by Ellie Fullerton
The poem Beowulf may on the surface appear to be a poem with little or nothing to say about women, aside, perhaps, for a few stereotypical mentions. Although certainly to portray the position of women as a central theme could at best be considered overreaching, the text is by no means silent, or even specially stereotyped, in its portrayals of women. The most central of these women is the monster known as Grendel’s mother who serves as the traditionally male avenger as well as the unavoidably female role of mother. By examining the actions of Grendel’s mother and comparing them to the actions of other female characters we can discover the roles she plays within the text and the roles that women played within the society of Beowulf.
In order to more fully understand the position of Grendel’s mother within the text the position of women in the text must be understood. Although the culture of Beowulf is at least considered to be an extremely gender-roled society, the poet is very little preoccupied with establishing those gender roles. As a fact of daily life in a patriarchal society they would not have been as interesting to the poet as they are to a twenty-first century reader, and so it is perhaps understandable and unremarkable that no particular female positions are explicitly proscribed by the poet. However, the main role that women filled within the society is clearly that of mother; Grendel’s mother is known only by that appellation, Beowulf’s mother is praised by Hrothgar for bringing “forth this flower of manhood” (942), and Wealtheow, Hrothgar’s queen, uses the only lines in the poem where a woman speaks to attempt to secure the future safety of her two sons (1176-86, 1226-7).
In Grendel’s mother, this maternal quality is combined with her odd supernatural quality and the apparent gender confusion of a female taking on a male role. Grendel and his mother are identified in the text as descendants of Cain, which clearly places them in the ‘evil’ category, natural enemies of Beowulf and the Shieldings. This classification as descendents of Cain explains the identities of the two monsters as possibly ancient supernatural beings, and especially identifies Grendel, the son, with Cain (104-7, 1265-6). By identifying his most powerful female character as Grendel’s mother, the poet establishes a creature defined by both her essential femininity and her alien monstrous qualities. Clearly to fight Beowulf, who, even in the worst moment that could be dredged up, a lost swimming race, manages to emerge triumphant as the slayer of a sea monster (553-558), Grendel’s mother could not be merely a woman. But both her female and supernatural designations do not appear to magnify or detract from any given character trait or action, except perhaps in terms of her physical strength. Overall the different facets of her character seem to be separate parts within the same being.
It is clear that Grendel’s mother has been purposefully placed into her maternal category, but the effects that this has on her overall character are not as clear, especially in regard to her main function within the text as the avenger of Grendel’s death. When describing her need for revenge against the Shieldings for the death of her son, Hrothgar declares, “she has taken up the feud / because of last night, when you killed Grendel…. Driven to avenge her kinsman’s death” (1333-4, 1340), earlier her reason for revenge was given by the poet, “But now his mother / had sallied forth on a journey, / grief-racked and ravenous, desperate for revenge” (1276-8). After she kills the counselor of Hrothgar Beowulf exhorts the king, rather matter of factly, “It is always better / to avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning” (1384-5). There is no substantial difference between Hrothgar’s explanation of Grendel’s mother’s revenge-seeking and Beowulf’s call for Hrothgar’s own revenge. Both happen as a matter of course within this society, and it is not surprising to anyone that Grendel’s kin, in this case the only surviving member happening to be female, has come to exact retribution for Grendel’s death. It would perhaps seem likely that something about Grendel’s mother’s method of seeking revenge was more particularly feminine, but even here her motives and actions are unremarkable. Although the particular language describing her impulses as ‘desperate,’ ‘grief-racked,’ and ‘ravenous,’ would perhaps seem overly emotional, Hrothgar’s own words are no less charged when, upon learning of Aeschere’s death he says, “Rest? What is rest? Sorrow has returned. / Alas for the Danes!” (1322-3). Also absent from the account are any of the typical images of a grieved or protective mother, such as the idea of a mother bear protecting her cubs. Although her supernatural abilities enable Grendel’s mother to obtain revenge, her female identity does not afford her any advantage in that regard, nor, interestingly, take any away.
Another female character, Hildeburh, who needs revenge for both her son and her brother, has a particularly long mention in the text. Although Hildeburh’s poem is not strictly speaking a part of the narrative about Beowulf, it can serve as a key piece of evidence that speaks to the context of greater society at the time the Beowulf poem takes place. Its placement in the text, just before the attack on Heorot by Grendel’s mother, invites comparison between the two grieving but otherwise very different mothers and the contrasting ways they behave. This combined with Hildeburh’s situation as a real, as opposed to supernatural, woman dealing with the loss of a son can give a more informed perspective on Grendel’s mother. Hildeburh occupies the position of a peace pledge between two now warring tribes, her kin-group the Danes or Shieldings, and the Frisians and their allies the Jutes; this position is made all the more impossible for her when she finds herself having lost a son and a brother at the hands of her husband’s tribe (1070-72). Although theoretically her role is to bridge the bad blood between both peoples, she now has “little cause / to credit the Jutes” because they have effectively killed her brother and her son (1071-2). In this society it is then natural for the kin-group of the fallen warriors to demand revenge for their loss, resulting in the same pattern of violence that women like Hildeburh were married off to stop. However in this case the tribes have been so war-ravaged that the cycle of violence is momentarily halted and the process that should have continued and brought some kind of closure to Hildeburh and her kin, as our modern grief counselors put it, is halted in an uneasy truce (1080-1108). During this time Hildeburh is surrounded by the men from her tribe who are supposed to avenge her brother and son, and so she has nothing to do but resign herself to waiting for any action, taking on the passive role of a grieving mother surrounded by warriors. In fact the language that describes Hildeburh after the deaths of her ‘dears’ connotes only passiveness, “She, bereft / and blameless…. how could she not lament her fate” (emphasis added, 1073-77). The only direct action Hildeburh takes is in having her son’s body burned on the pyre with the Danish soldiers (1115-18). Because Hildeburh has male counterparts surrounding her, she has no need to actively seek any kind of retribution, and she is vindicated in the end when the Danes rise up against the Frisians and defeat them (1138-58).
Grendel’s mother is in the opposite situation of Hildeburh; she is a bereaved woman with no men to take action for her and so she must act herself. But this too puts her identity as a woman into question. Grendel must be avenged, and she is the only person left to exact it for him, but she is a woman and so should not be doing so. Interestingly, before Grendel’s death his mother has an existence that is not as active as Grendel’s, Hrothgar describes the reports of these two monsters that he has received from his country peasants, “One of these things, / as far as anyone ever can discern, / looks like a woman.” Although he goes into a bit of detail about the form of Grendel, it does not seem as though anyone has gotten a good look at Grendel’s mother. They have at least had enough contact with Grendel to assign him name, as they don’t know his true name, but they have vaguely glimpsed a woman and so don’t even have a name for her besides ‘Grendel’s mother’ (1345-54). While Grendel is alive his mother does not go out hunting or marauding through the countryside, just as while her kin are alive Hildeburh resigns herself to waiting for them to act. Thus when Grendel’s mother suddenly becomes ‘unfeminine’ by taking direct action, the contradiction between male and female roles makes her seem all the more monstrous.
In the end Grendel’s mother is no more able to avoid death than was her son or was Beowulf when faced with the Dragon in his old age. Nor was Hildeburh able to protect her son as Wealtheow is desperate for hers. The wailing of the Geat woman at Beowulf’s funeral is particularly fitting because no matter what specific identity an individual in this old Norse society can claim, human, monster, dragon, man, woman, they all face the same dismal fate in the end. Grendel’s mother may have been the best suited to avoid an ignoble death of any of these characters because she encompassed so many traits, but even she couldn’t avoid the cycle of violence.