English IV – Grendel

Chapter 5 Discussion & Analysis

1. How is the dragon’s mind – in particular the way he perceives time – different from Grendel’s (or for that matter ours) (63)?

·  The dragon says he knows everything, and that it’s this knowledge that makes him “so sick and old and tired,” (61). Why do you think all knowledge would have this effect?

2. Look at what the dragon says on page 64. In your opinion, what is it that humans attempt to do when they “map out roads through Hell with…crackpot theories,” and compile, “here-to-the-moon-and-back lists of paltry facts.” The dragon refers to this as insanity.

·  What does the dragon think about the shaper (65)?

3. What is the dragon’s point about magnitude on page 66?

4. Explicate the following passage: “The essence of life is to be found in the frustration of established order. The universe refuses the deadening influence of complete conformity. And yet in its refusal, it passes toward novel order as a primary requisite for important experience,” (67 – 68).

5. Explicate the following passage: “importance is derived from the immanence of infinitude in the finite,” (68).

6. What is the dragon’s point about the rock and the man on page 69?

7. How is it that, according to the dragon, Grendel is good for mankind?

8. In light of all that the dragon (seemingly) knows, what do you make of his only advice to Grendel, that Grendel, “seek out gold and sit on it,” (74).

English IV – Grendel

Chapter 5 Discussion & Analysis

1. How is the dragon’s mind – in particular the way he perceives time – different from Grendel’s (or for that matter ours) (63)?

·  The dragon says he knows everything, and that it’s this knowledge that makes him “so sick and old and tired,” (61). Why do you think all knowledge would have this effect?

2. Look at what the dragon says on page 64. In your opinion, what is it that humans attempt to do when they “map out roads through Hell with…crackpot theories,” and compile, “here-to-the-moon-and-back lists of paltry facts.” The dragon refers to this as insanity.

·  What does the dragon think about the shaper (65)?

3. What is the dragon’s point about magnitude on page 66?

4. Explicate the following passage: “The essence of life is to be found in the frustration of established order. The universe refuses the deadening influence of complete conformity. And yet in its refusal, it passes toward novel order as a primary requisite for important experience,” (67 – 68).

5. Explicate the following passage: “importance is derived from the immanence of infinitude in the finite,” (68).

6. What is the dragon’s point about the rock and the man on page 69?

7. How is it that, according to the dragon, Grendel is good for mankind?

8. In light of all that the dragon (seemingly) knows, what do you make of his only advice to Grendel, that Grendel, “seek out gold and sit on it,” (74).