Cain and Abel. In the novel, the Shaper sings of an "ancient feud between brothers which split the world between darkness and light."(Gardner 51). Grendel was part of the "dark side...the terrible race that God cursed"(Gardner 51). Even Grendel's mother presents herself as "guilty of some unremembered, perhaps ancestral kind." The curse put on the descendents of Cain contributes to the novel's theme of fate versus free will.
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