By Clare Kelly
Hell is the underworld, or the land of the dead where evil souls travel to after the persons death and punishment will occur. Some versions of the torment of the afterlife can be different depending on how the person died and what their particular beliefs were. The Northman, Vikings, had different versions of hell that they believed in but none were actually referred to as hell. If someone died of sickness they went to what they called Hel and if they died in battle they went to Valhalla which was their heaven but they had a second version of hell. This was if a warrior died in battle but lost their grip on their weapon and died without it in their hands their soul didn’t go to Valhalla or to Hel, instead it was left to wander for all eternity.
In the Old English epic poem Beowulf, there is never really a specific part that discusses a place that is seen to them as hell, but there are some lines that describe an even in a place that when analyzed, could be considered a type of hell. What jumped out the most as a time where Beowulf is in a place like hell, is when he is swimming in the lake and is pulled down to a cave deep down by the monster Grendel’s mother. Beowulf swims downward in the lake for the better part of a day before he is able to see the bottom. As he nears the murky lake floor, Grendel’s mother senses his approach. She lunges at him and clutches him in her grip, but his armor prevents her from crushing him. She drags Beowulf to her court, while a mass of sea-monsters claws and bites at him. Beowulf wields Hrunting, the sword lent to him by Unferth, and lashes at Grendel’s mother’s head, but even the celebrated blade Hrunting is unable to pierce the monster’s skin. Beowulf tries to fight the sea-witch using only his bare hands, but she matches him blow for blow. At last, he notices a sword hanging on the wall, an enormous weapon forged for giants. Beowulf seizes the huge sword and swings it in a powerful arc. The blade slices cleanly through the Grendel’s mother’s neck, and she falls dead to the floor, gushing with blood. The hero is exultant. A light appears, and Beowulf looks around, his sword held high in readiness. He sees Grendel’s corpse lying in a corner and furious at the sight of the fiend, he decapitates Grendel as a final repayment for all of the lives that Grendel took.
As Beowulf is being dragged along deeper and deeper into Grendel’s mothers lair, numerous sea monsters are attacking him. These sea monsters could be seen as the different demons and monsters that normally seen to be present in hell. Their purpose, is too punish and torment the souls that are sent there for eternity, which is somewhat what they are doing. Beowulf has been sent down into the lake to find Grendel and as he is there he is swarmed by the demons that live in the depths of the lake. They are there too torment and punish any that dare swim down to them. Something else that should be brought into focus, and that is that after Beowulf was able to slay Grendel’s mother, the cave suddenly is lit up with light that allows him to see the many treasures that fill the cave of Grendel and his mother. This treasure can be seen as part of the temptation that leads men and women to be sent down to hell after their life is over. All the treasure that makes people change, treasure that brings the worst out of even the best of people, people we think could never harm anyone. Instead of taking as much of the treasure with him as he could carry, Beowulf instead only takes the jeweled hilt of the sword he used to defeat Grendel’s mother then behead Grendel’s corpse and the head of Grendel. This head is proof that the monster and his mother are dead which is like saying that the souls that are sent down to hell have defeated the demons that tormented them. And in the end, Beowulf doesn’t even keep the jeweled hilt of the sword for himself, instead it is an offering to the King. Beowulf is ridding himself of all the treasures that he saw down in the hellish cave, making sure that he can not be tempted by them.
Despite these common depictions of Hell as a place of fire, some other traditions portray Hell as cold. Among Christian descriptions Dante’s Inferno portrays the innermost (9th) circle of Hell as a frozen lake of blood and guilt. In some different depictions of hell, some type of liquid is almost always present whether it be liquid fire, burning sulfur, or freezing cold water. While most people are aware of fire and lava being associated with hell, most people don’t realize that extreme cold or vast bodies of deep lakes or oceans can be seen as part of hell. Any type of extreme is often associated with a place of suffering or a place of punishment for those that deserve it or are sent there for some sin or quest that they must complete. No matter the culture or the beliefs, there is some version of a hell where the soul of someone will spend the rest of eternity. It can be said that throughout time there has always been some version of a hell. Now while Beowulf isn’t a damned soul or a wicked person that has been sent to hell, he swims to the bottom of the lake on a quest of revenge for all of the innocent people that were killed by Grendel. He had descended into the cold, dark depths of the lake in order to find the one he holds responsible to fulfill his desire for revenge and finish his quest.