Grendel cover art

Grendel

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Grendel

By: John Gardner
Narrated by: George Guidall
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

This classic and much lauded retelling of Beowulf follows the monster Grendel as he learns about humans and fights the war at the center of the Anglo Saxon classic epic.

The first and most terrifying monster in English literature, from the great early epic Beowulf, tells his own side of the story in this frequently banned book. This is the novel William Gass called “one of the finest of our contemporary fictions.”

“An extraordinary achievement.”—New York Times

©1971 John Gardner (P)1997 Recorded Books Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Historical History & Culture Science Fiction & Fantasy Classics Magic Witty Emotionally Gripping Mythology

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Monstrous Child cover art
The Sound and the Fury cover art
Parzival cover art
Beowulf cover art
Damiano cover art
The Silmarillion cover art
Dead Souls cover art
Wolfsangel cover art
Njál's Saga cover art
Stalking the Shadows cover art
Loki Ragnarok cover art
A Tale of Two Cities cover art
Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh cover art
The Brothers Karamazov [Naxos AudioBooks Edition] cover art
The Sum of All Men cover art
Three Hearts and Three Lions cover art

Critic reviews

"George Guidall masterfully impersonates the grumbling momma's boy with deliciously sly humor and mock-tragic grandeur. Without ever striking a false note, he maintains throughout such a perfect balance of crudity and poetry that we laugh, cringe and weep all at once." ( AudioFile)
All stars
Most relevant  
I just couldn't get into the story, got half way and gave up, not my style

Not for me

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beowulf story from Grendels perspective. Very stream of consciousness at times, but also enjoyable. A different take on the saga

Interesting work of literature

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
beautiful story and incredibly touching narration
i love the percpective this story gives into what it is to be different and to feel mobstrous

Grendel

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved all the descriptions given to characters, the environment and seeing the world from Grendels perspective was really interesting. I enjoyed the first part and last part of the novel but around the middle of the book i thought it trailed off. Also I think the fight with Beowulf at the end was slightly rushed and would’ve liked to seen more of him, or a critique of him- although Gardner had already critiqued the role of the ‘hero’. We don’t learn a lot about Gredels early life and I would’ve preferred this over the commentary of good/ evil, purpose of life and so forth given by the dragon. But all in all it was fantastically written and made me want to read more about Anglo/Saxon period.

Conclusions

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.