07 Feb 22 Beowulf #11

Encounter with the Mother

Beowulf and Grendel’s Mother meet each other in battle. What could go wrong with either noble cause that is clear but with no bright lines? Which of the two combatants is more motivated to fight, and for what reason? Such is the context of the encounter between Beowulf and Grendel’s mother. Once more (see previous post, two weeks ago), we are in the landscape of good and evil. But which character is which? Of course, Beowulf represents the good. Or does he?  Who is more evil, a Grendel or his mother? Grendel we are told is evil because he is a demon from hell and thus a “foe of mankind.” His mother's evil is more ambiguous, because killing for vengeance was allowed in the warrior culture of Beowulf's time.

Grendel’s mother is sometimes portrayed as a beautiful seductress, and it is intimated that neither Hrothgar nor Beowulf can resist her. There are a few vague hints that Hrothgar had sex with Grendel's mother, and is Grendel’s biological father, and this is the reason why Hrothgar’s wife won't sleep with him anymore.

Let’s continue the investigation with the fact that Grendel's mother lacks a name. This emphasizes her status as an outsider who defies categorization. Only an unnamed sword that preserves the story of the giants—other outcasts from the world of men—can kill her.

The cave where Grendel and his mother hide from the world is symbolic of their lives as outcasts. Hidden beneath a treacherous mere in the middle of a dark, forbidding swamp, the cave allows them a degree of safety and privacy in a world that they view as hostile. 

Many readers have seen the underside of the lake as powerfully symbolic of the human subconscious, or of the mysteries that lie beyond human knowledge. To these readers, Grendel's mother represents the dangers that await anyone who seeks to confront the unknown, either in the world or in themselves.

Unlike Grendel, his mother neither speaks nor questions the world. She is sufficient unto herself and is “content” to abide in her dark haunt where she spends most of her time and generally experiences the world in a purely physical way. Similarly, she is only able to express any affection for Grendel through physical gestures. I wonder if this may be a very early expression of anima/animus, its complementary nature, and the potential for hiding women. Try suppression. So, what happens to her when her only crime is being heartbroken over her son’s murder? What is being hidden, and what is being resurrected? (This question could be added to the “explorations” at the end of this post.)

Finally, many readers have seen the mother as powerfully symbolic of the human subconscious, or of the mysteries that lie beyond human knowledge. To these readers, Grendel's mother represents the dangers that await anyone who seeks to confront the unknown, either in the world or in themselves. Of course this is a modern interpretation.

The Epic Continues . . .

. . .  After these words, the prince of the Weather-Geats 

Was impatient to be away and plunged suddenly: 

Without more ado, he dived into the heaving 

Depths of the lake. . . .

It was the best part of a day 

Before he could see the solid bottom.

Quickly the one who haunted those waters,

Who had scavenged and gone her gluttonous rounds

For a hundred seasons, sensed a human

Observing her outlandish lair from above. 1500

So she lunged and clutched and managed to catch him

In her brutal grip; but his body, for all that,

Remained unscathed: the mesh of the chain-mail 

Saved him on the outside. 

Her savage talons 

Failed to rip the web of his war shirt.

Then once she touched bottom, the wolfish swimmer

Carried the ring-mailed prince to her court 

So that for all his courage he could never use

The weapons he carried; and a bewildering horde

Came at him from the depths, droves of sea-beasts 1510

Who attacked with tusks and tore at his chain-mail 

In a ghastly onslaught. 

The gallant man

Could see he had entered some hellish turn-hole 

And yet the water did not work against him 

Because the hall-roofing held off

The force of the current; then he saw firelight, 

A gleam and flare-up, a glimmer of brightness.

The hero observed that swamp-thing from hell, 

The tarn-hag in all her terrible strength,

Then heaved his war-sword and swung his arm: 1520

The decorated blade came down ringing 

And singing on her head. 

But he soon found

His battle-torch extinguished: the shinning blade

Refused to bite. 

It spared her and failed

The man in his need. 

It had gone through many 

Hand-to-hand fights, had hewed the armor

And helmets of the doomed, but here at last 

The fabulous powers of that heirloom failed.

 Hygelac’s kinsman kept thinking about

His name and fame: he never lost heart. 1530

Then, in fury, he flung his sword away.

The keen, inlaid, worm-looped-patterned steel 

Was hurled to the ground: he would have to rely

On the might of his arm. 

So must a man do 

Who intends to gain enduring glory

In a combat. Life doesn’t cost him thought.

Then the prince of War-Geats, warming to his fight

With Grendel’s mother, gripped her shoulder

 And laid about him in a battle frenzy:

He pitched his killer opponent to the floor 1540

 

But she rose quickly and retaliated, 

Grappled him tightly in her grim embrace. 

The sure-footed fight fell daunted,

The strongest of warriors stumbled and fell.

So she pounced upon him and pulled out

A broad, whetted knife: now she could avenge 

Her only child. 

But the mesh of chain-mail 

On Beowulf’s shoulder shielded his life, 

Turned the edge and tip of the blade.

The son of Ecgtheow would surely have perished      1550

And the Geats lost their warrior under the wide earth

 Had the strong links and locks of his war-gear

Not helped to save him: Holy God

Decided the victory. 

It was easy for the Lord, 

The Ruler of Heaven, 

to redress the balance 

Once Beowulf got back up on his feet.

Then he saw a blade that boded well,

A sword in her armory, an ancient heirloom 

From the days of the giants, an ideal weapon,

One that any warrior would envy,     1560

But so huge and heavy in itself

Only Beowulf could wield it in battle.

So the Shieldings’ hero, hard-pressed and enraged, 

Took a firm hold of the hilt and swung

The blade in an arc, a resolute blow

That bit into her neck bone

And severed it entirely, toppling the doomed

House of her flesh; she fell to the floor.

The sword dripped blood, the swordsman was elated.

A light appeared and the place brightened   1570

The way the sky does when heaven’s candle 

Is shining clearly. He inspected the vault:

With sword held high, its hilt raised

To guard and threaten, 

Hygelac’s thane Scouted by the wall in Grendel’s wake. 

Now the weapon was to prove its worth. 

The warrior determined to take revenge

For every gross act Grendel had committed-- 

And not only for that one occasion

When he’d come to slaughter the sleeping troops,      1580

Fifteen of Hrothgar’s house-guards

Surprised on their benches and ruthlessly devoured, 

And as many again carried away,

A brutal plunderer. 

Beowulf in his fury 

Now settled that score: he saw the monster

In his resting place, war-weary and wrecked,

A lifeless corpse, a casualty

Of the battle in Heorot. 

The body gaped 

At the stroke dealt to it after death:

Beowulf cut the corpse’s head off.      1590

Immediately the counselors keeping a lookout 

With Hrothgar, watching the lake water,

Saw a heave-up and surge of waves

And blood in the backwash. 

They bowed gray heads, 

Spoke in their sage, experienced way

About the good warrior, how they never again 

Expected to see that prince returning

In triumph to their king. 

It was clear to many

That the wolf of the deep had destroyed him forever.

The ninth hour of the day arrived.     1600

The brave Shieldings abandoned their cliff-top 

And the king went home; but sick at heart, 

Staring at the mere, the strangers held on.

They wished, without hope, to behold their lord,

Beowulf himself.

Meanwhile, the sword

Began to wilt into gory icicles,

To slather and thaw. 

It was a wonderful thing, 

[The way it all melted as ice melts

When the father eases the fetters off the frost

And unravels the water-ropes. 

He who wields power     1610

Over time and tide: He is the true Lord.

The Geat captain saw treasure in abundance

But carried no spoils from those quarters 

Except for the head and the inlaid hilt 

Embossed with jewels; its blade had melted

And the scrollwork on it burnt, so scalding was the blood

 Of the poisonous fiend who had perished there.

Then away he swam, the one who had survived 

The fall of his enemies, flailing to the surface.

The wide water, the waves and pools     1620

Were no longer infested once the wandering fiend 

Let go of her life and this unreliable world.

The seafarers’ leader made for land,

Resolutely swimming, delighted with his prize, 

The mighty load he was lugging to the surface. 

Exploration 1: “The one who haunted those waters . . .”. This is how Grendel’s mother is first described in this segment of the epic. Then in rapid order, other descriptors spill over one another: savage talons, wolfish swimmer, tarn hag, swamp thing, grim embrace, and so on. Unless I missed something, she is given only one break: “to avenge her only son.” Here, she is given a reason for her wrath – a mother’s unspeakable love for her child – her only child. Does this last exonerate her from attacking Beowulf with intent to kill? Does Beowulf have the right to kill her?

Exploration 2: So must a man do 

                Who intends to gain enduring glory 

                In a combat

                Life doesn’t cost him thought

The above refers to Beowulf’s battle with Grendel’s mother. Here his (or the narrator’s) voice appears to say that Beowulf’s motive in killing Grendel’s mother is not about vengeance, but rather about ego-glory and “everlasting fame.” What is/are his motivation(s)? Are they mixed or straight forward. Take this opportunity to get inside the protagonist’s mind.

Exploration 3: Does Beowulf live a Christian life or is he a Pagan? Here are some comments to consider as you answer.

The Beowulf story has its roots in a pagan Saxon past, but by the time the epic was written down, almost all Anglo-Saxons had converted to Christianity. As a result, the Beowulf poet is at pains to resolve his Christian beliefs with the often quite un-Christian behavior of his characters.

Did Beowulf believe in God? Throughout the story Beowulf repeatedly acknowledges God as his protector. ... However, there is also a strong sense that God's protection must be earned; a warrior must first be true to his values, courage, honesty, pride, and humility and only then will he earn God's protection.

Although the story of Beowulf is filled with references to religion and faith, many discrepancies occur throughout the story that suggest that Beowulf is not a Christian epic. ... Instead of praying to the Christian God for support, they make sacrifices to pagan idols. A second pagan reference concerns the monster Grendel . . . or is he the incarnation of one of Satan’s own.