"Seek out gold and guard it" advises the Dragon, in a stunning chapter that peels back Grendel's skin (metaphorically speaking but close enough for what happens). Grendel has become infatuated with the Speaker's songs of God, beauty, and heroism, yearning to find a place in such a world, wanting to believe it may be true. Yet experience---bitter, painful attacks when he comes in peace to Hrothgar's mead-hall, his knowledge of men's drunkenness, avarice and cruelty, his mother clasping him in bristly embraces with her only endearments ("Dool-dool")---tells him the Speaker's words ain't necessarily so.
An avatar of nihilism, the Dragon, who claims omniscience of past, present, and future, eloquently, lengthily and vividly tells Grendel that the Speaker's world is all illusion. Not only that, but the whole experiential world will be destroyed over and over again. No meaning therefore in anything but "Seek out gold--not MY gold---and guard it."
The writing in this central section of "Grendel" is brilliant, startling in imagery and in the shakingly convincing dialog. For example, "The color of his scales darkened and brightened as the dragon inhaled and exhaled slowly, drawing new air across his vast internal furnace." "Stand aside, boy," he orders. "I get a cough now and then and it is terrifying in front." As Grendel feels true fear, the Dragon bitterly remarks, "Now you know how THEY feel when they see YOU, eh? Scared enough to pee in their pants! He he!...You didn't, did you."
The book loosely follows the "Beowulf" text. Beowulf's landing, the interchange with Hrothgar's coast guard, his chilling icy interchanges in the mead hall----and the grip that Grendal has never before felt and his pain as his arm is torn, his anguished flight to the edge of the sea----these become more real than your own intake of breath.
Yes, the characterizations are enormously full and rich; the arc of the story compelling; the interweaving with "Beowulf" enriching---and the whole of this marvelous book much more than the sum of its parts as readers may reflect on their own conversations with the Dragon.
Any Reader Alerts? The art was, for me, somewhat distracting. Grendel on the cover looks a bit like a meerkat with fangs. The chapter headings art style is cross-hatch close-ups: interesting artistically, somewhat difficult to sort out visually. This perhaps reflects the complex arguments within "Grendel." Not a deal-breaker for me. Some readers might find this a fascinating part of the over-all tale.
(Tolkein was a "Beowulf" expert. Smaug in "The Hobbit" reflects the dragon in "Beowulf" and Wagner also recapitulates the Dragon's role and gold in the Rings.)
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