Chapter 10-Nihil ex nihilo

The last sentence in Grendel  "nihil ex nihilo, I always" (Gardner).So, not being a premier authority on philosophy which I presume the statement correspond to I decided to do a little background research (I admit this included a brief reference to wikipedia). Translated to English the statement reads "nothing comes from nothing" (sounds so existentialist right,. Ill touch on that shortly). Apparently, this is a philosophical idea by Parmenides, a Greek philosopher who also wrote that reality (or "what is") is one, change is impossible, and existence is timeless, uniform, necessary and unchanging (contrasts to the dragon!). The Greek people also believed that things cannot vanish into nothingness and nothing is created from nothing it is transformed into another something. This all inclusive  (and exclusive for that matter) theory is a lot to contemplate along with existentialist ideals but I will take a crack at it. The webster dictionary defines the phrase as, "from nothing nothing is produced". What I get from this is more so that everything is connected than the meaninglessness of life. Every thing and being in existence is due to a transformation of being from something else. For instance, a really simple example is when a baby is born. This child comes from a man and a woman and not out of pure immaculate conception. The transform of energy from one thing to another is what connects everything. In existentialism (specifically nihilist theory), there is an emphasis that life has no meaning; however, for the individual nihilism presents the opportunity for them to create their own meaning of life. It also asserts the idea that "I am nothing". In the context of the book, Grendel struggles with finding his identity and identifying himself with his surroundings. He faces many different opposing views on existence and its purpose from the Shaper and the dragon that cause his internal conflict.