Grendel, what is he?

The protagonist of the book. Grendel is depicted sympathetically, as a powerful adolescent seeking his place in the world, but whom no one can understand. The entire novel is told from Grendel's point of view, although Gardner uses Grendel's superhuman qualities to describe events and emotions that a first person narrator could not otherwise have realistically seen or perceived.

Grendel is a novel driven by the main character's sense of isolation. Grendel cannot relate to his mother, whom he considers little more than a brute beast, nor can he make himself understood by the humans he encounters, even though he understands their speech. Grendel is a perpetual outsider, looking for a place to belong. His high-handed search for philosophical meaning is ultimately one more attempt to know who he is and where he belongs.