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Grendel is a descendant of the biblical Cain, the first murderer. In Beowulf, Grendel haunts Heorot, the mead-hall of the Danes, and eats men too drunk to defend themselves. Beowulf leaves Geatland to defeat the monster bare-handed.

Later, Grendel's mother, who is more powerful than Grendel, attempts to take revenge for the death of her son, but is killed by Beowulf.

The same story appears in Hrólf Kraki's saga. Beowulf's cognate Bödvar Bjarki leaves Geatland and arrives at the Danish court. There he kills a beast that has been terrorizing the Danes for two years.

Related Works

• Kennings for Grendel in the poem include "powerful monster", "herdsman of evil" "moor stepper," "demon corpse," and "guardian of crime".
• John C. Gardner's Grendel is the Beowulf story from Grendel's point of view.
• Marillion have an early epic song named Grendel, which, according to then-singer Fish, was influenced by Gardner's book.
• Larry Niven and Steven Barnes' novel The Legacy of HeorotThe Legacy of Heorot is a science fiction novel written in 1987 by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes. Noted reproduction and fertility expert Dr Jack Cohen acted as a consultant on the book, designing the novel life cycle of the alien protago is, to an extent, a retelling of the poem, on an extraterrestrial world.
• Matt WagnerMatt Wagner is an American writer and artist of comic books. He is noted for creating the series Mage and Grendel''.'s GrendelGrendel is a long-running series of comic books originally created by author Matt Wagner. First published by Comico, the property has now passed to Dark Horse. Originally a noir comic concerning a criminal mastermind, it has evolved into, in Wagner's word is a comic series focussing upon the force of evil.
• Michael CrichtonJohn Michael Crichton (born October 23, 1942) is an author and producer. His best-known works are science fiction: novels, films and television programs. His genre can be best described as techno-thriller which is usually the marriage of action and techni's Eaters of the Dead (filmed as The 13th WarriorThe 13th Warrior ( 1999) is an action film based on Michael Crichton's novel Eaters of the Dead directed by Crichton with John McTiernan, and starring Antonio Banderas as Ahmed ibn Fahdlan ( Amad ibn Faln) and Vladimir Kulich as Buliwyf ( Beowulf). The fr) is a retelling of the Beowulf story though the eyes of a 10th century Muslim, Ibn Fadlan. In Crichton's version, "Grendel" is a tribe of cannibalistic Neanderthals.
• In the strange sci-fi update movie of 1999 starring Christophe Lambert, Grendel is played by Vincent Hammond as a bizarre blue blur.