James Walker
English 240
Professor Johnson
24 November 2008
The Associated Importance of Grendel’s Mother
“In revenge and in love, woman is more barbarous than man”
--Friedrich Nietzsche Among the phratry of characters descended from the lines of the epic poem Beowulf, none capture the reader’s attention as “the son of Ecgtheow,” Beowulf himself, and perhaps few others as the three prominent monsters he finds himself grappling with. In the Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume A, the editor’s introduction to Beowulf notes the inclination towards the three monsters in the poem center[ing] around Beowulf’s three great fights against preternatural evil, which inhabit the dangerous and demonic space surrounding human society” (31). However, despite the critical importance of Grendel’s mother, both as an overwhelming presence in the fight with Beowulf and as a symbol of reflection, the climax and resolution in the first half of the poem, it is easy to miss her prominence due to the limited number of poetic lines she’s given. Thus, the essay attempts to provide credit where credit is due in analyzing how the physical description and Grendel’s mother’s presence is significant or enhances a reader’s understanding of the poem, in emphasizing Beowulf’s increasing aptitude as hero, as well as to the overall poem.
Grendel’s mother, unknown to the reader until well after her son’s detached arm is returned to him, is overshadowed by the poem’s abundant reference to her son, “[the] powerful demon, a prowler through the dark [nursing] a hard grievance [...toward] the din of the loud banquet everyday in [Heorot],” which interpenetrate the first almost 1200 lines of the poem (Heaney 86-88). Consequently it is easy to understand how Grendel’s mother’s is quite a shock when she appears in Heorot after her son’s “lonely war, [of] inflicting constant