CELEBRATION AT

HEOROT

Rationale
To show the reestablishment of
Heorot as a symbol of unity
To present how the storytelling of the
scope is foretelling of Beowulfs fate

Celebration at Heorot
Heorot once again
becomes a place of
celebration.

The scop compares

Beowulf to Sigemund
and contrasts him to
Heremod.

Celebration at Heorot
Hrothgar builds stronger
diplomatic ties by
claiming Beowulf to be a
part of his family.

Order and harmony is

restored to the Danes,
but the poet hints of a
future betrayal.

Celebration at Heorot

Gold and gifts are

given as a public
acknowledgement of
valor.

Celebration at Heorot

Hildeburh acts as a
peace-weaver.
The Finnsburg Episode
foreshadows Grendels
mothers attack and shows
the Germanic custom of
wergild.

Celebration at Heorot
Wealhtheow cements the bond
between Hrothgar and Beowulf,
and extends it into the next
generation.

The golden torque is given as a

symbol of the bond of loyalty
between the Danes and Beowulf.

Concept of wyrd (fate)

Looming danger in two ways:
Grendels mothers revenge
and Hrothulfs betrayal

Celebration at Heorot
Men vs monster
Stories told by the scope
A greater evil still has to be defeated

Religion duality
Heavenly Shepherd (929)
Lord of Ages (944)
Burial ritual (1107-1114)

Foretelling a doomed future

Betrayal (1018)
Death is inescapable

Another Attack
Grendels Mother attacks
Heorot

The Revenge of
Grendels Mother
Wer-gild
Just as Grendels slaughter of
Hrothgars

men

requires

avenging, so does Beowulfs

slaying of Grendel.

Cultural Imperative
if certain things happen, your culture
expectsyou do take certain actions

Justifications
of

Grendels Mothers Revenge

1) as a mother, she is taking revenge on
those who harmed her son
2)her revenge is consistent with actions that
Beowulf and his men would take if one of
their number were killed in an attack

Beowulf to
Hrothgar

Wise sir, do not

grieve. It is always
better
to avenge dear ones
than to indulge in
mourning.
For every one of us,
living in this world
means waiting for our
end. Let whoever can
win glory before
death. When a
warrior is gone,
that will be his best
and only bulwark.
(13841389)

King
Hrothgar

Beowulf

Fight with Grendels

Mother
Christian Allegory behind
the fight
Duality of Grendels
mothers character

Beowulf got ready, Beowulf arms for the

donned his war-gear, indifferent to
death; underwater fight
his mighty, hand-forged, fine-webbed
mail
would soon meet with the menace
underwater.
It would keep the bone-cage of his body
safe:
no enemy's clasp could crush him in it,
no vicious armlock choke his life out.
To guard his head he had a glittering
helmet
that was due to be muddied on the mere
bottom
and blurred in the upswirl. It was of
beaten gold,
princely headgear hooped and hasped
by a weapon-smith who had worked
wonders
in days gone by and adorned it with
boar-shapes;
since then it had resisted every sword.
And another item lent by Unferth

Distinction
between the
fight of
Beowulf aand
Grendel
Beowulf gets
into battle
with enemies
whose power
gradually
increases.

Line 1497-1505 Quickly the

one whoAllegory:
Christian
haunted those waters,
Beowulf
Beowulf
swimsisto hell and he fights
captured
against evil embodied by Grendels
who had scavenged and gone her
mother.
gluttonous rounds
for a hundred seasons, sensed a
Line 1522-1528 But he soon found His
human
fails to
do
1536-1549 Then the prince of
observing her sword
outlandish
lair
from Line

Concept
of
duality
in
the
character
of
his battle-torch extinguished:
thewarming
War-Geats,
to this fight
above.
Grendels
motherboth
a
hero
and
a
blade and
amage with Grendel's mother, gripped her
So she lunged shining
and clutched
refused
to bite. It monster
spared
her and
shoulder
managed to catch
him
Grendels mother as an archetype of Great
failed
and laid about him in a battle frenzy:
in her brutal grip;
but his
body,and
for Terrible
all
Mother
Mother
the
man
in
his
need.
It
had
gone
1540
he
pitched his killer opponent to
that,
throughthe
many
the floor
remained unscathed:
mesh of the
hand-to-hand fights, had
the
but hewed
she rose
quickly and retaliated,
chain-mail
armour
grappled him tightly in her grim
saved him on the
outside. Her savage
and helmets of the doomed,
but here
embrace.
talons
lastof his warshirt. The sure-footed fighter felt daunted,
failed to rip theatweb
the fabulous powers of
that
heirloom
the
strongest
of warriors stumbled
failed.
and fell.
1545 So she pounced upon him and
pulled out

Then he saw a blade that boded

well,
a sword in her armory, an ancient
heirloom
from the days of the giants, an
ideal weapon,
i56o one that any warrior would
envy,
but so huge and heavy of itself
only Beowulf could wield it in a
battle.
So the Shieldings' hero hardpressed and enraged,
took a firm hold of the hilt and
swung
1565 the blade in an arc, a
resolute blow
A light appeared and the place
that bit deep into her neck-bone
brightened
and severed it entirely, toppling
the way the sky does when
the doomed
heaven's candle
house of her flesh; she fell to the
is shining clearly.
floor.

God grant Beowulf help

through the vision of a
sword. He kills the devil
and light from heaven
fills in the dark place as
a blessing.
Grendels mother living
and dying by the sword
is a symbolism of a
monstro-heroic act.

Beowulf represents Jesuss descent to

hell and return to life in the resurrection.

1617 Then away he swam, the one who

had survived
the fall of his enemies, flailing to the
surface.
1620 The wide water, the waves and
pools,
were no longer infested once the
wandering fiend
let go of her life and this unreliable
world.
The seafarers' leader made for land,
resolutely swimming, delighted with his
prize,
1625 the mighty load he was lugging to
the surface.
His thanes advanced in a troop to meet

Conclusion
1. Grendels mother is both a hero and
a monster
2. Christian allegory is evident in
Beowulfs battle scene with
Grendels mother

Bibliography

http://beoshewulf.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/angelina-jolie-as-gr
endels-mother.jpg
http://faculty.nmu.edu/kkendall/HS%20101/ordeal%20cold%20wate
r.jpg
unsigneddesign.com/LT_AntiquePaper/Full/LT_AntiquePaper_07.jpg
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/beowulf/section6.rhtml
http://www.gradesaver.com/beowulf/study-guide/section5/
Ides, Aglcwif: Thats No Monster, Thats My Wife!Uncovering the
Origins of Grendels Mother by Jennifer Smith
Petra Prochzkov Female Characters in Beowulf (Brno, April 2007)