Thinking of Grendel

In Beowulf there is a lot of imagery relating to God as well as how God has helped Beowulf and others accomplish their goals. Grendel and Grendel's mother are both considered to be the opposite of God. They are more related to "Cain's Clan" and to the concept of hell. Grendel and Grendel's mother are both outcasts and yet they live together. Their closeness and togetherness gives them strength. When Grendel is killed, Grendel's mother is now more of an outcast than she was before. This suggests that these two monsters were social and enjoyed companionship. All they had was each other. When Grendel's mother comes to Heorot, she is "grief-racked and ravenous, desperate for revenge" (p 89). This could conclude that while Grendel was her son and she is rightfully full of grief, she is also taking part in the Anglo-Saxon idea of an eye for an eye. She will kill humans because they killed her son. When I personally look at it from this perspective I feel a little bit sympathetic towards Grendel’s mother. She never did anything wrong to the Danes until after her son was murdered. Her son did deserve what he got but the mother reacted in a way that any mother would. However, the people of Heorot do not see it this way. They consider themselves to be closer to God and therefore, they are right. In this epic poem we can see how biased even the author was about this idea. When Grendel is killed by Beowulf, "only the roof remained unscathed" (p 67). The roof is closest to God because it is the highest point of the mead hall. Hence, it is not touched because the monsters like Grendel cannot harm God (or the ceiling in this metaphorical sense). The same sort of idea is seen when Grendel's and his mother's lair is discovered to be in the deep depths of a mere or lake. The lake is bubbling and burning. The lair is found at the bottom of this lake and thus, closer to hell. Hell is generally described as being hot and burning. It is not at all a good place. This is similar to the imagery of the hot, burning, and bubbling mere. Also, when the sword kills Grendel's mother and is doused in her blood, the sword melts. Thus, the hell imagery continues relating the monsters to hell and the good to Beowulf. Also, when the monsters are both killed, the lake turns lighter, it is a better place. It is no longer so closely compared to hell. Also, Beowulf does not bring back treasure from the lair close to hell. This could possibly be showing either Beowulf’s lack of greed or his belief that maybe those treasures are no good now that they have been surrounded by hellish creatures for so long. Considering that Beowulf is close to God but kills a creature that was only angry due to the fact that Beowulf had killed her companion, it will be interesting to see how the novel, Grendel takes Grendel's story and twists it possibly into one of sympathy for Grendel and his mother.