An unnamed narrator (soon revealed as Grendel) observes a ram in the distance and compares him to “an elderly, slow-witted king” (5). When the ram ignores the narrator’s orders to leave him in peace, the narrator grows frustrated and wails out loud, scaring himself and freezing the water under his feet. Disgusted, he remarks that “so begins the twelfth year of my idiotic war” (5)—but he does not yet elaborate on this “war.”

The narrator addresses the reader directly, warning the reader not to compare the ram to the narrator. The narrator criticizes the ram for responding to springtime with “the same unrest” (6) that the ram feels every year. The narrator raises his middle finger to the sky and explains that he resents the sky as much as he hates the natural world he observes around him.

The narrator refers to himself as a “[p]ointless, ridiculous monster” (6) who smells of death. He starts to cry and falls to the ground as the sun moves over his head. The signs of springtime remind the monster of the times in the past when he killed humans and ate their corpses. Now in a reflective mood, he ponders the fact that “[i]t was not always like this, of course” (7).