31 March 2009
When we last left our hero, he had just managed to throw Grendel’s mother off of him and to stand up. Now, in a bit of deus ex machina (foreshadowing is not one of the poem’s strong points), Beowulf sees a sword hanging on the wall, grabs it, and swings at the neck of Grendel’s mother. He connects, breaking her neck and killing her. Beowulf looks around the chamber and sees Grendel’s body and then cuts off Grendel’s head as a trophy. The sword blade melts from the heat of Grendel’s blood.
Meanwhile, back up at the surface of the lake, the Danes and the Geats are despairing of Beowulf’s life. The Danes leave, returning to Heorot. The Geats, remain, hoping against hope that their leader is still alive. Finally, Beowulf emerges from the lake, carrying Beowulf’s head, the hilt of the sword he found, and the sword Hrunting. They return to Heorot, making a spectacular entrance, dragging Grendel’s head by the hair across the floor.
The description of the death of Grendel’s mother is worth repeating, lines 1557-1569:
Ġeseah ðā on searwum siġeēadiġ bil,
ealdsweord eotenisc, ecgum þyhtiġ,
wigena weorðmynd; þæt [wæs] wæpna cyst,
būton hit wæs māre ðonne æniġ mon ōðer
tō beadulāce ætberan meahte,
gōd ond ġeatoliċ, ġīganta ġeweorc.
Hē ġefēng þa fetelhilt, freca Scyldinga
hrēoh ond heorogrim, hrinġmæl ġebræġd
aldres orwēna, yrringa slōh,
þæt hire wið halse heard grāpode,
bānhringas bræc; bil eal ðurhwōd
fægne flæschoman; hēo on flet ġecrong;
sweord wæs swātiġ, secg weorce ġefeh.
(He saw among the war-gear a victory-blessed sword,
an ancient sword made by giants, mighty in its edges,
an honor of warriors; it was the best of weapons,
except it was more than any other man
to battle could bear,
good and splendid, the work of giants.
He grasped the linked hit, the bold one of the Scyldings
fierce and sword-grim, drew the ring-marked sword
despairing of life, angrily struck
it against her neck grasped hard,
and broke her vertebrae; the sword went through
the doomed body; she fell dead on the floor;
the sword was bloody, the man rejoiced in the deed.)
You can see the deus ex machina here. Where did the sword come from? There is no mention of it or other war-gear in the earlier description of the chamber. This is typical of medieval narrative; many of the story-telling conventions, like foreshadowing and continuity, that we prize today are absent. Again we have the loving description of the weapon. Two words in the passage are of note, vertebrae are bānhringas, or bone-rings, and bloody is swātiġ, the root of our modern sweaty. Swāt, or sweat, referred to any bodily fluid in Old English, not just perspiration. Also note in line 1556b, the translation would better be placed earlier: “grasped hard and drew the ring-marked sword.” Again, Old English inflections allow much great flexibility in syntax than does Modern English.
The melting of the sword is nicely described in metaphor, lines 1605b-1610a:
Þā þæt sweord ongan
æfter heaþoswate hildeġiċelum,
wiġbil wanian; þæt wæs wundra sum,
þæt hit eal ġemealt īse ġelīcost,
ðonne forstes bend fæder onlæteð,
onwindeð wælrāpas.
(Then the sword began
from the battle-sweat into war-icicles,
the battle-sword to all melt; it was a wonder
that it all melted most-like ice,
when the bond of frost the Father loosens,
and unwinds the water-ropes.)
Again we have sweat for blood, this time heaþoswate, or battle-sweat. Note that Old English syntax allows the verb phrase, ongan eal ġemealt, began to all melt, to be split.
The poem’s treatment of Grendel’s mother is rather odd to the modern sensibility. She is earlier described as weaker and less formidable than her son, yet she almost kills Beowulf while the hero has little difficulty dispatching the son. And once dead, her body is ignored; the head of Grendel is the appropriate trophy. Is this sexism? Or is it that the actions of Grendel’s mother are justified? She is seeking retribution for the death of her son, but Grendel’s has killed more people, over a longer period, and with no justification, he is the true enemy whose head should be displayed.
Finally, the end of the fit where Beowulf and his men make their entry into Heorot, lines 1647-50:
Þā wæs be feaxe on flet boren
Grendles hēafod, þær guman druncon,
egesliċ for eorlum ond þære idese mid,
wlitesēon wrætliċ weras on sāwon.
(Then by the hair was borne across the floor
Grendel’s head, where men were drinking,
terrible for the men and for the lady with them,
the amazing spectacle the men looked at.)
