The Mother of Vengeance: Grendel's Mom | Monstrum

The big baddie in Beowulf isn't actually the monster Grendel, but Grendel's Mother. Who maybe isn't a monster at all? Often depicted in adaptations as a hideous beast or an alluring seductress, her true nature is debated. Despite appearances, she’s described in the original text in warrior terms, challenging traditional gender roles. Translation and interpretation have shaped her lore as a fearsome yet misunderstood figure.

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Bibliography
Burdorff, Sara Frances. “Re-Reading Grendel’s Mother: Beowulf and the Anglo-Saxon Metrical Charms.” Comitatus, vol. 45, no. 1, 2014, pp. 91–103.

Chance, Jane. “Chapter 12: Reading Grendel’s Mother.” New Readings on Women and Early Medieval English Literature and Culture : Cross-Disciplinary Studies in Honour of Helen Damico, edited by Helene Scheck, and Christine E. Kozikowski, Arc Humanities Press, 2019, pp. 209-225.

Hennequin, M. Wendy. “We’ve Created a Monster: The Strange Case of Grendel’s Mother.” English Studies, vol. 89, no. 5, 2008, pp. 503–23.

Myśliwiec, Katarzyna. “‘You Are the Spawn of Cain!’ Grendel’s Mother’s Literary Appropriations.” Neohelicon, 2024, pp. 1-18.

Pettit, Edward. The Waning Sword: Conversion Imagery and Celestial Myth in Beowulf. Open Book Publishers, 2020.

Staver, Ruth Johnston. A Companion to Beowulf. Greenwood Press, 2005.

Trilling, Renée Rebecca. “Beyond Abjection: The Problem with Grendel’s Mother Again.” Parergon, vol. 24, no. 1, 2007, pp. 1–20.

Valdés-Miyares, J. Rubén. “Beowulf’s Monster Discourse Now: Grendel in Twenty-First-Century Film.” English Studies, vol. 102, no. 6, 2021, pp. 847–67.

Vowell, Alison. “Grendel’s Mother and the Women of the Völsung-Nibelung Tradition.” Neophilologus, vol. 107, no. 2, 2023, pp. 239–55.

[bjornh]

Also, our Nordic "trolls" are indeed supernatural, but were originally not described with monstrous, hideous looks. That´s a later tradition. So I think Grendel´s mom could fit well into the early tales of trolls and elves.

[JennieKermode]

A lot of the language in the original text points to Grendel attacking not at random, but in response to the fact that he is not offered a place in the hall of Heorot. The implication is that his father is there: that he is a bastard, his mother probably cast out when her pregnancy made her inconvenient. This is the underlying element in the 'actions have consequences' theme that runs throughout the poem. It's particularly egregious because one of the worst crimes one could commit in that culture was denial of hospitality.

[amatalefay]

Obligatory recommendation of Maria Dahavana Headley’s novel, The Mere Wife, a modern retelling of Beowulf from Grendel’s mother’s perspective where every chapter starts with a different translation of “hwæt”.

[sebastianleung]

I've been waiting so long for a Beowulf episode..Grendel and his mother always made me interested more so than the dragon, espicially the symbolisim behind what Grendel's hatred as well as the lack of description of Grendel's mother in the epic. While the 2007 animation with Angelea Jolie was always what people talked about, the 2005 Canadian-Icelandic film "Beowulf & Grendel" directed by Sturla Gunnarsson has my favorite depiction of Grendel, more of a tragic character than just being a monster (I won't spoil anything for those who haven't watched it but let's just say they made 1 (actually 2-3) critical mistake that I accepted because it added depth to Grendel's character development), but anyways THANK YOU!!!

[maggiesheartlove]

I always had some respect for Grendel's mom. I mean, going beserk over the death of a son that was shunned by society? In a time where people perceive motherhood as 'weak and backwards' you gotta respect the woman's unconditional love for her baby boy.

[NewMessage]

Beowulf's on my side of the valley again! * the sky darkens noticeably * Oh, yer gonna get it now."

[PokhrajRoy.]

Avenging your terrorising monster son’s death, now that’s *MOTHER*

[drakulta]

How younger me was introduced to Grendel Mother in primary school: *A Monstrous eight tentacle armed woman with white hair and has a face of a skull with sharp teeth.*

How Grendel Mother actually looked like in mythology based on texts: *a large beautiful and powerful woman with a warrior physique with supernatural abilities.*

Older me: ...oh my I never understood her depiction in Sarcastic productions video till now 😳

[hab]

I can imagine Grendel's mother holding a grudge (possibly for justified reasons) and inspiring her son to become hateful and murderous.

It's funny how myths can make monsters out of regular people.

[fatsparrowsewing]

You make it seem like Tolkien left Grendel's mother out of the translation, but he didn't, Beowulf does go and fight her. He might not discuss her in his essay, but he didn't write her out of the story.

[ZachTheZip]

I was hoping that my favorite (albeit loose) Beowulf adaptation, The Thirteenth Warrior, would also get a mention. Grendol's mother, or "The Mother of the Wendol" is a scary, but not at all supernatural, woman that acts as a sort of shamaness for her people.

[germanomagnone]

Wow, "the evolution of Grendel's mother" resembles what happened to Tiamat, in Babylonian mythology. she knows what it was in the original versions reminds me a lot of "Xena: Warrior Princess" is an American fantasy television series from 1995, she was an "X-WOMAN" or "wolverine-girl" (of course for a mother of a "mutant son" it was the least she could have been so furious)

6:41 honestly it looks like a weremonkey to me!

[nicolaslemire]

I love this! I didn't know a lot about Grendel's Mother, but again a very informative, very thought-provoking video. She is not even referred with her own name, only known as Grendel's mother? That's very telling

[Lord_RFAS]

So, trolls back then weren't that dissimilar to the trolls we suffer today, eh? 🤣🤣🤣

[friend_trilobot]

It's been a bit since I was in grad school but when I took a class on old English and beowulf as an elective my professor, who specializes in old English texts and regularly appraises old manuscripts for collectors, definitely gave me the impression that there is no evidence beowulf had an extensive preexisting oral tradition but is either highly local or even made up by one or a few people. It references a ton of folklore and legend but nothing references it, other than that there are placenames (mostly bogs and lakes) that have Grendel in the name, but Grendel could therefore be a reference as well - a pre-existing figure associated with meres. It wasn't an important document until the modern era, and only 1 copy exists and is in a book that mostly includes fantastical stories about far off places, if I recall. Also, if i recall Beowulf himself references a more famous hero with a similar name. My prof even said he thought it could be written by someone who just really liked all those legends and wanted to write a compelling story of their own that touches on their favorite legends. But I could have misread the situation, or that could just be his pet theory. But in any case, beowulf is one of those stories that seems to have at least 7 different famous interpretations constantly cycling through pop culture and though I feel the evidence ought to exclude some of them, I'm no expert and it seems just as likely they're isn't enough to fully justify any claim - its all educated guess work. I'm not sure if a real academic consensus has settled yet, and though that's something I would love to know of the is I feel uncertain hearing what that might be from anyone who doesn't have a focused study on it for a living.

[armandowillem]

She was a bog-hag or a river witch in the version I read in highschool.

[AdamYJ]

It’s kind of weird that Grendel’s mother doesn’t have her own name.

[davidbrasher]

Odd that Grendel's Mother should be considered monstrous just because she was a queen and warrior. Freya is considered to be a war god, among other things, And Frig is sort of a queen. The Norse gods were not considered to be monsters.

[Anyluv]

I remember when I was in high school we were reading Beowulf and for extra credit you could go see the Beowulf with Angelina Jolie in theatres and write a paper about the differences (which there were a lot of). I do kind of wish you would have mentioned the book Grendel which is told from Grendel's point of view (I believe at one point they made a short production of it as a rock musical), it has an interesting way of describing Grendel's mother.

[incubustimelord]

In Marvel Comics, Grendel's Mother is known only as simply, "Big Mother" and she is an alien Klyntar symbiote similar to the super-villains Venom and Carnage, but genetically-grafted to an evil magical female European dragon. Big Mother was created by Knull, the evil omnipotent alien god of the alien race of the symbiotes from the alien planet of the symbiotes. He magically bonded the evil, female, fire-breathing, flying, winged, giant European dragon with the evil alien symbiote and in turn, it self-replicated and created a child/sibling symbiote called "Grendel". Grendel was then also bonded by Knull to an evil male dragon, too.

This was back during Medieval Times, in the beginning of the Middle Ages, specifically the year 800 A.D. in the area of Northern Europe or Scandinavia that is now known as Copenhagen, Denmark. It was during this place and time that Big Mother and Grendel had both fought the Danish royal Viking warrior king Beowulf the First who was a half-human, half-Asgardian, demi-god armed with an enchanted broadsword, and possessing supernatural powers from his half-Asgardian heritage.

So Marvel Comics changed the story around into a dark fantasy from ancient Norse mythology to a fantasy and science-fiction horror story about Grendel and his mother both actually being alien symbiotes bonded to dragons from the end of the Dark Ages, and Beowulf was just a physically invincible man born from a mortal man and an Asgardian goddess.