Grendel as drawn by J.R. SkeltonBeowulf's author often uses substitute phrases for Grendel's name like this one, the mearc stapa ("mark-stepper"), an inhabitant of the borderland.
In the poem, Grendel is feared by all but Beowulf, who kills him and his mother at the end of the poem. He is the descendant of the biblical murderer Cain.[1]
Grendel, a novel by John C. Gardner, was published in 1971. It tells much of the Beowulf story as if Grendel himself were talking.[3]
