Grendel's mother

Family: Grendel's kin · Role: monster · First appears: Section XIX

In Section XIX, Grendel's mother set out to avenge Grendel’s death, came to Heorot, seized a man, and killed him on his couch as she fled to the moor. In Section XX, Hrothgar told Beowulf that she had slain Aeschere, his adviser and “shoulder-comrade in stress of fight.”

In Section XXII, Grendel's mother attacked Beowulf with a sword to avenge her son, but his armor withstood her blade. In Section XXIII, Beowulf struck her with a sword, breaking her bone-rings; she sank to the floor and died in the mere. In Section XXVIII, Beowulf recounts that he fought her underwater and cut off her head, surviving the battle.

Relationship record

Life events

• Grendel's mother set out to avenge the death of her son.(Section XIX)
  • With: Grendel
  • “And his mother now, gloomy and grim, would go that quest of sorrow, the death of her son to avenge.”
• Grendel's mother came to Heorot and seized a man as she fled to the moor.(Section XIX · 📍 Heorot)
  • “Yet a single atheling up she seized fast and firm, as she fled to the moor.”
• Grendel's mother killed Hrothgar's dearest vassal on his couch.(Section XIX · 📍 Heorot)
  • “whom she killed on his couch, a clansman famous, in battle brave.”
• Hrothgar tells Beowulf that Aeschere, his adviser, is dead, slain by Grendel's mother.(Section XX · 📍 Heorot)
  • With: Hrothgar Aeschere
  • “Dead is Aeschere, of Yrmenlaf the elder brother, my sage adviser and stay in council, shoulder-comrade in stress of fight when warriors clashed and we warded our heads, hewed the helm-boars; hero famed should be every earl as Aeschere was! But here in Heorot a hand hath slain him of wandering death-sprite. I wot not whither, proud of the prey, her path she took,”
• Beowulf fought Grendel's mother, and his armor saved him from her sword.(Section XXII)
  • With: Beowulf
  • “On the hall-guest she hurled herself, hent her short sword, broad and brown-edged, the bairn to avenge, the sole-born son. -- On his shoulder lay braided breast-mail, barring death, withstanding entrance of edge or blade. Life would have ended for Ecgtheow's son, under wide earth for that earl of Geats, had his armor of war not aided him, battle-net hard”
• Beowulf kills Grendel's mother with a sword.(Section XXIII)
  • With: Beowulf
  • “Seized then its chain-hilt the Scyldings' chieftain, bold and battle-grim, brandished the sword, reckless of life, and so wrathfully smote that it gripped her neck and grasped her hard, her bone-rings breaking: the blade pierced through that fated-one's flesh: to floor she sank.”
• Grendel's mother dies in the mere.(Section XXIII)
  • With: Beowulf
  • “The clashing waters were cleansed now, waste of waves, where the wandering fiend her life-days left and this lapsing world.”
• Beowulf tells that Grendel's mother set out to avenge her son, Grendel.(Section XXVIII)
  • With: Grendel
  • “Thus in the hall the whole of that day at ease we feasted, till fell o'er earth another night. Anon full ready in greed of vengeance, Grendel's mother set forth all doleful. Dead was her son through war-hate of Weders; now, woman monstrous with fury fell a foeman she slew, avenged her offspring.”
• Beowulf tells that Grendel's mother killed Aeschere and carried his corpse away beneath a mountain stream.(Section XXVIII)
  • With: Aeschere
  • “From Aeschere old, loyal councillor, life was gone; nor might they e'en, when morning broke, those Danish people, their death-done comrade burn with brands, on balefire lay the man they mourned. Under mountain stream she had carried the corpse with cruel hands.”
• Beowulf tells that Beowulf fought Grendel's mother underwater and cut off her head, surviving the battle.(Section XXVIII)
  • With: Beowulf
  • “I then in the waters -- 'tis widely known -- that sea-floor-guardian savage found. Hand-to-hand there a while we struggled; billows welled blood; in the briny hall her head I hewed with a hardy blade from Grendel's mother, -- and gained my life, though not without danger.”

Section XIX

• child: Grendel “the mother of Grendel.”

Section XX

• enemies with Aeschere “But here in Heorot a hand hath slain him of wandering death-sprite.”

Section XXI

• enemies with Aeschere “of men-at-arms she bore the bravest and best one, dead, him who with Hrothgar the homestead ruled.”

Section XXII

• enemies with Beowulf “Seized then by shoulder, shrank not from combat, the Geatish war-prince Grendel's mother.”
• child: Grendel “On the hall-guest she hurled herself, hent her short sword, broad and brown-edged, the bairn to avenge, the sole-born son.”

Section XXIII

• enemies with Beowulf “Seized then its chain-hilt the Scyldings' chieftain, bold and battle-grim, brandished the sword, reckless of life, and so wrathfully smote that it gripped her neck and grasped her hard, her bone-rings breaking: the blade pierced through that fated-one's flesh: to floor she sank.”

Section XXVIII

• child: Grendel “Anon full ready in greed of vengeance, Grendel's mother set forth all doleful. Dead was her son through war-hate of Weders;”
• enemies with Beowulf “I then in the waters -- 'tis widely known -- that sea-floor-guardian savage found. Hand-to-hand there a while we struggled; billows welled blood; in the briny hall her head I hewed with a hardy blade from Grendel's mother, -- and gained my life,”
• enemies with Aeschere “From Aeschere old, loyal councillor, life was gone;”

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Extracted from the original text of Beowulf (Gummere's translation). Made with Rho MD.