The Monsters In Beowulf

The monsters in Beowulf are portrayed as the harbingers of death, despair, and destruction. The crimes in which they commit against human-kind are so grotesque, so evil, that it seems inconceivable that such creatures could exist. But these monsters are not just mere figments of the imagination. Rather they are the inverted ideals of Germanic societal values and reflections of human immorality. While the envious, fratricidal Grendel and the greedy dragon are inverted ideals of Germanic warriors and kings, Grendel’s mother is an inverted ideal woman. In a society where a woman’s role is to serve her husband by being a gracious and hospitable hostess that establishes peace between men, exemplified by the figures of Wealhtheow and Hygd, Grendel’s mother defies such gender roles. Grendel’s mother is an unmarried outcast who embodies inhospitality, tempestuousness, and

instigates violent conflict. Therefore, her role in the epic poem is to contrast the ideal woman and reflect the destructiveness of human immorality associated with Germanic women.
Throughout Beowulf, the ideal woman is portrayed through the actions of Queen Wealhtheow, the wife of King Hrothgar of the Danes, and Queen Hygd, the wife of King Hygelac of the Danes.

Within the poem, the central function of these women is to assume the role of hostess by offering the mead cup to their husbands as well as his guests in the mead hall. Through this seemingly frivolous action, the women become an extension of their husbands’ power. The offering of the mead cup through his wife is a display of the King’s hospitality, generosity, and graciousness. By offering the communal mead cup to every single person to the entire body of the King’s people and to foreign guests, as Wealhtheow does when Beowulf joins the Danes (Beowulf 43:620-640, 84:1191-1214), a sense of equality is created and peace is formed within the community as well as foreign tribes. Through their marriage, Wealhtheow and Hygd represent the ideal, moral Germanic woman who is loyal to their husbands, hospitable, well-tempered, gracious, and bearers of peace. Grendel’s mother, on the other hand, is the polar opposite of these

women.
In Beowulf, Grendel’s mother continuously contrasts the ideal Germanic women. Rather than exerting power through marriage, Grendel’s mother is an unmarried “monstrous hell-bride (Beowulf 89:1259)” who exerts power through warrior-like violence. According to the poem, “Her onslaught was less / only by as much as an amazon warrior’s / strength is less than an armed man’s (Beowulf 91:1282-1284).” While Grendel’s mother’s quest for revenge for her son falls in line with the moral code of the Germanic peoples (Beowulf, 97:1383-1384), the murder of Hrothgar’s “most beloved / of the friends he trusted between the two seas (Beowulf 91:1295-1296),” creates a cycle of vengeful hatred within the community rather than build peace. Besides being a strife-bearer, Grendel’s mother is also the embodiment of inhospitality, ungraciousness, and greed. When Beowulf arrives to Grendel’s mother’s cave to exact revenge, she immediately becomes hostile and uses gruesome violence to rid her dwellings of every guest who entered or neared (Beowulf 105:1501-1505). Driven by emotion, which contrasts the thoughtful composure of the “queenly and dignified (Beowulf 43:621)” Wealhtheow and Hygd, Grendel’s mother cannot be tamed until Beowulf bestowed death upon her.
These contrasts to the ideal Germanic woman through Grendel’s mother displays the consequences and dangers of human immorality as pertaining to the women of the time. While the women strengthened the community through their womanly morals, the masculine, violent, tempestuous “hell-bride” displays that such immorality beheld by a woman, untamed by marriage to a man, is catastrophically destructive. Rather than bringing peace, she bore death and strife through her grotesque, inhospitable acts spurred by emotion. Although it may seem as if Grendel’s mother, as well as the other monsters in the poem, is a creature of fiction, the Beowulf poet gives the example of Queen Modthryth (Beowulf 133:1932-1962) to show that real monsters do not have talons and brutish strength. Rather the immoral monsters that create true horrible, destruction within the world live amongst humans undetectable at first glance, for these terrible monsters are also mere humans.