In John Gardner’s novel Grendel, the monster’s questions are answered by the Dragon.
Gardner’s 1971 novel retells the Beowulf story from the viewpoint of Grendel. During Grendel’s search for meaning, he visits a powerful dragon who offers a bleak, materialistic interpretation of existence. The encounter influences Grendel’s later behavior and his relationship with the humans in Hrothgar’s kingdom.
Gardner does not give this character a personal name such as Smaug or Fafnir. The figure is identified simply as “the Dragon,” a title that emphasizes his role as a philosophical and supernatural presence rather than as a conventional named hero.
The novel’s dragon is therefore easy to misidentify with famous dragons from Norse or fantasy literature. Grendel itself is a modern literary response to the Old English epic Beowulf, not a retelling of one single Norse dragon tale.