The Presence Of Nemesis In Beowulf

The Presence of Nemesis in the Middle English Epic Beowulf

“Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot” (King James Version, Exodus 21:25). This is one of the most well-known quotes concerning revenge circulating today, and if it had arisen just 11 centuries earlier, it surely would have been the motto of the ancient Anglo-Saxon warriors. The Anglo-Saxons were a tight knit group of hardy fighters and because they were together nearly all of their lives, they considered each other kin, blood related or not. This is why the death of a brother by an outsider was taken quite seriously and required revenge to be taken, which was usually in the form of another man dying. This loyal yet murderous ideal gave rise to the wergild, the man-price that a groundless murderer must pay as retribution (The Middle Ages 38). Beowulf is an epic steeped in the belief of “an eye for an eye”. Beowulf’s entire quest was based off of revenge, mainly against monsters and demons for the people that they had

killed. The need for and righteousness of retaliation against wrongdoings is blatant in the Middle English poem Beowulf, and is chiefly expressed though its characters, specifically Beowulf, Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the Dragon.
Beginning with Beowulf, he was not truly focused on revenge, but more on the glory that the battles with these monsters would bring to his king and to himself. Beowulf came from the land of the Geats, and he was known throughout his land as a fearsome and proud warrior, afraid of neither man nor beast. Upon his arrival into the land of Danes, a Danish lookout stated that “[never] have I seen a mightier man-at-arms on this earth than the one standing here…” (Heaney 46-47). The first of his battles in this epic is against the might demon Grendel. Grendel was terrorizing the mead hall (Heorot) of the Danish king Hrothgar. Every night he would enter Heorot and slaughter anyone he found within, “grabbing men from their resting places and rushing to his lair…blundering back with the butchered corpses” (Heaney 44). Beowulf heard about the troubles from across the sea, and came to help Hrothgar deal with it. In the end, he defeats Grendel with no large amount of trouble. The theme of revenge isn’t as strongly exemplified in this battle, but it is slightly there. Although Beowulf is mainly doing this for the glory, he’s also doing it to help Hrothgar, who is an acquaintance of Hygelac. The second battle with Grendel’s mother is about revenge on both sides. Beowulf was once again fighting for glory, but also to avenge the death of the right hand man of the king, Aeschere, who Grendel’s mother attacked in Heorot on her “savage journey…ravenous and desperate for revenge” (Heaney 69). Beowulf once again beat the evildoer in a fierce battle in Grendel’s mother’s underwater cave. After receiving his reward, Beowulf returns home and eventually becomes king, although he still has one more foe to face. Beowulf last adventure begins after a young thief steals a golden cup from the ferociously possessive dragon in the area, which causes the dragon to go on nightly raids, burning down towns. The dragon also ends up burning down the throne-room of the Geats. “It threw the hero into deep anguish and darkened his mood…” (Heaney 91). This is where Beowulf truly starts lusting for revenge. He goes after the dragon not for glory, for he needs no more, but to avenge the burning of his kingdom and his home. He defeats the dragon while dying in the process. As one can see, although his actions were guided slightly more for glory than revenge, Beowulf being portrayed as the ideal Anglo-Saxon warrior shows how much these ancient people believed in the need for revenge against villainy.
Equally important in the vengeful theme of Beowulf is Grendel. Although Grendel may seem like just another monster to be defeated, he was actually a complicated character whose whole being was born of hate and whose actions most likely led by revenge, although not against a particular person. Grendel had a need for revenge against his situation. Grendel was a kinsman of Cain, the biblical First Murderer. He and his brethren were condemned to wander the earth in the shadows, miserable and hated. “He had dwelt for a time in miser among the banished monsters of Cain’s clan” (Heaney 44). He was angry and slightly jealous of the Lord’s beloved creation. “It harrowed him to hear the din of the loud banquet every day in the hall…” (Heaney 43). This is why Grendel attacked Heorot Hall. It wasn’t because of some personal grudge he had with Hrothgar, nor was it because he was just a crazy demon. He attacked because he disliked his status on Earth. Grendel wasn’t a character that was trying to avenge a personal wrong, he was angry at his state of affairs, and decided to take it out on God’s precious little humans.
On the other hand, Grendel’s mother’s presence was solely built on her need for revenge.

After Beowulf defeated Grendel, it came to light that Grendel was not truly alone. Grendel’s mother was also kin to Cain, and after Cain killed Abel, she was “forced down into fearful waters, the cold depths” (Heaney 69). It was the night following Grendel’s death that she attacked Heorot in a fit of rage. “His mother sallied forth on a savage journey, grief-racked and ravenous, desperate for revenge” (Heaney 69). When she attacked, she killed Hrothgar’s right hand man, and stole the body in the same way her late son had done. “Her onslaught was less only by as much as an amazon warrior’s is less than an armed man’s…” (Heaney 70). Beowulf ended up killing her in a counter-act of revenge. Grendel’s mother was a character that participated in the story for no other reason than to take revenge for her son. She had no other purpose in Beowulf, and is one of the best examples of the

act.
Lastly is the dragon in Beowulf’s homeland. The dragon is similar to Grendel’s mother in the fact that he was also a character used exclusively used in the story for his need for revenge. This takes place about 50 years after the fights with Cain’s descendants. There was a dragon that had lived there for 300 years, savagely guarding a centuries old hoard of gold, jewels, armor, and other treasures. A young foolhardy thane decided to test the defenses of the dragon, and succeeded in stealing a golden goblet. He had unknowingly released another demon onto the people. The dragon woke up trembled with anger when he noticed that someone had trespassed upon his land. He “kept circling and circling the outside of the mound. No man appeared, but he worked himself up by imagining battle; then back in he’d go in search of the cup, only to discover signs that someone had stumbled upon the golden treasures” (Heaney 90-91). The dragon was simply waiting until night so that he could go raze the land. He only cared about the fact that someone had dared to take what was his. He was past the point of simply getting the stolen treasure back, and was now taking out his anger on any town he could find. The dragon even managed to burn down Beowulf’s home, the mead-hall of the Geats, bringing Beowulf up in a similar state of need for revenge. This of course led to the great battle between the beloved king and angered dragon, which concluded with both of them perishing in their need for justice. The dragon in this story was the archetypical “beast guarding his treasure” dragon, and as soon as someone stole even the littlest artifact, he flew into a rage. Just like Grendel’s mother, the dragon was a totally revenge driven character. His being in the story, after he was stolen from, was to do whatever he could do to get revenge on the thief.
As can be seen, Beowulf was truly a reflection of the period in which it was told. It was an epic that emphasized again and again the importance of justice and vengeance. The story always went back to the same motif. Beowulf fought for both glory and in retaliation against his friends and people, Grendel attacked Heorot in fits of vindictiveness because of his status as an unholy outcast, Grendel’s mother raided Heorot because of the brutal killing if her son and the dragon attacked the countryside because a thief wrongly took what was his. It makes sense that Beowulf would be full of this subject, seeing as to how important reprisal was in that time period. Avenging wrongs was almost as important was it was to obtain sufficient amounts of glory to one’s king and kinsmen. In conclusion, the theme for revenge is vastly portrayed in this epic through Beowulf, Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon. The poet obviously believed that revenge was impressively important, and that is self-evident in this poem.