Beowulf and Grendel’s Mother

Summary of Beowulf

In the epic poem Beowulf, written by an Anglo-saxon poet, the titular warrior and king of Geatland Beowulf searches for the legacy that will cement his name as a hero. Throughout the poem he undergoes many battles with monsters that later creates his everlasting legacy. The first quest he encounters helps Hrothgar, the King of Danes, to defeat the terror of the monster Grendel. Eventually, Beowulf defeats Grendel in a battle at Herot Hall. Despite the defeat, Grendel’s mother then attacks Herot Hall, which leads to the following quest of conquering her as well in her cave with her own sword. The final quest takes place many years later as he must confront a dragon in his realm of Geatland. The dragon loses the battle, but unfortunately Beowulf loses his life after the quarrel. Regardless of his death, the people commemorate his name because of all he did.

Religious Shift during Beowulf

During the creation of this epic poem, a reformation of religion occurred. A religious shift from Paganism to Christianity drastically impacted the synthesis of Beowulf and the monsters that he encounters. Within the Christian religion, negative perspectives towards women and sex arose as the church taught “that a spiritual man should practice self-denial and the repression of all things of the body so that he might approach a state of purity while women, the weaker sex, were incapable of such self-restraint and must be controlled by men” (Ewing 14). Meanwhile, in Paganism, women were “near equal companions to males in their lives, such as husbands and brothers” (Fell).  As stated previously, the monster represents the society’s conflicts at the time. After Beowulf’s first victory against the monster Grendel, he faces his mother. With that said, Grendel’s Mother takes the brunt of the representation of the religious and social changes within the Anglo-saxon time period as she represents the clash of both religions.

Textual Analysis

Once Beowulf’s conquest of Grendel occurred,

“…it became clear,
Obvious to everyone that the fight once the fight was over, 
That an avenger lurked and was still alive,
Grimly biding time. Grendel’s mother…” (1255-1259)

The first name that describes Grendel’s mother is: ‘avenger’, which implies the pre-christian ideals of a pagan society as “revenge was powerfully built into Anglo-Saxon cultural expectations:  if someone killed one of your family members, you were obligated to return the favor by killing them or one of their family members” (Oldrieve). However, only a few lines later, the mention of Cain appears–a Christian figure–as the narrator states, 

“[Grendel’s mother] had been forced down into fearful waters,
The cold depths, after Cain had killed 
His father’s son… And from Cain there sprang
Misbegotten spirits, among them Grendel” (1260-1266)

The narrator associates Cain, the first son of Adam and Eve and the killer of his brother, with Grendel and Grendel’s mother, which adds to the blending of both religions found in Grendel’s mother. To add on to the conflicting ideals of both religions represented in Grendel’s mother, she ultimately ends up expressing a monstrous idea from both religions.

View Through Christian Lens

 In Christianity, as men view women as temptresses, Grendel’s mother embodies that characteristic as she lures Beowulf into her cave in the ‘fearful waters’. The underwater cave symbolizes both fertility and femininity, drawing Beowulf in to defeat the temptress. The word fearful that associates itself with the cave adds to the idea that where femininity resides men should be afraid of it. In order to defeat her, however, Beowulf uses a phallic symbol: “a blade that boded well/ a sword in her armory…so huge and heavy of itself/ only Beowulf could wield in it battle” (1557-1562). The sexual connotations of the battle leads to the idea that Grendel’s mother personifies the sin that women provide within Christianity.

Views Through Pagan Lens

On the other hand, Paganism, and the idea of revenge leads to reading Grendel’s mother not as a sinful temptress, but as an empathetic mother who lost her son. As Paganism is a polytheistic minded religion, one of the goddesses they worshipped is the goddess Danu. Danu “is often honored as a primal mother, or progenitor of life” (Daimler). Motherhood is already seen as the only name the monster is honored as is ‘Grendel’s mother’. This idealization of motherhood shows when the narrator states: “his mother had sallied forth on a savage journey, grief racked and ravenous” (1276-1277). Playing on sympathy, the grief-stricken mother who lost her son shows strength in wanting revenge. To finalize the idea that Grendel’s mother resembles the progenitor of life, symbols of earth are attached to her cave. A cave serves as an embodiment of a womb, where originally both her and Grendel reside. Moreover, the cave’s location resides deep underwater which is closer to the core of the earth, which adds to the characteristics of Grendel’s mother representing the pagan goddess of Danu. Her death by Beowulf alludes to the end of Paganism and to the birth of Christianity.

As this period of time in the 6th century of England went through an important religious change of Paganism to Christianity, Grendel’s mother plays an important role in the epic poem Beowulf as she embodies the cultural rift and blends them together to create the monster she is.

Bibliography:

Daimler, Morgan. Pagan Portals- Gods and Goddesses of Ireland. A Guide to Irish Deities. John Hunt Publishing, 2016

Ewing, Doris. “The Fall of Eve: Racism and Classism as a Function of Sexual Repression.” Race, Gender & Class., vol. 7, no. 1, Institute for Teaching and Research on Women, Towson State University, 2000.

Fell, Christine E., et al. Women in Anglo-Saxon England. Blackwell, 1987.

Oldrieve, Dr. Susan. “Introduction to Anglo-Saxon Life.” Introduction to Anglo-Saxon Life, homepages.bw.edu/~uncover/oldrieveintro.htm.

Satan and Sin