Both Uses of
futile
in
Grendel
- The dogs fall silent at the edge of my spell, and where the king's hall surmounts the town, the blind old Shaper, harp clutched tight to his fragile chest, stares futilely down, straight at me.†
Chpt 1
- Futility, doom, became a smell in the air,
Chpt 6 *futility = the pointlessness of effort (because it is sure to fail)
Definition:
-
(futile) effort that is pointless because it is unproductive or unsuccessful