It is not stated in the text that this is the direct
reason for Grendel's malevolence, although it is made clear that Gredel's evil is the
result of hatred for the Christian God, and the Geats' suffering is partly a result of
their ignorance of him. About Grendel it is said: "[The] land of marsh-monsters/ the
wretched creature ruled for a time/since him the Creator had condemned/with the kin of
Cain; this murder avenged/the eternal Lord/in which he slew Abel;/this feud he did not
enjoy/ for He drove him far away,/the Ruler, for this crime, from Mankind;/thence
unspeakable offspring all awoke/ogres and elves and spirits from he underworld/also
giants who strove with God/for an interminable
season..."
In other words, the narrator adds to the
biblical account of Cain, the son of Adam who was cursed and cast out by God for killing
his brother Abel, by stating that in his exile Cain fathered a line of grotesque
monsters, including Grendel, who were evil and at enmity with God, and who shared in the
curse of Cain. It is implied that Grendel's attacks on Heorot were partly motivated by
desire to feed on humans and partly by envy of their happiness: "he that dwelt in
darkness,/he that every day heard noise of revelry/ loud in the hall; there was the
harmony of the harp/ the sweet song of the poet..." Grendels general evil seems to be
fueled in part by jealousy of the human joys which he, in his cursed and outcast state,
is denied. But it is also not implied that he takes into account who they
worship.
The Geats, on the other hand, while not evil and
cursed as Grendel is, are not worshipers of the God whom the narrator believes in
either. They are described as heathens; when the attacks begin they offer sacrifices and
vows to their gods, without a good result, and thus are driven to despair: "such was
their habit:/the hope of heathens; on Hell they pondered/in the depths of their hearts;
the Creator they did not know,/the Judge of deeds, they were not aware of the Lord
God/nor yet they the Helm of the Heavens were able to
honor..."
Thus we see that the Geats have no hope for
relief in part because they don't worship the right god. Thus, to sum up in answer to
your question, while it can be said that Grendel's malice is caused by hatred of the
Christian God, and also that the Geats are defenseless against him because they do not
worship this same God, there is nothing in the text to support the idea that Grendel
terrorized Heorot specifically because he thought they worshiped the wrong god. Such a
notion sounds a little too principled for a monster like Grendel, in my
opinion.
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