An Avenger Lay in Wait : Beowulf and Grendel’s Mother

Beowulf gets his ass beat by Grendel’s mother. He may have won the war, but she gave him one hell of a time with the battle! For a moment, Beowulf thinks he’s a goner, and I imagine him watching his life flash before him just before he grabs her sword. I’ve spent an excessive amount of time ruminating on Beowulf’s machismo and how Grendel’s mother is the only other human entity to scare the shit out of him.

Maria Dahvana Headley’s 2020 translation of Beowulf pulled me into my first full reading of the poem, with frequent dips in and out of Seamus Heaney’s 2000 version of the 3,182-line verse. Written as an Old English poem about an ancient sixth-century Scandinavian warrior, the original unknown author glosses over Grendel and his mother’s humanness while attempting to portray them as mere evil, demonic, cannibalistic monsters. [1] I caught the mark of Cain trope used to denote disgrace and malice, “His creation was cursed under the line of Cain.” [2] Their narrative begins generations before Beowulf steps in to assist the Danes when one offspring of Adam and Eve felt slighted by God and less favored. [3] Given that Cain was human, one can deduce his progeny were also human, at least in part. [4] The poem insinuates a theme of generational anger and resentment. The same emotion Cain used to murder his brother has passed down to Grendel, who prefers to use a tavern of Danish warriors as a late-night snack.

Before his encounter with Grendel’s mother (the poem’s original author does not give her a name), Beowulf is “the mightiest man on earth.” [5] When news of Grendel’s terror upon the Danes becomes international news, Beowulf decides on his own accord to be their savior. Beowulf sails off with fourteen of his trusted men to defeat Grendel on behalf of the Danish king. Grendel’s tactics and stature are well-known at this point, and Beowulf is prepared physically and mentally to fight him. The man has no fear of the monster because they are both similar. Both the warrior and the being they consider a beast have commonalities that indicate their equal ability to spar. Beowulf is unafraid of Grendel and has no reservations about battling one he believes is his equivalent.

Beowulf quickly reveals his toxic masculine trait—when he fatally injures Grendel but is unaware of it, he plunges into an unknown abyss headed towards Grendel’s lair to finish the battle. His egotism is so profound that the man enters a home unannounced and uninvited because Nordic patriarchy says he can. Accordingly, the warrior gives “zero shits” and is “indifferent to death” as he dons his war gear and follows Grendel’s blood-stained tracks. [6] The poem’s narrative and its protagonist idealize a white, cisgendered male body construct that epitomizes what their image of the human world should be. They focus solely on the traditional human experience and fail to consider that a different existence lies beneath the surface of their culture. Beowulf’s lack of knowing while exercising his self-assurance is his folly. That fool enters the lair unprepared, which is par for a human overconfident in his abilities. However, his ill-preparedness creates the pivotal but necessary transition in Beowulf. Everyone knows of Grendel’s existence, but no one, not a soul, expected the mother. Beowulf’s unknowing almost cements his undoing.

Every piece of bodily protection he takes down into the earth doesn’t work against her. Grendel’s mother has the power, beyond all humans and other entities, to end Beowulf’s life and intends to avenge her son’s death. In the human world, her femaleness would exclude her from heroism and martial combat. [7] However, her physical prowess and anger exceed whatever Beowulf’s culture deems as masculinity. The poem indicates Grendel’s lair is ruled by his mother: “She who’d ruled these floodlands proudly for a hundred seasons.” [8] Grendel’s home, the mere, is not a male-controlled environment; it is a feminized space. [9] When Beowulf breaks the division between his world and the underworld, he’s not intruding on Grendel’s territory, but he’s impeding upon the mother’s. Beowulf intrudes on the mother twice—first fatally wounding her son and then entering her home unwelcomed. The poem further suggests the mother is equal in brawn and brute to a human man. [10] She is referred to as Grendel’s mother and other feminine pronouns, but the battle between her and Beowulf, like with Grendel, is barbaric and violent. Her performance is filled with vengeance and what is often considered masculine bravado. [11] The only female warrior in the poem moves her body and enacts her retribution, suggesting “the destructive potential of male aggression.” [12] Her war-terror is not lesser than Beowulf’s, making the confidence he had in his brawl with Grendel menial.

Unfortunately for Beowulf, his human-made armor is no match for the mother, and his sword is ineffective at penetrating her body. Beowulf charges into battle, aware of Grendel’s strengths and weaknesses, but all of that eludes him upon his encounter with the mother. On Earth, the monsters are somewhat displaced, but Beowulf is the foe in the lair. The shift in power dynamic unnerves and discombobulates him. Although the warrior ultimately takes the mother’s head, she gives him the greatest fight he’s ever faced. Beowulf supposedly has the strength of thirty men, yet he struggles in a fight for his life. [13] It’s only when he recognizes what his defeat means (the mother continuously terrorizing humanity in revenge for her son) that Beowulf musters physical strength. However, he only perseveres using an heirloom from the lair that once belonged to giants. [14] If not for the mother’s sword, Beowulf and his legacy would have perished on the underworld floor.

His unknowing of the mother’s presence and incapability creates a pivotal transition for the warrior. Just when he and the Danes believe they are rid of the malevolence that has tormented them for twelve years, and Beowulf believes he can celebrate his victory, Grendel’s mother appears to completely upend any macho sensibility. Her presence isn’t an aspect of battle strategy; therefore, no one is mentally, emotionally, and physically equipped for her. Although Beowulf conquers this particular mission, a part of him is left in the underworld, and he never retrieves it back. He never recovers from his experience with Grendel’s mother, and it alters his perception of himself forever. Beowulf is never the same warrior who descends into the underworld. He’s a entirely different person when he emerges. Even though he moves on to conquer other missions and battles, it’s not the same; he knows he’s not the same warrior: “Though Beowulf/ didn’t predict he’d die in this fight/ he’d always known that Fate could fuck a fighter up/ no matter the hoards he’d held, no matter the luck he’d had.” [15] This is a reference to his experience in the underworld with Grendel’s mother. As Beowulf progresses in his life, the reader encounters the hero’s assurance dim. The warrior moves on, becomes king, and takes on more battles. However, the event in the mere is always with him. The mother’s spirit is always lurking.

Notes: [1] In Seamus Heaney’s translation, Grendel is “a powerful demon” (line 85) and “a fiend out of hell” (line 100), while Grendel’s mother is a “monstrous hell-bride” (line 1259). [2] Maria Dahvana Headley, Beowulf: A New Translation (MCD x FSG Originals, 2020): line 106. [3] Gen. 4:3-7 (New Revised Standard Version). [4] Ibid., 4:16-17. [5] Seamus Heaney, Beowulf (Bilingual Edition) (W. W. Norton & Company, 2000): line 97. [6] Ibid., lines 1441-1442. [7] Megan Cavell, “Constructing the Monstrous Body in Beowulf,” Anglo-Saxon England 43 (November 26, 2014): 170. [8] Headley, lines 1497-1498. [9] Jacek Olesiejko, “The Grendelkin and the Politics of Succession at Heorot: The Significance of Monsters in Beowulf,” Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 53, no. 1 (March 1, 2018): 60. [10] Ibid., 59. [11] Ibid., 60. [12] Ibid. [13] Headley, line 379. [14] Olesiejko, 61. [15] Headley, lines 2341-2344.