“Tedium is the worst pain.” To understand this phrase one must first understand the meaning of tedium. Tedium is the state of being tedious, monotonous, repetitious, mechanical, and dull. The theme of being mechanical has appeared throughout this book: the bull, the ram, the goat, Grendel’s mother, etcetera. These beings are constantly being referred to as mechanical because Grendel views them as idiotic beasts that are incapable of abstract thought. They are tedious because they repeat the same action without altering. They ram the same place, they climb the “nothing” hill. These animals have no purpose for their actions they simply act upon instinct without any kind of intricate thought. Like machines these animals wander repeating the same act over and over, Grendel often comments on how easy life would be if he could wander around with their aimlessness. Though he does often get annoyed with their stupidity, yelling at them to “Use your mind! Think! Think!” He gets so angry and frustrated that he goes as far as to kill them. Watching them wander without a clue, to Grendel, is a fate worse than death, because without his mind he is simply a murderous monster, without his mind since life is meaningless there would be no point to live, everything would be dull. So by being “empty” “Tedium is the worst pain”.
The tenth chapter again revisits Grendel’s self-centric worldview. It begins with Grendel being frustarated with a goat, a dumb brute of an animal that refuses to stop climbing up towards Grendel’s mere. He attempts to halt the goat’s progress with shouting, then with rocks, not stopping until the goat’s implied death. This is another blow to Grendel’s view of him controlling the world. If he cannot halt the goat, what else can he not stop? This is another indication of the inevitability of Beowulf’s arrival and victory. There are more clues- mutterings of a strong and powerful thane from across the oceans, references to the sun and other worldly things being mechanical. Finally, the defining moment of this chapter is the Shaper’s death. Before, it was the dragon versus the Shaper, the cold truth against the rich lies. With the Shaper dead, Grendel knows he cannot shape his way out of his own death. While observing the funeral, he thinks “So all of us must sooner or later pass.” As tedium sets in, the empty waiting, there is nothing for Grendel but the emptiness of his mechanical mother, the mechanical world, and the knowledge that all of those things will fade away. Grendel may not know what the tedium is an interlude to, but we do. Grendel’s death, and the final confirmation of the dragon, is at hand.
Chapter ten of “Grendel” begins with the phrase “Tedium is the worst pain”. Tedium is the noun version of the adjective tedious, meaning marked by monotony, or in other words tiresome, uniform boredom. When Grendel says “Tedium is the worst pain” he may be referring to the monotony of his current life during the winter. Grendel explained in the previous chapter how he does not raid during the winter, when the world is a corpse. He makes this decision both to preserve the population of humans, his “game”, and perhaps because the festivities of the humans during the winter are already at their low point, so he has no lessons of hopelessness to teach. As described in chapter one, Grendel’s life as a young child consisted of no friends, creatures to talk to, or any role or identity in the universe. Back then Grendel may have not considered his life monotonous because he was young and still exploring the world, but after many generations his life proved mundane. This caused him to look for new experiences, such as terrorizing Heorot. Therefore, without being able to raid on Hrothgar’s people during the winter, Grendel has momentarily lost his identity, as well as his life becoming more similar to his boring childhood, thus causing him to believe Tedium is the worst pain. Yet even when Grendel conducts his raids during the summer, spring, and fall, they must eventually prove a bit repetitive and routine. Since receiving the dragon’s charm, the thanes of Hrothgar have no knowledge or ability to defeat Grendel, so there is no feeling of risk or accomplishment when raiding. When Grendel says “Tedium is the worst pain”, may be referring to this easy and uncontested aspect of his life. However, Grendel should be careful what he wishes for. He may be excited at the prospect of having new enemies to fight, those who are tougher adversaries than the Danes. But what if Grendel finds someone who matches, or even out-matches, his own strength? -David
When Grendel says, "Tedium is the worst pain." He is referring to how painful it is to have someone to talk and there response is without emotion. For example when the shaper dies a lady takes his death with no reaction. Another example is Grendel’s mother she shows no feeling no response when talked to. She is mechanic like all other things. The phrase “Tedium is the worst pain” might be one of the factors why Grendel is so miserable and angry. He is in pain and cant talk to anyone so he becomes a monster. Making the people fear him is the only way he will make him self feel better even though its only for a little while.
In this chapter, Grendel feels very alone. He is unable to raid and finds nobody to converse with. All that are within his reach are very mechanical. The goat that is climbing up the mountain is continuously climbing even when its life is in direct danger. Even when its brains are damaged and the goat should be dead, it just climbs. The only person that Grendel has ever reached out to successfully has been Unferth, yet he is just sulking away at this point. Grendel has no opportunities in the life that he has been given. He has no opportunity to be honorable or virtuous, he can only be a monster. Even though it was the shaper who unreasonably labeled Grendel as some kind of mechanical beast. Grendel is the awkward hybrid of man and monster. Is he just the force that pushes men to success or is he different. He may never know.
Ok this time I wont focus on how John Gardner fails miserably this time.
Tedium is the worst pain can simply be translated to the without a purpose death comes fast. This relates to Grendel in that his whole life is spent with a purpose, when he doesn't have a purpose life becomes painful in that he has nothing to do, no one to compare to, no one to talk to.
Grendel is expecting that something will happen to him because of the many signs and foreshadowing in this chapter. It seems like everyone around Grendel is warning him. Some messages are obvious, for example his mother babbling on nonsense or the old women telling a story to the children and saying, “someday he will come here”. While others are more hidden like the goat that did not stop climbing up to the meer or the Shaper’s death. Everything to Grendel has become boring, slow, and tedious. The word tedium means tiresome or monotonous. Grendel has never been so bored in his life. Everything is dull. He is waiting for something to happen even though he is nihilistic. The phrase, “Tedium is the worst pain” is exactly how he is feeling right now. He feels lonelier than ever before because nothing has been interesting. The Shaper has always had a great influence on Grendel and him dying changes a lot. The Shaper was the person who created the idea of history, he gave meaning to things that happened in the past and let the people know what it does to them now in the present. Now that he is gone, Grendel loses the chance to listen to the stories that the Shaper told. Another example is how Grendel encounters the goat. It reminds me of the time he had seen the ram because the same thing happens. He tries to get the goat to notice him, but it ignores Grendel just like the ram did. Everything is mechanical to Grendel, his mother, the goat and the ram because none have the ability to think and none of them can show feeling or emotion. Everything has become lifeless and so he waits for some kind of change to happen. Metztli Garcia
Seeing as we're almost at chapter 12, John Gardener is upping the foreshadowing. Not only does his implementation of the goat show Grendel's failing power and dominion, but he even mentions the man "with the strength of thirty thanes." All of these hints cannot fail to pass the point that Grendel will fall across yet we also see Grendel experiencing new things. He learns of loss, a strange sensation for a monster no doubt but he learns through this the passing of time, and although he was taught this by the dragon he experiences it first hand thus having insights into it that he did not have before. With this death close at hand, he ponders what the priest said (to some extent and unintentionally) and realizes that "back then" is an allusion that references to something in the past when in reality there is nothing but the present and the things we remember, in that there is no past, only what is left in the present. .
Grendel’s vague feelings of foreboding and anticipation intensify greatly in this chapter, while Grendel tries even harder to stamp them down. He appears to be receiving messages from the world around him. Some of these messages are blatant, like his mother’s ravings and the old woman’s pronouncement; some are more cryptic, like the goat’s mindless climb and the death of the Shaper. Everything around Grendel has become stale, dull and tedious. Despite his assertion that “there is nothing to expect,” he still finds himself awaiting a major change. The first step in that process of change is the death of the extremely influential Shaper. The Shaper’s passing not only ends an epoch for Grendel but also the very notion of history itself. The Shaper organizes historical detail in such a way that it gives meaning to the present moment. The Shaper’s glorification of Hrothgar’s ancestors, for example, legitimizes Hrothgar’s own rule. In his claim that Grendel is descended from Cain, the world’s first murderer, the Shaper employs a notion of history and lineage to justify Grendel’s extermination. Upon the Shaper’s death, Grendel finds that history has lost all its meaning. Events that occurred in the past stay in the past: neither the glorious deeds of Scyld Shefing nor Grendel’s own atrocities exists in the present moment.
10. In this chapter, Grendel realizes that the world doesn’t completely revolve around him. When a stubborn goat refuses to leave his mere, he tries to yell at it to get it to move. You can’t reason with something mechanical however, due to their goal being set, and nothing will deter them from their objective. Grendel tries everything from knocking over trees, to throwing boulders at the animal to try and scare him away. However, this animal doesn’t listen to him. It doesn’t fear him in any way, and won’t be scared by him regardless of what he does. He eventually gets the goat to leave his place, but that was only when he took the life of the goat. Grendel says early in the chapter “Tedium is the worst pain.” This in my opinion means that when you are mechanical and boring, having you action controlled by instinct, that is the worst pain not being able to see past the path already set for you. When the shaper dies in this chapter, Grendel reacts opposite to how he would when he was a child. He stumbles across the wife of the shaper, and is tempted to say all things must sooner and later pass. No longer a slave to the shapers songs, he has no emotion to the death of the shaper. In Grendel’s cave, his mother is showing signs of tedium. She no longer shows any indication of humanity. She only scurries back and forth across the cave floor trying to keep Grendel inside the cave. It seems her path has been set and she has become more of animal in the way that her goal is to keep Grendel, her son, safe from harm. This tedium will eventually lead to Grendel’s death at the hands of Beowulf. ~Ben Moseley
Tedium is the worse pain. In Chapter 10, the Shaper is sick and dies. Tedium is like being emotionless. Grendel saw that the old woman who was caring for the shaper had a straight, emotionless face. He wanted to grab the woman and the shaper but he resisted. In his home, his mother was emotionless when responding to her son. Grendel attended the Shaper's funeral and a speech was given about him. Also, Grendel was warned to beware of the fish (Beowulf was coming).
Dear Amy, In Chapter 10, Grendel narrates, "Tedium is the worst pain." Grendel is trying to say that boredom is the worst pain, because when there is boon, there is nothing to live for. "Tedium is the worst pain" is simply an idea of death, and having no purpose, reason or a need to live. Grendel feels disgusted at the priest who says the gods made this world for our joy. While Grendel is enraged at the statement, he discovers that the Shaper is sick. Grendel is observing a goat, and gets frustrated at the goat for trying to climb up the hill. Grendel throws rocks at him trying to stop the goat from climbing. The reason, Grendel is mad is because he is frustrated at the goat for being mechanical. And he tries to stop the goat from climbing up the hill. Just like the Shaper, Grendel is trying to shape the world, believing that the world is mechanical, and Grendel wants to fix it. However, the world does not revolve around Grendel. Grendel kills the goat by smashing the goat with the rocks. As Grendel watched the people go about their business, while Grendel notes that no one will ever strike at the kingdom. Grendel is enraged that no one will ever attack this kingdom except for him. Grendel hears a story from an old woman that someone will come and help the kingdom. This foreshadows the coming of Beowulf. The Shaper is dying in his death bed, and he listens for the footstep of a woman. The Shaper is in love with the women but the women never loved him. Then the shaper is dead. Grendel feels another sensation now that the Shaper is dead, he realizes he misses the Shaper. Grendel proves this again by wishing he could have captured and tortured the Shaper. Which proves that Grendel misses the Shaper's tales, songs and poems. Now the Shaper is dead, Grendel feels he is trapped and stuck in the present. And the only thing we have is the moment we are in right now. Grendel shows he misses the Shaper, by attending the Shaper's funeral. At the funeral, there is a new shaper sing songs, telling tales, and citing poems about the Shaper. But he is not as good as the Shaper telling tales, singing songs, and citing poems. Grendel realizes that the Shaper was important to him because he shaped everyone's fate, destiny and future. The Shaper made Hrothgar to be the king people think he is, the shaper made Grendel to be the monster, which the people are afraid of, scared of, and terrified of. Without the Shaper, Grendel would not be the monster, or the wrecker of meadhalls. Grendel feels abandoned without the Shaper to shaper their fate, destiny or future. In the end of this chapter, Grendel's mother says something for the first time, "Beware the fish!" This is particularly a warning from Grendel's mother of Beowulf. And Beowulf is the symbol of Christianity. While Grendel is nihilistic, that nothing has meaning, therefore nothing comes from nothing. However, Grendel does want meaning in the universe. In conclusion, this foreshadows Beowulf to be the origins of Christianity, who will break the belief of Grendel, that is the nihilistic view of the world. Nothing has meaning. Sincerely, Dylan
“Tedium is the worst pain.” That is something I could agree with in some aspects. By this, Grendel means that the state of having nothing to do, nowhere to be, no one to see wears on a person—or a “mon-stah.” Monotony takes a slow but painful toll on Grendel as he finds himself wasting the winter away. He miserably alternates between being in his home with his mother—whose sanity is deteriorating by the second—or out and about the outskirts of the town watching other people’s lives go on while his is at a standstill. The best he can find himself doing until spring comes is fending off animals from his home with stones. Fun way to spend Christmas break, am I right?
“Tedium is the worst pain.” Grendel uses Tedium, meaning boring and dull, to describe a goat and his life. Grendel is still trying to make it past the dullness of winter, when he dose not raid. In this chapter a goat begins to climb up the hill. Grendel begins to yell at the goat, telling him to use his sense, and know that there is nothing at the mere. Grendel is also mad that the goat is invading what belongs to him. Grendel recognizes that the goat moves in a mechanical matter, unable to use common sense or logic. The goat’s constant trek up the hill shows him to be mechanical, boring, and dull. Grendel also uses “tedium is the worst pain,” to describe his life and time. He describes how dull and repetitive his life is. Raid after raid and loneliness followed by more loneliness. He realizes how dull time is and how long the present feels and how dark and meaningless the past and future are. Grendel states that good deeds not exist in the past. Grendel is sick of his boring life, repetitively watching the humans fall under illusions of the shaper and religion and gain false hope about the future. Grendel wishes for some excitement in his life. Perhaps his wish will be granted.
Grendel starts chapter 10 with the idiotic statement "Tedium is the worst pain". I can't disagree more. Tedium. Tediousness. By tedium we can safely assume Grendel is speaking of the mechanical acts of things in the universe. So mechanical acts cause pain? Pah. If anything, being mechanical dulls pain! By not being mechanical, one realizes the different aspects of life, and in my opinion, how everything means nothing. But by being mechanical, one is blind to emotion, and therefore blind to emotional pain! Ignorance is bliss. Anyway, in chapter 10, Grendel throws one of his tantrums, this time smashing the brains out of a damn goat trying to climb towards him. Afterwards, Grendel again spies on the Shaper, and witnesses his peaceful death, and then visits his funeral. -Sebastian
Chapter 10 5/26 : “Tedium is the worst pain.” is what this chapter starts with. Tedium is when something is dull and is constantly repetitive. In the beginning Grendel is very upset at a goat who refuses to leave. Grendel uses the goat to serve as an example of how mechanical things are. The Shaper soon after passes away and Grendel’s reaction is realization that everyone at some point in time dies. He finds this to be very mechanical. Grendel is disappointed with how repetitive and dull things always are for him. Something is going to happen to Grendel and it’ll change him. - Stephanie Medina
Tedium is the worst kind of pain because it's an emotionless or mechanical state. Throughout the whole book and Grendel's life it's been in tedium. Two major examples that occur in this chapter and demonstrate this state is when the shaper dies and everyone including the king, hrothgar are all emotionless. Another example is Grendel's mother and the way that she acts but mostly in the way that she talks.
Grendel reaches the height of his frustration in this chapter, as he fails to contain himself even when a goat tries mechanically to climb atop a cliff. The Shaper, the man who made life worth living for Grendel, is now dead, and Grendel finds himself at square one yet again. He feels conquered by the world, the endless, mechanical, horrible cycle of life that he takes part in each year. He is beyond defeated. Now realizing that he is for the hundredth time, living alone and without meaning, he falls into the chasm, not the one he dreamed of falling into, but the chasm of his own, deep thought. Suffering has a stronger hold on him by this point than it ever has, and the worst part is, for him, that he totally aware of it. -julian
"tediam is the worst kind of pain" is Grendals life is mechanical everything has a reason. example: when the shaper died grendal has a downward spiral and gets depressed. grendal realizes he can never talk to or understand her. ~Osgood
“Tedium is the worst pain.” To understand this phrase one must first understand the meaning of tedium. Tedium is the state of being tedious, monotonous, repetitious, mechanical, and dull. The theme of being mechanical has appeared throughout this book: the bull, the ram, the goat, Grendel’s mother, etcetera. These beings are constantly being referred to as mechanical because Grendel views them as idiotic beasts that are incapable of abstract thought. They are tedious because they repeat the same action without altering. They ram the same place, they climb the “nothing” hill. These animals have no purpose for their actions they simply act upon instinct without any kind of intricate thought. Like machines these animals wander repeating the same act over and over, Grendel often comments on how easy life would be if he could wander around with their aimlessness. Though he does often get annoyed with their stupidity, yelling at them to “Use your mind! Think! Think!” He gets so angry and frustrated that he goes as far as to kill them. Watching them wander without a clue, to Grendel, is a fate worse than death, because without his mind he is simply a murderous monster, without his mind since life is meaningless there would be no point to live, everything would be dull. So by being “empty” “Tedium is the worst pain”.
ReplyDelete~Shelby
The tenth chapter again revisits Grendel’s self-centric worldview. It begins with Grendel being frustarated with a goat, a dumb brute of an animal that refuses to stop climbing up towards Grendel’s mere. He attempts to halt the goat’s progress with shouting, then with rocks, not stopping until the goat’s implied death. This is another blow to Grendel’s view of him controlling the world. If he cannot halt the goat, what else can he not stop? This is another indication of the inevitability of Beowulf’s arrival and victory. There are more clues- mutterings of a strong and powerful thane from across the oceans, references to the sun and other worldly things being mechanical. Finally, the defining moment of this chapter is the Shaper’s death. Before, it was the dragon versus the Shaper, the cold truth against the rich lies. With the Shaper dead, Grendel knows he cannot shape his way out of his own death. While observing the funeral, he thinks “So all of us must sooner or later pass.” As tedium sets in, the empty waiting, there is nothing for Grendel but the emptiness of his mechanical mother, the mechanical world, and the knowledge that all of those things will fade away. Grendel may not know what the tedium is an interlude to, but we do. Grendel’s death, and the final confirmation of the dragon, is at hand.
ReplyDelete-George
Chapter ten of “Grendel” begins with the phrase “Tedium is the worst pain”. Tedium is the noun version of the adjective tedious, meaning marked by monotony, or in other words tiresome, uniform boredom. When Grendel says “Tedium is the worst pain” he may be referring to the monotony of his current life during the winter. Grendel explained in the previous chapter how he does not raid during the winter, when the world is a corpse. He makes this decision both to preserve the population of humans, his “game”, and perhaps because the festivities of the humans during the winter are already at their low point, so he has no lessons of hopelessness to teach. As described in chapter one, Grendel’s life as a young child consisted of no friends, creatures to talk to, or any role or identity in the universe. Back then Grendel may have not considered his life monotonous because he was young and still exploring the world, but after many generations his life proved mundane. This caused him to look for new experiences, such as terrorizing Heorot. Therefore, without being able to raid on Hrothgar’s people during the winter, Grendel has momentarily lost his identity, as well as his life becoming more similar to his boring childhood, thus causing him to believe Tedium is the worst pain. Yet even when Grendel conducts his raids during the summer, spring, and fall, they must eventually prove a bit repetitive and routine. Since receiving the dragon’s charm, the thanes of Hrothgar have no knowledge or ability to defeat Grendel, so there is no feeling of risk or accomplishment when raiding. When Grendel says “Tedium is the worst pain”, may be referring to this easy and uncontested aspect of his life. However, Grendel should be careful what he wishes for. He may be excited at the prospect of having new enemies to fight, those who are tougher adversaries than the Danes. But what if Grendel finds someone who matches, or even out-matches, his own strength? -David
ReplyDeleteWhen Grendel says, "Tedium is the worst pain." He is referring to how painful it is to have someone to talk and there response is without emotion. For example when the shaper dies a lady takes his death with no reaction. Another example is Grendel’s mother she shows no feeling no response when talked to. She is mechanic like all other things. The phrase “Tedium is the worst pain” might be one of the factors why Grendel is so miserable and angry. He is in pain and cant talk to anyone so he becomes a monster. Making the people fear him is the only way he will make him self feel better even though its only for a little while.
ReplyDeleteIn this chapter, Grendel feels very alone. He is unable to raid and finds nobody to converse with. All that are within his reach are very mechanical. The goat that is climbing up the mountain is continuously climbing even when its life is in direct danger. Even when its brains are damaged and the goat should be dead, it just climbs. The only person that Grendel has ever reached out to successfully has been Unferth, yet he is just sulking away at this point. Grendel has no opportunities in the life that he has been given. He has no opportunity to be honorable or virtuous, he can only be a monster. Even though it was the shaper who unreasonably labeled Grendel as some kind of mechanical beast. Grendel is the awkward hybrid of man and monster. Is he just the force that pushes men to success or is he different. He may never know.
ReplyDeleteAdam
Ok this time I wont focus on how John Gardner fails miserably this time.
ReplyDeleteTedium is the worst pain can simply be translated to the without a purpose death comes fast. This relates to Grendel in that his whole life is spent with a purpose, when he doesn't have a purpose life becomes painful in that he has nothing to do, no one to compare to, no one to talk to.
alex
DeleteGrendel is expecting that something will happen to him because of the many signs and foreshadowing in this chapter. It seems like everyone around Grendel is warning him. Some messages are obvious, for example his mother babbling on nonsense or the old women telling a story to the children and saying, “someday he will come here”. While others are more hidden like the goat that did not stop climbing up to the meer or the Shaper’s death. Everything to Grendel has become boring, slow, and tedious. The word tedium means tiresome or monotonous. Grendel has never been so bored in his life. Everything is dull. He is waiting for something to happen even though he is nihilistic. The phrase, “Tedium is the worst pain” is exactly how he is feeling right now. He feels lonelier than ever before because nothing has been interesting. The Shaper has always had a great influence on Grendel and him dying changes a lot. The Shaper was the person who created the idea of history, he gave meaning to things that happened in the past and let the people know what it does to them now in the present. Now that he is gone, Grendel loses the chance to listen to the stories that the Shaper told. Another example is how Grendel encounters the goat. It reminds me of the time he had seen the ram because the same thing happens. He tries to get the goat to notice him, but it ignores Grendel just like the ram did. Everything is mechanical to Grendel, his mother, the goat and the ram because none have the ability to think and none of them can show feeling or emotion. Everything has become lifeless and so he waits for some kind of change to happen.
ReplyDeleteMetztli Garcia
Seeing as we're almost at chapter 12, John Gardener is upping the foreshadowing. Not only does his implementation of the goat show Grendel's failing power and dominion, but he even mentions the man "with the strength of thirty thanes." All of these hints cannot fail to pass the point that Grendel will fall across yet we also see Grendel experiencing new things. He learns of loss, a strange sensation for a monster no doubt but he learns through this the passing of time, and although he was taught this by the dragon he experiences it first hand thus having insights into it that he did not have before. With this death close at hand, he ponders what the priest said (to some extent and unintentionally) and realizes that "back then" is an allusion that references to something in the past when in reality there is nothing but the present and the things we remember, in that there is no past, only what is left in the present. .
ReplyDelete- Cameron
DeleteGrendel’s vague feelings of foreboding and anticipation intensify greatly in this chapter, while Grendel tries even harder to stamp them down. He appears to be receiving messages from the world around him. Some of these messages are blatant, like his mother’s ravings and the old woman’s pronouncement; some are more cryptic, like the goat’s mindless climb and the death of the Shaper. Everything around Grendel has become stale, dull and tedious. Despite his assertion that “there is nothing to expect,” he still finds himself awaiting a major change. The first step in that process of change is the death of the extremely influential Shaper. The Shaper’s passing not only ends an epoch for Grendel but also the very notion of history itself. The Shaper organizes historical detail in such a way that it gives meaning to the present moment. The Shaper’s glorification of Hrothgar’s ancestors, for example, legitimizes Hrothgar’s own rule. In his claim that Grendel is descended from Cain, the world’s first murderer, the Shaper employs a notion of history and lineage to justify Grendel’s extermination. Upon the Shaper’s death, Grendel finds that history has lost all its meaning. Events that occurred in the past stay in the past: neither the glorious deeds of Scyld Shefing nor Grendel’s own atrocities exists in the present moment.
ReplyDelete10. In this chapter, Grendel realizes that the world doesn’t completely revolve around him. When a stubborn goat refuses to leave his mere, he tries to yell at it to get it to move. You can’t reason with something mechanical however, due to their goal being set, and nothing will deter them from their objective. Grendel tries everything from knocking over trees, to throwing boulders at the animal to try and scare him away. However, this animal doesn’t listen to him. It doesn’t fear him in any way, and won’t be scared by him regardless of what he does. He eventually gets the goat to leave his place, but that was only when he took the life of the goat. Grendel says early in the chapter “Tedium is the worst pain.” This in my opinion means that when you are mechanical and boring, having you action controlled by instinct, that is the worst pain not being able to see past the path already set for you. When the shaper dies in this chapter, Grendel reacts opposite to how he would when he was a child. He stumbles across the wife of the shaper, and is tempted to say all things must sooner and later pass. No longer a slave to the shapers songs, he has no emotion to the death of the shaper. In Grendel’s cave, his mother is showing signs of tedium. She no longer shows any indication of humanity. She only scurries back and forth across the cave floor trying to keep Grendel inside the cave. It seems her path has been set and she has become more of animal in the way that her goal is to keep Grendel, her son, safe from harm. This tedium will eventually lead to Grendel’s death at the hands of Beowulf.
ReplyDelete~Ben Moseley
Tedium is the worse pain. In Chapter 10, the Shaper is sick and dies. Tedium is like being emotionless. Grendel saw that the old woman who was caring for the shaper had a straight, emotionless face. He wanted to grab the woman and the shaper but he resisted. In his home, his mother was emotionless when responding to her son. Grendel attended the Shaper's funeral and a speech was given about him. Also, Grendel was warned to beware of the fish (Beowulf was coming).
ReplyDeleteDear Amy,
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 10, Grendel narrates, "Tedium is the worst pain." Grendel is trying to say that boredom is the worst pain, because when there is boon, there is nothing to live for. "Tedium is the worst pain" is simply an idea of death, and having no purpose, reason or a need to live. Grendel feels disgusted at the priest who says the gods made this world for our joy. While Grendel is enraged at the statement, he discovers that the Shaper is sick. Grendel is observing a goat, and gets frustrated at the goat for trying to climb up the hill. Grendel throws rocks at him trying to stop the goat from climbing. The reason, Grendel is mad is because he is frustrated at the goat for being mechanical. And he tries to stop the goat from climbing up the hill. Just like the Shaper, Grendel is trying to shape the world, believing that the world is mechanical, and Grendel wants to fix it. However, the world does not revolve around Grendel. Grendel kills the goat by smashing the goat with the rocks. As Grendel watched the people go about their business, while Grendel notes that no one will ever strike at the kingdom. Grendel is enraged that no one will ever attack this kingdom except for him. Grendel hears a story from an old woman that someone will come and help the kingdom. This foreshadows the coming of Beowulf. The Shaper is dying in his death bed, and he listens for the footstep of a woman. The Shaper is in love with the women but the women never loved him. Then the shaper is dead. Grendel feels another sensation now that the Shaper is dead, he realizes he misses the Shaper. Grendel proves this again by wishing he could have captured and tortured the Shaper. Which proves that Grendel misses the Shaper's tales, songs and poems. Now the Shaper is dead, Grendel feels he is trapped and stuck in the present. And the only thing we have is the moment we are in right now. Grendel shows he misses the Shaper, by attending the Shaper's funeral. At the funeral, there is a new shaper sing songs, telling tales, and citing poems about the Shaper. But he is not as good as the Shaper telling tales, singing songs, and citing poems. Grendel realizes that the Shaper was important to him because he shaped everyone's fate, destiny and future. The Shaper made Hrothgar to be the king people think he is, the shaper made Grendel to be the monster, which the people are afraid of, scared of, and terrified of. Without the Shaper, Grendel would not be the monster, or the wrecker of meadhalls. Grendel feels abandoned without the Shaper to shaper their fate, destiny or future. In the end of this chapter, Grendel's mother says something for the first time, "Beware the fish!" This is particularly a warning from Grendel's mother of Beowulf. And Beowulf is the symbol of Christianity. While Grendel is nihilistic, that nothing has meaning, therefore nothing comes from nothing. However, Grendel does want meaning in the universe. In conclusion, this foreshadows Beowulf to be the origins of Christianity, who will break the belief of Grendel, that is the nihilistic view of the world. Nothing has meaning.
Sincerely,
Dylan
“Tedium is the worst pain.” That is something I could agree with in some aspects. By this, Grendel means that the state of having nothing to do, nowhere to be, no one to see wears on a person—or a “mon-stah.” Monotony takes a slow but painful toll on Grendel as he finds himself wasting the winter away. He miserably alternates between being in his home with his mother—whose sanity is deteriorating by the second—or out and about the outskirts of the town watching other people’s lives go on while his is at a standstill. The best he can find himself doing until spring comes is fending off animals from his home with stones. Fun way to spend Christmas break, am I right?
ReplyDelete—Haven
“Tedium is the worst pain.” Grendel uses Tedium, meaning boring and dull, to describe a goat and his life. Grendel is still trying to make it past the dullness of winter, when he dose not raid. In this chapter a goat begins to climb up the hill. Grendel begins to yell at the goat, telling him to use his sense, and know that there is nothing at the mere. Grendel is also mad that the goat is invading what belongs to him. Grendel recognizes that the goat moves in a mechanical matter, unable to use common sense or logic. The goat’s constant trek up the hill shows him to be mechanical, boring, and dull. Grendel also uses “tedium is the worst pain,” to describe his life and time. He describes how dull and repetitive his life is. Raid after raid and loneliness followed by more loneliness. He realizes how dull time is and how long the present feels and how dark and meaningless the past and future are. Grendel states that good deeds not exist in the past. Grendel is sick of his boring life, repetitively watching the humans fall under illusions of the shaper and religion and gain false hope about the future. Grendel wishes for some excitement in his life. Perhaps his wish will be granted.
ReplyDeleteGrendel starts chapter 10 with the idiotic statement "Tedium is the worst pain". I can't disagree more. Tedium. Tediousness. By tedium we can safely assume Grendel is speaking of the mechanical acts of things in the universe. So mechanical acts cause pain? Pah. If anything, being mechanical dulls pain! By not being mechanical, one realizes the different aspects of life, and in my opinion, how everything means nothing. But by being mechanical, one is blind to emotion, and therefore blind to emotional pain! Ignorance is bliss. Anyway, in chapter 10, Grendel throws one of his tantrums, this time smashing the brains out of a damn goat trying to climb towards him. Afterwards, Grendel again spies on the Shaper, and witnesses his peaceful death, and then visits his funeral.
ReplyDelete-Sebastian
Chapter 10 5/26 : “Tedium is the worst pain.” is what this chapter starts with. Tedium is when something is dull and is constantly repetitive. In the beginning Grendel is very upset at a goat who refuses to leave. Grendel uses the goat to serve as an example of how mechanical things are. The Shaper soon after passes away and Grendel’s reaction is realization that everyone at some point in time dies. He finds this to be very mechanical. Grendel is disappointed with how repetitive and dull things always are for him. Something is going to happen to Grendel and it’ll change him.
ReplyDelete- Stephanie Medina
Tedium is the worst kind of pain because it's an emotionless or mechanical state. Throughout the whole book and Grendel's life it's been in tedium. Two major examples that occur in this chapter and demonstrate this state is when the shaper dies and everyone including the king, hrothgar are all emotionless. Another example is Grendel's mother and the way that she acts but mostly in the way that she talks.
ReplyDeleteGrendel reaches the height of his frustration in this chapter, as he fails to contain himself even when a goat tries mechanically to climb atop a cliff. The Shaper, the man who made life worth living for Grendel, is now dead, and Grendel finds himself at square one yet again. He feels conquered by the world, the endless, mechanical, horrible cycle of life that he takes part in each year. He is beyond defeated. Now realizing that he is for the hundredth time, living alone and without meaning, he falls into the chasm, not the one he dreamed of falling into, but the chasm of his own, deep thought. Suffering has a stronger hold on him by this point than it ever has, and the worst part is, for him, that he totally aware of it.
ReplyDelete-julian
"tediam is the worst kind of pain" is Grendals life is mechanical everything has a reason. example: when the shaper died grendal has a downward spiral and gets depressed. grendal realizes he can never talk to or understand her.
ReplyDelete~Osgood