Getting What You Deserve.

According to John Gardner's Grendel, it is Hrothgar who draws first blood. And like any great reference to Rambo, it is expected that the retaliation be spectacular. Gruesome. And final.

Yes, in this story, King Hrothgar strikes first. As he stares up into a tree in which a juvenile Grendel is stuck by the ankle, he ponders some pseudo-religious reason for the tree-spirit-fungus to be angry and then, without any direct provocation, he takes a friend's war-axe and chucks it at Grendel's shoulder.

Yikes!!! Waaaa indeed, gentle reader.

So the root of all the trouble is Hrothgar's hasty turn to violence. Yet it is Grendel who sustains the destruction for twelve "idiotic" years. Who is to blame for this awful scenario, the one who starts it or the one who finishes it?

Now technically, Grendel doesn't finish anything. I mean, he's still attacking a shriveled kingdom by the time Beowulf arrives to clean up the mess. But he has ended other things, like Hrothgar's hope, the Danes' place in the world, and many, many family trees. Surely he is to blame for all the madness, right? Because he would not relent even when he could. Surely, after a certain breaking point, we allow Hrothgar off the hook?

No way. The blame stays with the king. Accountability, baby. Before you disagree and say that's too harsh, consider what it would take for you to throw a battle-axe at someone. Literally or otherwise. Perhaps this level of forethought is not optional after all? Indeed, if I was targeting such an uncertain thing with such a certain degree of poison, then I would deserve every bit of reprisal that came my way. I would not like it, but then that is not what deserving is all about.