Summary
Wise sir, do not grieve. It is always
better
to avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning.
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As the warriors sleep in the mead-hall, Grendel’s mother,
a horrible monster in her own right, descends on Heorot in a frenzy
of grief and rage, seeking vengeance for her son’s death. When she
falls upon and seizes a sleeping man, the noise wakes the others.
The warriors seize their swords and rush toward her. The monster
panics and flees, still carrying her victim, Hrothgar’s trusted
adviser, Aeschere, in her grasp. Beowulf, having been given other
sleeping quarters, is away from Heorot when Grendel’s mother makes
her raid. By the time he arrives at the hall, she is gone. The warriors
discover that she has stolen Grendel’s arm as well.
Devastated with grief over the loss of his friend and
counselor, Hrothgar summons Beowulf and explains what has occurred.
He entreats Beowulf to seek out and kill Grendel’s mother, describing the
horrible, swampy wood where she keeps her lair. The place has a
magical quality. The water burns and the bottom of the mere, or lake,
has never been reached. Even the animals seem to be afraid of the
water there.
Hrothgar tells Beowulf that he must depend on him a second time
to rid Heorot of a demon. He says that he will give him chests of
gold if he rises to the challenge. Beowulf agrees to the fight,
reassuring Hrothgar that Grendel’s mother won’t get away. The warriors
mount up and ride into the fens, following the tracks of their enemy.
When they reach a cliff’s edge, they discover Aeschere’s head lying
on the ground. The scene below is horrifying: in the murky water,
serpents and sea-dragons writhe and roil. Beowulf slays one beast
with an arrow.
Beowulf, “indifferent to death,” prepares himself for
combat by donning his armor and girding himself with weapons (1442). Unferth
loans him the great and seasoned sword Hrunting, which has never
failed in any battle. Beowulf speaks, asking Hrothgar to take care
of the Geats and return his property to Hygelac if he, Beowulf,
should be killed. He also bequeaths his own sword to Unferth.
[His helmet] was of beaten gold,
princely headgear hooped and hasped
by a weapon-smith who had worked wonders
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Analysis
The intensity of the epic increases in these lines, as
its second part begins with the arrival of Grendel’s mother at the
hall. The idea of the blood feud, which has been brought up earlier
in the scop’s stories and in Hrothgar’s memory
of the Wulfings’ grudge against Ecgtheow, now enters the main plot.
Just as Grendel’s slaughter of Hrothgar’s men requires avenging,
so does Beowulf’s slaying of Grendel. As Beowulf tells Hrothgar,
in a speech with central importance to his conception of the heroic
code of honor, “It is always better / to avenge dear ones than to
indulge in mourning / . . . / When a warrior is gone, [glory] will
be his best and only bulwark” (1384–1389).
In this speech, Beowulf explicitly characterizes revenge as a means
to fame and glory, which make reputations immortal. As this speech
demonstrates, an awareness of death pervades Beowulf. That
some aspect or memory of a person remains is therefore of great
importance to the warriors. The world of the poem is harsh, dangerous,
and unforgiving, and innumerable threats—foreign enemies, monsters,
and natural perils—loom over every life.
One of the most interesting aspects of Grendel’s mother’s
adherence to the same vengeance-demanding code as the warriors is
that she is depicted as not wholly alien. Her behavior is not only
comprehensible but also justified. In other ways, however, Grendel
and his mother are indeed portrayed as creatures from another world.
One aspect of their difference from the humans portrayed in the
poem is that Grendel’s strong parent figure is his mother rather
than his father—his family structure that is out of keeping
with the vigorously patriarchal society of the Danes and the Geats.
As Hrothgar explains it, “They are fatherless creatures, / and their
whole ancestry is hidden” (1355–1356). The
idea of a hidden ancestry is obviously suspect and sinister in this
society that places such a high priority—a sacredness, even—on publicizing
and committing to memory one’s lineage.
