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You get the goss with a verdict, a score out of 10, and the sources to check us.

Do we like Grendel?

A character from Beowulf (c. 700–750)

Our score: 1 out of 10. No. He's a night-time raider who terrorises a whole kingdom for years. His outcast status is sad, but it doesn't excuse what he does.

In the Old English poem Beowulf, King Hrothgar builds Heorot, a great hall for feasting and song. Grendel is a monster who lives in the fens and is descended from the biblical Cain. The noise of the celebrations enrages him.

He attacks the hall by night and carries off warriors to eat. The attacks go on for years and leave the Danes helpless. The poem gives him little physical description and does not say clearly whether he is a monster or a giant. Mostly he is a force of dread and exile.

He scores low because the poem shows him as a relentless killer with no mercy and no remorse. Later retellings, such as John Gardner's 1971 novel Grendel, tell the story from his side and make him more sympathetic. The original poem does not.

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Our take, from what the sources we read say on the day we checked. It can miss things; tap a source to read it.