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As you see it it is, while the seeing lasts, dark nightmare-history, time-as-coffin; but where the water was rigid there will be fish, and men will survive on their flesh till spring. It’s coming, my brother. . . . Though you murder the world, transmogrify life into I and it, strong searching roots will crack your cave and rain will cleanse it: The world will burn green, sperm build again.
These are among the first words Beowulf
says to Grendel as they engage in their fatal battle in Chapter
The imagery in this passage describes several rigid, hard objects being burst open with violent but cleansing force. This image is soon replicated rather gruesomely with Grendel’s own head, which Beowulf is about to smash against the walls of the meadhall. The forces that break through barriers in this passage are natural and life-giving in their violence—supporting the idea that Beowulf’s merciless treatment of Grendel is, in a sense, a project of salvation. Beowulf calls Grendel “brother,” which not only refers to the Cain and Abel story, but also manages to bring Grendel much closer to humankind than his history of enmity has ever allowed for. Furthermore, Beowulf’s reference to the fish in the frozen river remind us of the Christian elements of Beowulf’s character, and the fact that we may see him as a kind of avenging Christ figure.
