softly, I will move from bed to bed and destroy them all, swallow every last man.  I am blazing, half crazy with joy” (Gardner 168).  He would laugh about what he was doing and was actually happy. “I fled with the body to the woods, heart churning—boiling like a flooded ditch—with glee” (Gardner 79).   He also said, “I laugh, crumple over; I can’t help myself… While they squeal and screech and bump into each other, I silently sack up my dead and withdraw to the woods.  I eat and laugh and eat until I can barely walk…” (Gardner 12). 

He took pleasure in killing humans especially, more so than dumb animals. “I killed stragglers now and then—with a certain grim pleasure very different from that which I got from cracking a cow’s skull” (Gardner 76).  The only time he felt remorse was the time a man died of natural causes.  He felt remorse because he was not the one who caused the death. “I should have captured him, teased him, tormented him, made a fool of him.  I should have cracked his skull mid-song and sent his blood spraying out wet through the meadhall like a shocking change of key.  One evil deed missed is a loss for all eternity” (Gardner 146).  When strangers came to the land, Beowulf and his men, Grendel was filled with joy.  To him there was a new game afoot and he was glad. “I am mad with joy. —At least I think it’s joy.  Strangers have come, and it’s a whole new game” (Gardner 151). “O happy Grendel!  Fifteen glorious heroes, proud in their battle dress, fat as cows!” (Gardner 151).  He was looking forward to the new prey with great excitement. “I am swollen with excitement, bloodlust and joy and a strange fear that mingle in my chest like the twisting rage of a bone-fire” (Gardner 168-9).

Having no remorse is one thing, but when someone takes joy in killing they are even more monstrous.  Grendel enjoyed killing very much.  In fact he enjoyed it so much that he would plan out what he was going to do to his victims.  His murders were premeditated, not just crimes of passion.  He knew very well what he was doing.

Grendel has a nature that is both violent and filled with rage. He admits this himself; “Blood-lust and rage are my character” (Gardner 123).  A nature that, if he wanted to, he could have controlled.  He had even decided to do such a thing; “It was one thing to eat one from time to time—that was only natural…but it was another thing to scare them, give them heart attacks, fill their nights with nightmares, just for sport” (Gardner 61).  Then, the dragon changed Grendel’s mind; “Nothing was changed, everything was changed, by my having seen the dragon” (Gardner 75).  Even before his meeting with the dragon, but especially after, he used his violent and rage-filled nature as an excuse to kill countless beings. “I feel my anger coming back, building up like invisible fire, and at last, when my soul can no longer resist, I go up…my belly growling, mindless as wind, for blood,” (Gardner 9).

“My Aunt Ethel was in the kitchen cooking cabbage.”  You might as well use this excuse for mass murder, because there is no real excuse for it.  A violent and rage-filled nature definitely is not an excuse, especially when this nature can be controlled.  But did Grendel try to control his rage? No, instead he tries to justify what he has done by saying that it is his nature.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, some of you might be wondering about whether this was done in self-defense.  You might be wondering if Grendel was only striking out and killing because Hrothgar’s men attacked him first.  Well, before Grendel met the dragon this might have been true, because before he met the dragon weapons could harm him.  “The king snatched an ax from the man beside him and, without any warning, he hurled it at me.  I twisted, letting out a howl, and it shot past my shoulder, just barely touching my skin.  Blood trickled out” (Gardner 27). 

However, after he met the dragon, this was not the case. “I discovered that the dragon had put a charm on me: no weapon could cut me… My heart became darker because of that” (Gardner 75-6).  This he discovered while he was fighting a guard and was about to be cut by the guard’s sword. “I saw the sword coming and I knew I couldn’t escape it.  I went limp, the way animals sometimes do at the moment of the predator’s leap.  Nothing happened,” (Gardner 78).  The charm remained and from that moment on he was unable to be cut, no matter how many weapons touched him.

Killing can’t really ever be justified, but it is more understandable if you were acting in self-defense.  But, Grendel was not acting in self-defense.  He had a charm placed upon him by a dragon so he was invulnerable to weapons.  Not only that but he had super strength, so his victims didn’t have a chance at fighting him.  His victims were not attacking him.  Instead he was attacking them.  They were just trying to defend themselves against him.

So, Grendel is almost like an animal that acts purely on instinct, right?  Wrong.  Grendel is an intelligent being, capable of rationalization, thought and speech.  An animal is not, therefore he is not an animal.  When his leg was caught between two trees and a bull was charging him, he was able to rationalize that the bull would always strike too low. “He struck too low, and even in my terror I understood that he would always strike too low…” (Gardner 21).  He talked to himself constantly and even when he talked to humans they were able to tell he was speaking, and they could understand what he was saying.  “’Come, come,’ I said. ‘Let me tell them I was sent by Sideways-Walker’” (Gardner 83). “…It was clear to him, I think, that I was speaking words.  He got a cunning look, as if getting ready to offer a deal—the look men have when they fight with men instead of poor, stupid animals” (Gardner 83).  He was also capable of thought; “Strange thoughts come over me.  I think of the pastness of the past” (Gardner 146).

Grendel is an intelligent being, able to control his actions, and he is killing other intelligent beings and that is monstrous.  It is not known for sure whether or not Grendel is human, like his victims, but he is human-like, in the fact that he can think, talk, and rationalize.  He is nothing like a dumb animal.  Animals cannot think as humans can and are not intelligent beings.  Animals are controlled by their natures, not the other way around.  They kill only because they need to.  This does not describe Grendel.  Grendel is not an animal and he is responsible for his monstrous acts and should be punished.

Not only is Grendel an intelligent being, but he is aware that he is able to choose whether or not to kill.  He knows he can choose and yet he still chooses to kill. “I settled my soul on destroying him—slowly and cruelly” (Gardner 30).  Grendel wanted to kill and thought it would be ridiculous if he didn’t, if he chose not to. “Afraid or not, I would go to the meadhall, I knew.  I toyed, of course, with the ridiculous theory that I’d stay where I was safe, like a sensible beast.  ‘Am I not free? —As free as a bird?’ I whispered, leering, maniacal” (Gardner 157).

Grendel chose over and over again to kill.  The only times he chose to not kill was when he wanted to mess with people’s minds.  When he wanted to destroy their theories about what was going to happen, or what should happen.  When you are choosing to kill repeatedly it is premeditated and it is a monstrous act.

Finally, there is the fact that he defined himself by the killing of Hrothgar’s people.  He believed that the only reason he was alive was to kill those people and that is the only reason he didn’t kill them off quickly. “I could finish them off in a single night, pull down the great carved beams and crush them in the meadhall, along with their mice, their tankards and potatoes—yet I hold back.  I am hardly blind to the absurdity.  Form is function.  What will we call the Hrothgar-Wrecker when Hrothgar has been wrecked?” (Gardner 91).  And, “So I might set aside Hrothgar’s whole kingdom and all his thanes if I did not, for sweet desire’s sake, set limits to desire.  If I murdered the last of the Skyldings, what would I live for?  I’d have to move” (Gardner 158).  He is so obsessed with the idea that this is his purpose in life that it is the law that he lives by. “Enough of that! A night for tearing heads off, bathing in blood!  Except, alas, he has killed his quota for the season.  Care, take care of the gold-egg-laying goose!  There is no limit to desire but desire’s needs.” (Gardner 93).

When you define yourself by the murders you commit you have become monstrous.  Grendel defines himself by the murders of Hrothgar’s people.  Grendel knows he could easily kill everyone quickly, but he doesn’t because then he wouldn’t have anything to define himself by.  Grendel is monstrous because he believes his purpose in life is to kill.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, today I have presented to you overwhelming evidence that Grendel is indeed, without a doubt, guilty of crimes of monstrosity.  I implore you to go over, once again, the evidence that has been presented to you and realize that Grendel is guilty.  He has killed countless people without remorse and he enjoyed the killing.  He tries to use the excuse that he has a rage filled, violent nature that he can’t control, but he is an intelligent being capable of rationalization, thought, and speech, not an animal, and intelligent beings can control their actions.  Ladies and gentlemen, you know this to be true as you are all intelligent beings and you exercise such control every, single day. 

Grendel also did not fight and kill in self-defense.  He is invulnerable to weapons and in the end only brute strength could defeat him.  But the fact that he had a major advantage over humans did not stop him from attacking them.  He knew he could choose not to attack and kill, but did he? No.  In fact he even defines his purpose in life as killing Hrothgar’s people.  Are these the actions of an innocent?  No, they are not, and ladies and gentlemen, you know it.  Grendel deserves the death penalty.  It is time for him to face the consequences of his actions.

Works Cited

1. Gardner, John.  Grendel.  New York: Vintage Books, 1989.