Truth

What is "truth"? Is it something that is based of evidence? Or how one perceives truth? The theme of "truth" reoccurs throughout Grendel and can sometimes be ambiguous. Grendel's knowledge is undeveloped and unsure, thus leading him to believing anything to become true. In his first encounter with the Shaper, he and Hrothgar's people have been exposed to the Shaper's songs. Because of the Shaper's ability to recite stories in such a mesmerizing way, those with lack of knowledge or understanding are susceptible to regard these stories as the "truth". Are these stories and songs actually true? Maybe? Maybe not? Throughout time, oral traditions are passed down from generation to generation, slowly changing its original context. Perhaps, they have changed so much, that they evolve into complete lies, just to satisfy kings and heroes. One of the Shaper's apparent feature is that he is blind, which emphasizes this idea of his stories as being unoriginal or possibly inaccurate. Later on, Grendel goes to the dragon for answers to his questions. Upon this encounter with the dragon, Grendel's view of the "truth" complete changes. The dragon explains how human's perception of the world is consisted of small individual knowledge that links up to a larger understanding. Sooner or later, this bigger picture will become nonsense and this is where the Shaper comes into play. The Shaper uses his ability to develop his own idea of from these nonsense into something real for others. But like the Shaper, why does Grendel believe the dragon? The dragon's controlling and authoritative tone may have frightened Grendel into believing him. In the end, Grendel seeks his own "truth" of the world.