Many aspects of Grendel provoke thoughts and spark philosophical ideals in the mind of the reader. The author, John Gardner, described Grendel using the following quote: "One of the most exciting things in a great work of art is that it makes the reader realize things he didn't know before - about himself and the world.  In a mere one hundred and seventy-four pages, Gardner attempted to cover the span of mankind using the twelve signs of the zodiac as an outline for the twelve chapters of the book. It is a stretch, but it does successfully make the reader rethink their own previous moral philosophies. The character of Grendel was first introduced to the literary world in Beowulf, a fantasy epic originally written in Old English around a thousand years ago. In Beowulf, Grendel was depicted as a vicious monster that ruthlessly killed King Hrothgar's men. Grendel was slain by Beowulf and as a result Beowulf was shown as the brave hero who saved the Danes. Gardner's novel, Grendel, offers a different point of view; that of Grendel, showing how he started off innocent but came to be a beastly killer. In the beginning of Grendel, he was an innocent, unfortunate creature who was still figuring out and categorizing the world around him. He was very attached to his mother, but when he was attacked by a bull and she did not come to his aid, Grendel realized that the world is a place of nothing but brute violence and he alone exists, while everything else is what he pushes against or what pushes back against him [22]. Throughout the novel, Grendel continued to make realizations as to what the world truly is. Upon meeting the dragon, however, Grendel's existential ideas are made fully clear to him. The reader sees Grendel's beliefs and philosophy unravel throughout the novel, with two concrete staples: the dragon and the Shaper. When Grendel first met the dragon, the dragon told him he is further evolved and can see all of time and space, inclu