Marvin Alhaddad, Period 5, 3/25/21, Day B

Marvin Alhaddad
3/25/21
Period 5
Modern Mythology 2021


John Gardner’s Grendel is a retelling of Beowulf, an Old English poem about Beowulf, a hero who comes to the aid of King Hrothgar and slays the monster Grendel who has been attacking his mead hall, Herot. Gardner’s story is told from the perspective of Grendel, the original antagonist who is now made to be an antihero. Grendel tackles many issues that were very prevalent in both Gardner’s personal life and the time period in which the story was written, and many can even be connected to the present day. The main topic in Chapter 8, our most recent reading, was government and violence. The chapter opens with the introduction of a new character, Hrothgar’s newly-orphaned nephew, Hrothulf. Grendel describes Hrothulf as “quiet as the moon, sweet scorpion…” indicating that he seems unsuspecting and even sweet on the outside, as a young boy would, but that he also has the potential to do great harm. One day, Hrothulf is in the yard watching the peasants work and live in horrible conditions, all while mindlessly continuing to praise Hrothgar. He wonders, for example, why a bread thief is punished by death while a thane who has murdered gets away with a much less severe punishment.

Eventually, Grendel recounts the discussions Hrothulf had with an old peasant man, nicknamed Red Horse. Red Horse is a very interesting character. He explains to Hrothulf the many ways in which kingdoms (governments) are inherently “monstrously evil.” He claims that they pretend to work for the community, but in reality only serve to protect those already in power and push others down. They maintain this system through “legitimate violence,” which is essentially standard violence but used in a way that the government tries to justify. Red Horse tells him that the state validates its power by claiming to use it to maintain order. Whether it’s policing and the army, or other things like prisons, tax collectors, and judges. Red Horse asserts that no matter the circumstance, all systems and governments are evil, but that he’s ready to serve Hrothulf in destroying one.

The symbolism of “Red Horse” can be seen in both the Bible and US History. In US History, Red Horse, a Lakota Chief, played a significant role in the Battle of Little Bighorn. This battle took place between US troops and Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors after the US army ignored previous treaty agreements and invaded their territory. Grendel’s Red Horse would act similarly against the US government since they tried to justify their want for gold in that region with “legitimate violence.” The similarity to the Bible’s second horseman, however, is more striking to me. Whereas the example from history shows Chief Red Horse to be working towards good, the Biblical Red Horse symbolizes war. The reason why I see this as more fitting for Grendel’s Red Horse is because he ironically encourages Hrothulf to start a revolution, even reassuring him that he will help him directly. But by his own logic, a revolution only stands to allow for a new corrupt government to take the place of the old one, so you would expect Red Horse to not bother with it. This is where I see the connection to the Biblical Red Horse in that they both simply want war and divide to ensue. This also leads into yet another connection between Red Horse and the Dragon. He may have the same nihilistic view of life as the Dragon and decided that no matter what happens, there will always end up being a government in place and it will always be corrupt. Instead of standing idly by as one system transitions to the next, he may have decided that his purpose in life is to be a direct part of that transition, which explains why he still wants to help Hrothulf overthrow Hrothgar.

Taking a step back from the symbolisms and looking more closely at the idea of corrupt governments again, we can see multiple connections to our own government. Of course, there was the example with Chief Red Horse in the late nineteenth century, but there are much more recent examples that continue to affect people in the present day. The most pronounced example of this is redlining, which began in the 1930s. In simple terms, redlining was a method that indicated in which areas was it favorable for a bank to lend. When it came to choosing areas, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) labeled neighborhoods with white people as green areas and those with black people as red areas, and were usually ineligible for backing from the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). Redlining’s effects became most significant in the 1960s to 1970s, and even after a law prohibiting discrimination concerning housing was established in 1968, the damage had been long done. Many of those neighborhoods still have some of the highest poverty rates in New York. Attempts to revert these effects in other areas through gentrification has led to some of the initial inhabitants being displaced by people who can afford it, which still leaves the problem of an extremely large gap between the rich and the poor. In many ways, the issues brought to light in Grendel highlight many controversies that plagued our society both in the past, and the effects of many of those issues continue to plague us even today.