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Grendel: Chapters 6–8

In this retelling, the monster from the Old English epic Beowulf, shares his own story.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–3, Chapters 4–5, Chapters 6–8, Chapters 9–12
40 words 569 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

  1. pervasive
    spreading or spread throughout
    Futility, doom, became a smell in the air, pervasive and acrid as the dead smell after a forest fire—my scent and the world’s, the scent of trees, rocks, waterways wherever I went.
  2. straggler
    someone who strays or falls behind
    I killed stragglers now and then—with a certain grim pleasure very different from that which I got from cracking a cow’s skull—but I’d never yet struck at the hall, hadn’t even revealed myself there—except on that one ridiculous night when I walked up and tried to join them.
  3. bumptious
    offensively self-assertive
    It enraged me. It was their confidence, maybe—their blissful, swinish ignorance, their bumptious self-satisfaction, and, worst of all, their hope.
  4. oblivious
    lacking conscious awareness of
    I felt laughter welling up inside me—at the dragon-charm, at Hrothgar’s whispering and trembling by the meadhall door, at everything—the oblivious trees and sky, the witless moon.
  5. vanquish
    defeat in a competition, race, or conflict
    And now at last the grim laughter came pouring out, as uncontrollable as the dragon’s laugh, and I wanted to say, “Lo, God has vanquished mine enemies!”
  6. interminable
    tiresomely long; seemingly without end
    I stood waiting, bent forward with my feet apart, flat-footed, till they ended their interminable orations.
  7. tentative
    hesitant or lacking confidence; unsettled in mind or opinion
    He took a tentative step toward me, then paused, holding his sword out and shaking it.
  8. sidle
    move unobtrusively or furtively
    An evil idea came over me—so evil it made me shiver as I smiled—and I sidled across to the table.
  9. indignant
    angered at something unjust or wrong
    He looked hurt and slightly indignant.
  10. barrage
    the heavy fire of artillery to saturate an area
    And now I was raining apples at him and laughing myself weak. He covered his head, roaring at me. He tried to charge through the barrage, but he couldn’t make three feet.
  11. fester
    generate pus
    His face and throat and arms were a crosshatch of festering cuts, the leavings of the firesnakes.
  12. trinket
    a small cheap ornament, knickknack, or piece of jewelry
    All very well to talk about dignity and noble language and all the rest, as if heroism were a golden trinket, mere outward show, and hollow.
  13. insinuation
    an indirect (and usually malicious) implication
    “Oh, I heard what you said. I caught your nasty insinuations. ‘I thought heroes were only in poetry,’ you said. Implying that what I’ve made of myself is mere fairytale stuff.”
  14. reedy
    thin and high-pitched in tone
    A little of his voice came back, so that he no longer had to whisper but could bring out his words in a slightly reedy whine.
  15. portent
    a sign of something about to happen
    Three dead trees on the moor below, burned up alive by lightning, are ominous portents.
  16. feign
    make believe with the intent to deceive
    “Over here!" he screams. Waves his arms. They hesitate, feign deafness, ride away north.
  17. nihilism
    complete denial of established authority and institutions
    I have not committed the ultimate act of nihilism: I have not killed the queen.
  18. decimate
    kill in large numbers
    It was the second year of my raiding. The army of the Scyldings was weakened, decimated.
  19. vassal
    a person who owes allegiance and service to a feudal lord
    Then, from all corners of Hrothgar’s sphere of influence and from towns beyond—the vassalsvassals—an army began to form.
  20. blighted
    affected by something that prevents growth or prosperity
    The grass, the withering leaves were full of whispering, but the campground was hushed, muffled by their presence, as if blighted.
  21. swath
    a path or strip (also figurative)
    I followed their trail—footprints, hoofprints, and wagon ruts cutting a wide dirty swath toward the east.
  22. retainer
    a person working in the service of another
    The young king came out, well armed, leading a bear and six retainers.
  23. shrewd
    good at tricking people to get something
    You’re crafty, lord of the Helmings. A king shrewd with words can mount a great army on promises.
  24. ruddy
    of the color between orange and purple in the color spectrum
    Her smooth long hair was as red as fire and soft as the ruddy sheen on dragon’s gold.
  25. grovel
    show submission or fear
    I could see myself leaping from my high tree and running on all fours through the crowd to her, howling, whimpering, throwing myself down, drooling and groveling at her small, fur-booted feet.
  26. tedious
    using or containing too many words
    For several days both sides made speeches, long-winded, tediously poetic, all lies, and then, with much soft weeping and sniffling, the Scyldings loaded up Wealtheow and the lesser beauties, made a few last touching observations, and went home.
  27. simper
    smile in an insincere, unnatural, or coy way
    So the lady below would give, had given, her life for those she loved. So would any simpering, eyelash-batting female in her court, given the proper setup, the minimal conditions.
  28. relinquish
    part with a possession or right
    Hrothgar went back to his high, carved chair, relinquishing the bowl to the noblest of his thanes, and sat like an old man listening inside his mind to the voices of his childhood.
  29. phantasm
    something existing in perception only
    I would kill her and teach them reality. Grendel the truth-teacher, phantasm-tester!
  30. dappled
    having spots or patches of color
    Its dappled, high-crowned roadways make
    safe homes for birds; quick squirrels run
    the veins of its treasure-giving hand;
    but the ground below is dead.
  31. rhetoric
    using language effectively to please or persuade
    She touches my hair and smiles, kind,
    trusting the rhetoric of love: Give
    and get.
  32. mayhem
    violent and needless disturbance
    Murder and mayhem are the life and soul of revolution.
  33. serf
    (Middle Ages) a person who is bound to the land and owned by the feudal lord
    The old serf laughed.
  34. coercive
    serving or intended to force
    Public force is the life and soul of every state: not merely army and police but prisons, judges, tax collectors, every conceivable trick of coercive repression.
  35. prattle
    idle or foolish and irrelevant talk
    Who can look into the wet-mouthed smiles of children and see a meadhall burning, or listen past their musical prattle to the midnight roar of fire?
  36. transmogrify
    change completely the nature or appearance of
    The civilization he meant to build has transmogrified to a forest thick with traps.
  37. ordeal
    a severe or trying experience
    She even understands—more terrible, no doubt, than all the rest—old Hrothgar’s knowledge that peace must be searched through ordeal upon ordeal, with no final prospect but failure.
  38. profoundly
    to a great depth psychologically
    Lesson on lesson they’ve suffered through, recognizing, more profoundly each time, their indignity, shame, triviality.
  39. impute
    attribute to a cause or source
    I have thought up a horrible dream to impute to Hrothgar.
  40. infinitesimal
    immeasurably small
    A black tree with a double trunk—two trees
    Grown into one—throws up its blurred branches.

    The two trunks in their infinitesimal dance of growth
    Have turned completely about one another, their join
    A slowly twisted scar.
Created on Sun Nov 08 19:00:55 EST 2015 (updated Mon Jul 03 17:31:01 EDT 2023)

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