Masarykova univerzita Pedagogická fakulta

Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury

Bakalářská diplomová práce

2020 Tomáš Palko

Masaryk University Faculty of Education

Department of English Language and Literature

Tomáš Palko

From Monster to Warrior: The Changing Interpretation of the Character of Grendel's Mother in Beowulf

Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Mgr. Jiří Šalamoun, Ph.D. 2020

Declaration I hereby declare that I have worked on this bachelor thesis on my own and that the information I used has been fully acknowledged in the text and included in the reference list.

Prohlášení Prohlašuji, že jsem bakalářskou práci vypracovala samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných literárních pramenů a zdrojů uvedených v seznamu literatury v souladu s

Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č.

121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.

In Brno, ______Tomáš Palko

______

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank my supervisor Mgr. Jiří Šalamoun, Ph.D., for encouraging me to explore the character of Grendel’s mother beyond just a seminar paper, for his wise guidance and constructive criticism, and for his patience with me and my slow progress.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction …………………………………………………………………..……....1 1.1 Women in Anglo-Saxon society and in Beowulf …………………..……….5 1.2 Grendel’s Mother character interpretations ……………………..……...….10 1.3 Translation comparison …………….……………………...….……….…..14 1.3.1 The first encounter ……………………………………………………..15 1.3.2 The warrior …………………………………………………………….17 1.3.3 The hunt for Grendel’s mother- description of her appearance ………..20 1.3.4 The fight with Beowulf ………………………………………….……..25 1.4 Conclusion ……………………………...………………………………….29 2. Grendel’s Mother in films …………………………………………………………..31 2.1 Beowulf directed by Robert Zemeckis ……………………………………..31 2.1.1 Appearance …………………………………………………………….32 2.1.2 The battle ………………………………………………………………34 2.1.3 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………..35 2.2 Beowulf & Grendel directed by Sturla Gunnarsson ……………………….36 2.2.1 Appearance …………………………………………………………….37 2.2.2 The battle ………………………………………………………………38 2.3 Conclusion ………………………………………………...……………….39 3. A contemporary novel: The Mere Wife by Headley …………………………...……41 3.1 Summary of the plot ……………………………………………………….41 3.2 Voice ……………………………………………………………………….42 3.3 Appearance …………………………………………………………...……44 3.4 Heroic mother …………………………………………………………...…45 3.5 Conclusion …………………………………………………………...…….48 4. Conclusion …………………………………………………………………...... ……50 Works Cited …………………………………………………………………...…….....52

1. Introduction

The aim of the present thesis is to discuss the interpretation of the character of

Grendel’s mother (one of the main antagonists in the epic Beowulf) as a monster in chosen translations of the epic and film and contemporary fiction, and how the interpretation changes in time and in the light of new approaches and evidence claiming that Grendel’s mother should be read as a female warrior rather than a monster.

Beowulf is seen as a superb work of art from the Anglo-Saxon period (Niles 79) and not only because it is one of few literary creations from the Anglo-Saxon period that prevailed. The period of the seventh and eight centuries in which Beowulf was most probably composed bears the term “Dark Ages”. The author of the epic is unknown to us and we do not know if the poem was a rare piece of art or just one of many of this kind (Irving 3).

The poem starts with the narrator describing the times when the Danes were distressed and helpless due to the violent attacks taking place at their very home - the mead hall Heorot. The cause of the horrors was Grendel, a cannibalistic monster, and a descendant of Cain. After twelve years, Beowulf, the nephew of the king of Geats

Hygelac, appeared offering help. King Hrothgar accepted Beowulf’s offer and after an obligatory feast the hero encountered Grendel and literally disarmed him in a one-on- one combat. Grendel somehow managed to escape, only to die of blood loss afterwards.

The heroic deed was again followed by a feast, after which a new gruesome attacker appeared: Grendel’s mother came to avenge her son’s death. Although the Danes successfully deflected her attack and Grendel’s mother was forced to flee, she managed to kill one of the king’s closest friends. Beowulf again offered help in settling the feud.

He pursued Grendel’s mother to her hall hidden under water. After a fierce battle,

Beowulf killed Grendel’s mother with a sword from her own treasury, decapitated her

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and her son’s body, and then returned to Heorot. The story then proceeds fifty years forward with Beowulf, now the King of Geats and an old man, facing his last adversary.

A dragon, having been disturbed by neighbouring humans and robbed of part of his treasure, started to terrorize the whole region. Beowulf decided to face him alone, after almost all his companions ran away in horror. With a help of a young boy, Beowulf killed the dragon, but was mortally wounded by the dragon’s poisonous breath.

Although the dragon’s treasure had found a new owner in the hands of Geats, there was little to celebrate because without Beowulf and his superhuman strength the whole nation became a potential target of their neighbours.

This epic poem excels not only in the broad variety of themes and symbols like the self-destructive nature of justice system based on blood feud (Acker) or the role of the hall as a safe haven, but also in the use of extraordinary language and diction.

Furthermore, following the rise of new approaches in the second half of 20th century’s literary criticism, a new wave of themes (such as the position of women and their impact on the story (Porter, Damico), and alternative reading of Grendel’s mother as a woman (Alfano, Henequin, Porter) were identified in Beowulf. I decided to compare chosen translations, films, and a literary retelling, to see if there is any change of perception of Grendel’s mother in the light of this different approach that focuses more on the female characters and they representation in the epic.

The thesis is organized as follows. The beginning of the first chapter discusses the status of Anglo-Saxon women in history and literature, the existence of female warriors in Anglo-Saxon history, and the political, martial, and social power of historical and literary female figures of the Early Medieval Period. The aim of this part is to point out that some women in Anglo-Saxon history and literature held power, thus a violent and physically strong woman that rules over a hall does not necessarily have

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to be interpreted as a monster to show these attributes. The role of Grendel’s mother as a human being has a logical place and purpose in the epic and is connected to other female protagonists in Beowulf. To clarify this connection, this section includes a brief description of Wealhtheow , Hygd, Hildeburhb Freawaru and Thryth, and they ways of holding power in Anglo-Saxon society comparing to Grendel’s mother. The second part discusses the way how Grendel’s mother and her monstrosity is interpreted by scholars and translators, to identify discrepancies in the translations. The main source used in this part is The issue of Feminine Monstrosity : A Reevaluation of Grendel’s Mother by

Alfano (1992) in which she claims that Grendel’s mother as a monster is a concept created by translators, lexicographers and critics without real textual evidence from the poem (for example, the word aglæcwif which, according to Alfano, means a warrior woman, is translated as an “ogress” by Tolkien). Alfano’s work is cited in many other articles that deal with women in Anglo-Saxon or Medieval literature, some of them

(Hennequin, Porter, Astrom) are used in this thesis. I was not able to find any paper criticizing or directly denouncing her claims. In addition, in 1994 the authors of the

Dictionary of Old English published by the University of Toronto updated the definition of word aglæcwif as female warrior or fearsome woman (Ganguly, 162), thus further supporting Alfano’s claims.

In the third part of Chapter 1, I compare selected lines, describing the physical appearance of Grendel’s mother, her martial proves, and her fight with Beowulf, of four different Beowulf translations (Gummere, Tolkien, Heaney, Čermák) from different time periods to Alfano’s translations with the aim to establish how prevalent her

“monstrosity” is and whether there was a different approach to Grendel’s mother character in the course of time. The selected lines describe the first encounter with

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Grendel’s mother, her attack on Heorot, and the fight between Grendel’s mother and

Beowulf.

In Chapter 2, I analyse and compare the depiction of Grendel’s mother in two selected films: Zemeckis’s Beowulf (2007) and Gunnarsson’s Beowulf & Grendel

(2005).

These two adaptations are the most recent and also the most historically accurate in comparison to some other modern versions. For instance, Beowulf (1999), starring

Christopher Lambert as Beowulf, is a fantasy science fiction piece that takes place in a postapocalyptic future. Another adaptation, the 13th Warrior (1999), a movie based on

Michael Crichton’s book The Eaters of the Dead (year of pub), has the right setting and, in contrast to Beowulf & Grendel (2005), Grendel’s mother plays a much more significant and interesting role (she is depicted as a matriarch of a cannibalistic tribe terrorizing the Danes), but her actual screen time is one scene taking place between

1:19:29 and 1:20:23 of the movie.

I compare her physical depiction, her role in the films, and the possible influences that created two diametrically different versions of one character.

Chapter 3 presents an analysis of the novel The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana

Headley, a modern literary adaptation of the epic. I discuss the roles of Grendel’s mother, the lack of her physical monstrosity, her relationship with the other characters, and the parallels with the original epic, and compare it to the analysed films and translations.

Chapter 4 summarizes the previous chapters and concludes in a discussion about the analysed texts and films presenting the changing interpretation of Grendel’s mother from typical brutish monster to heroic female warrior.

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1.1 Women in Anglo-Saxon society and in Beowulf

In the article “The Creation of the Anglo-Saxon Woman”, Berit Åström presents the opinion that the portrayal of the Anglo-Saxons as savage brutes is a result of internal prejudices rather than based on actual historical information. She also states that it is almost impossible to be fully objective, but one should be aware of this internal bias when conducting a research (32).

Åström points out that there are serious discrepancies in archaeological interpretations (28). Further, the main source for the pagan Anglo-Saxon studies appears to be the scholar Tacitus writing about the German tribes in the first century AD, but his work concerns the German tribes on the continent and not the Anglo-Saxons (26). In the field of literary theory, Åström shows that Anglo-Saxon female characters tend to be ignored, and as an example she presented the refusal of a female narrator in the elegy

The Wife’s Lament (30.) and the monstrous transformation of Grendel’s mother in the epic Beowulf.

Åström (30) supports Alfano’s (5) claim that Grendel’s mother monstrosity is more likely abstract, not physical, and that it derives from her being a warrior, or, in other words, her misdemeanour towards her gender role as a peacekeeper, assigned to

Anglo-Saxon women by scholars and translators. It is possible that the only way some of the scholars could imagine an Anglo-Saxon woman armed and fighting, is to transform her into a monster. This is in spite of the fact that Tacitus, who is frequently used as a source by scholars studying the early Anglo-Saxon period, includes passages on female warriors in Germanic tribes (Åström 30).

Åström argues that the image of absolute inferiority of women in Anglo-Saxon society might be a product of the fact that women as subject of research in Anglo-Saxon literature appeared only recently, in the second half of the 20th century (Åström, 25) and

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is probably closely connected with the rise of the feminist social movement in 1960’s

(Damico, 3). In fact, Domesday book (Stenton 4) proves that it was not unusual for an

Anglo-Saxon woman to own land, one of the few surviving charts issued by Egbert, grandfather of Alfred the Great, was made in favour of three sisters who inherited an estate from their father (Stenton 2). Further, there is also evidence of very powerful

Anglo-Saxon female leaders, such as AEthelflæd, the lady of Mercians, who planned and carried out military campaigns in the 10th century, and Cynethryth the wife of Offa, who made such impact on the realm that coins were struck in her name (Stenton 1).

AEthelflæd in particular is an interesting historical figure, mainly for her martial achievements. The daughter of Alfred the Great ruled Mercia after the dead of her husband and assumed the title “Lady of the Mercians” (McLaughlin 198). The fact that she was able to recover most of the towns and cities held by the Danish invaders is more than enough to mark her as a remarkable female warrior. In her paper Bandel demonstrates that Aethelflæd shared similar fate with some other female Anglo-Saxon literary characters:

In Plantagenet times the story of Aethelflaed became a nine days’ wonder.

Henry of Huntingdon, writing in the twelfth century, unable to conceive of a

widow ruling alone, makes Aethelflaed the daughter of Aethelred and says that

she ruled “In the name of her firm father”. In his chronicle there appear the

phrases which were to follow women as if they were their shadows for hundreds

of years: “for a woman she did well” or “She acted like a man” (116).

To link Gendel’s mother with the rest of the female characters in Beowulf, Porter identified six women with certain degree of political or martial power and divided them into three groups: hostesses/cup bearers (Wealhtheow and Hygd), peace-weavers

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(Hildeburh and Freawaru), and hostile hostesses/strife-weavers (Thryth and Grendel’s mother) (Porter par. 2).

The peace-weaver is the ideal of a perfect Anglo-Saxon aristocratic woman/lady

(ides) . Her role in the society was not only to bear children and mingle the blood of two tribes (clans) but also to function as a social element in the tribe (cheerfulness and loyalty were a sought-after character traits): bearing the cup from the most noble warrior to the least noble one, giving gifts to the members of the clan, and acting as a counsellor inside her tribe (Chance, 1,). In the light of this definition, Wealhtheow and

Hygd undeniably are also peace-weavers, but Porter (par. 9) although in concord with this definition, decided to create two separate groups in order to emphasise the (more or less failed) peace creating through marriage by Hildeburh and Freawaru.

The role of a cupbearer is apparent at the first feast in Heoroth, where Hrothgar is the first one to receive the cup from Wealhtheow to show Beowulf who is the master of the hall (613-619). Later the cup bearing displays the rise of Beowulf’s status in the hall. On the feast in honour of defeating Grendel, Wealhtheow hands the cup to

Beowulf right after Hrothgar (line. 1168 and 1191) (Porter par.3).

According to Chance (3), the role of an ides was to maintain the peace in the community when the husband was busy waging war, serving as a cupbearer, but also a counsellor, and treasure giver. Porter (par.7) argues that the role of Wealhtheow and

Hygd is much more than just an extension of their husbands’ power, and that both women are capable to pursue their own agendas autonomously of their male relatives.

Wealhtheow’s role as a counsellor is slightly more autonomous. In lines 1174-1186 where she asks Hrothgar to make Hrothhulf (his nephew) his heir instead of Beowulf, apparently acting in favour of her own agenda (protecting her sons right). Porter (par.7) points out that Wealhtheow further enhances her safeguard by giving Beowulf a ring

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(the role of the treasure giver), praising him for his heroic deeds, urging him to be kind to her sons and last but definitely not least she slightly threatens Beowulf with display of power: “The thanes have one purpose, the people are ready/ Having drunk and pledged, the ranks do as I bid.” (Heaney 1230-1231)

Although not so prominent as Wealhtheow, Hygd also holds some influence on the Geats. After Hygelac’s death, she wants Beowulf to be the new king of Geats instead of her own son who she finds unworthy. There is a possibility that she is acting according to her husband’s wish, but Porter (par.8) argues that there is no mention about this in the poem, therefore it is also possible that Hygd operates on her own free will.

Again, what does this show and why is it important?

The second group with agentive power is the strife – weavers or hostile hostesses: Thryth and Grendel’s mother. Both women use violence and martial power as means to obtain their goal instead of marriage, gift giving and cup bearing. They kill men entering their halls, but the outcome of their actions differs significantly (Porter par.14).

The author of the epic shunts Thryth’s behaviour and uses her as a stark contrast to Hygd:

Even a queen

Outstanding in beauty must not overstep like that.

A queen should weave peace, not punish the innocent

With loss of life for imagined insults (Heaney 1940-1943).

The violence enacted upon her victims vas so dire that even her status as a queen, was not enough to prevent an open critique of her behaviour. Thryth was openly called out for her deeds and violation of her role as a peaceweaver. And yet, everything changes

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the moment she married Offa, she was finally tamed, and all her deeds were forgiven

(Porter par.14).

Grendel’s mother destiny in the poem was much more dreadful. She dies by

Beowulf’s hand without a chance for redemption. Although she is marked as a lady

(ides) along with Thryth (Alfano, 2), she does not receive the same kind of mercy derived from this status. Porter examines the various reasons for the dual solution of the practically identical situation. Whereas Thryth is a functional cog in the engine of

Anglo-Saxon society, according to Porter (par. 16) some scholars hold the opinion that

Grendel’s mother operates outside of the Anglo-Saxon society, and that is why she does not receive the same kind of treatment and is unable or unwilling to receive wergild for her son which is probably a deduction from the fact that Grendel himself is banished and unwilling to accept the death-price to stop the feud with the Danes (154-156) making her an extension of Grendel in the process. Porter (par.16) herself believes that

Grendel’s mother, if not truly integrated into the society at least respects the law and customs and supports her claim by the fact that nowhere in the poem the author mentions that avenging Grendel was an unlawful act. It seems that Grendel’s mother does deviate from the ideal of ides so much that she truly operates outside of the Anglo-

Saxon society. She behaves as a hostile hostess and attacks Beowulf the moment he descents into her domain (1501). The armoury in her hall (1598), belongs only to

Grendel’s mother with no mention of sharing her wealth with anyone, thus failing also as a gift giver, and her revenge killing might be also out of custom. Acker (705) compares the action of Grendel’s mother to Icelandic sagas where in solving blood feuds the women operate with different kind of agency. They serve more like inciters of the revenge urging their kinsmen to do the revenge in their name. It is possible that because Hrothgar’s people saw only two of their kind (1345-1349), Grendel’s mother

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had no other kinsmen than Grendel, and because of that she was forced to enact the revenge with her own hands. This might have marked her as a custom breaker, outcast and villain, but not a monster.

It is important to state that this section comments on the status of noble women only. Even Grendel’s mother is called ides (lady). It is almost certain that common-born women played much less significant role in the social and political sphere but probably were bound by the same or similar ideal of ides (Chance 1).

In summary, women who held power did exist in Anglo-Saxon society and as characters in literature of that time, and therefore a powerful and martially skilled woman does not have to be interpreted as a monster.

1.2 Grendel’s Mother character interpretations

The one female in Beowulf whom one might think no reader could ignore is

Grendel’s mother. Many scholars, however, do. J.R.R. Tolkien sets the pattern

by making the poem bipartite and subsuming the fight against Grendel’s mother

under that against Grendel. By overlooking the significance of Grendel’s mother

as an independent figure, Tolkien established a fashion of misreading Beowulf

that has been hard to escape (Olsen qtd. in Hennequin 503).

In her book Gender in Translation (year of publication), Sherry Simon discusses that translation is a form of communication as much as writing, serving as a bridge between time and cultures, belonging to the world of ideas and roles, and that is why it will never be an isolated task (83). She also concludes that because of our binary cultural heritage, we do have affinity to assign gender tags to contrasting ideas, for example, active/passive weak/strong (18,19). Therefore, there could be a room for a translational

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pitfall, where the translators are guided by their perception of cultural roles and constructs.

If we consider the battle prowess and violent nature of Grendel’s mother, some translators might have a problem to mark her with the feminine tag. Alfano explains in her article that there is a large amount of ambiguity surrounding Grendel’s mother: for example, the words wif, Ides, and aglæcwif, which can be translated as wife, lady and warrior-woman respectively, are often translated as “monstrous ogress” (Tolkien) or

“hell-bride” (Heaney) (1,2). Therefore, it is clear that after reading about her “piercing talons” instead of her “grim grip” (Alfano 3) it is hard to even think about Grendel’s mother in human dimensions. Even if her humanity is acknowledged, like in Orchard’s analysis of the first encounter, in which he claims that the author of the epic emphasises the femininity of Grendel’s mother by referring to her as a mother, a lady, a terrifying troublemaker in woman’s form creating a link to the human world (152), it is done only partly, still referring to Grendel’s mother as monster.

Grendel’s mother is not only an interesting subject due to her questionable literal monstrousness, but also because her role in the saga may not be merely serving as a random dead monster number two. The attempts to decipher her role and purpose in the poem are often ambiguous and unclear. For example, Irving in his Introduction to

Beowulf depicts Grendel’s mother as practically breaking into the poem unexpectedly out of nowhere, as a personification of violence caused by blood feud, evil, which is, in contrast to inexplicable Grendel’s rampage, well known and comprehensible to the

Anglo-Saxon audience (Irving 57). According to Fletcher (8) the Anglo-Saxons, like other Germanic tribes, were no strangers to solving their internal disputes by blood feud, even labelling them as a feuding culture, with clear rules and conventions for

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enacting a blood feud revenge. Grendel’s mother has a legitimate reason to commit violence, which makes her less evil than her son.

Few lines later, Irving elaborates on the appearance of Grendel’s mother, and the lack of description of her mental processes by the narrator, and concludes that although her motives are human, Grendel’s mother presents both human and inhuman kind of evil, with a strong affinity towards the inhuman. In other words, Irving is aware that the core of her actions is human but tries very hard to classify her as an animal (59), thus contributing to the reading Grendel’s mother as a monster instead of a human being.

Nevertheless, by using examples like “mighty mere-woman” (page?) Irwing was not able to completely eradicate traces of Grendel’s mother’s womanhood.

As Porter states in her article, there are three basic archetypes of women in

Beowulf: the hostess, the peace weaver, and a hostile hostess or strife weaver. Grendel’s mother attacked Beowulf when he entered her domain and made a decision to avenge

Grendel, which made her a hostile hostess and strife-weaver, a counterpart to the first two categories representing the classic gender role in the old Anglo-Saxon society.

There is also a possibility that her aggression is a by-product of the fact that she probably shares with Grendel the inability or unwillingness (Kahrl 192) to pay wergild

(a way of financial compensation in the feud).

the vicious raids and ravages of Grendel,

his long and unrelenting feud,

nothing but war; how he would never

parley or make peace with the Dane.

Nor stop his death-dealing nor pay the death price (152-156)

We have little to none information considering the feud between Grendel and the

Danes, but it is possible that the old Anglo-Saxon audience with the same cultural

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background as the author had this knowledge and knew why wergild was not an option for Grendel or his mother.

Although Grendel’s mother’s reasons for her assault on Heorot are, Acker (706) uses examples from old Norse literature where women who used their own hands to carry out the revenge kill were considered deviant. He also claims that the fact that a mother bloodied her own hands by revenge killing even emphasises the monstrosity of that deed (Acker 705). Nevertheless, the emphasis is still on the fact that the blood feud was carried out by a mother than on a real physical monstrosity of Grendel’s mother. So what?

Another interesting transgression is her role of an evil, murderous guest and the hostile hostess mentioned above. As Leyerle (11) states in his paper, for Danes a hall was a place where a visitor should arrive without any hostile intents, and, likewise, the host should be generous and provide entertainment and refreshment for the guest. From

Grendel’s mother’s first appearance we know that she was “grief-racked and ravenous, desperate for revenge” (Heaney 1279) which means that Grendel’s mother entered

Heorot with ill intention to kill, thus acting in contrary with the broadly accepted rules.

Similarly, when she attacked Beowulf in her underwater hall, she proved to be a hostile hostess, who instead of providing food and entertainment made attempts to kill her guests.

Grendel’s mother crosses more than one gender expectation. She owns her own hall, which was most probably at that time a domain of men, and manages to evoke fear in Beowulf during their fight, a deed that was not even the mighty Grendel capable of

(Hennequin 509), she takes the vengeance into her own hand and attacks visitors of her hall on sight. However, the act of crossing gender lines both supported by historians and

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the ones created by our own biases does not justify the reforging of a violent female warrior into a monster.

1.3 Translation comparison

In this section I provide the analysis comparison of four translations of Beowulf by Gummere (1910), Tolkien (1926, 2014), Heaney (1999) and Čermák (2003) focusing on the Grendel’s mother’s rendition. The reason to choose these particular translations is to compare the attitude of the translators towards Grendel’s mother on a timeline from one of the oldest I was able to find to the most recent. This approach was inspired by a paper by Alfano (1992) in the first part of which she compared several different

70’s and 80’s translations to her own interpretation of expressions describing Grendel’s mother. Alfano claims that the monstrosity of Grendel’s mother is a by-product of the translators’ artistic ambitions and their attitudes towards women transgressing their roles in Anglo Saxon society. The authors, influenced by their personal biases, transformed an avenging mother into a bloodthirsty monster (2). The average reader of the epic does not know about the different translations of words “aglæcwif” and “ides”: the former can be translated as a warrior woman (Alfano 2) or as “monstrous hell-bride”

(Heaney 1259), the latter as a “lady” (Alfano 2) or as an “ogress” (Tolkien 1045-46).

These words are practically the introduction to the Grendel’s mother’s character, and depending on the translation, will create a mental image of a monster or warrior for the rest of the epic.

Unlike Alfano, I decided to use the diachronic approach and compare the translations from different periods, namely 1910’s, 1920’s, and 2000’s to see if and how the translations differ from each other in time, and if Alfano’s claims about unanimous monstrosity interpretations hold for more modern as well as older translations.

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Francis Burton Gummere was a well-known American scholar of folklore and ancient languages who translated Beowulf as a part of the Harvard Classics series.

J.R.R. Tolkien was known not only for his translation of Beowulf but also for the series of lectures concerning the epic. Seamus Heaney was a poet (1955 Nobel Prize for literature laureate), a scholar (Harvard University 1985-2006) and a translator. Heaney’s translation of Beowulf was long waited and is praised for the strength of its narrative design (Chickering 161). Jan Čermák is an important Czech scholar, translator and medievalist. He received the prestigious Josef Jungmann Prize in 2002 for his translation of Beowulf into the Czech language.

1.3.1 The first encounter

At the beginning of the second part of the epic, a new threat (Grendel’s mother) sneaks in to Heorot with a violent intend. All four selected translators used the word

“avenger” ( Heaney1258) to introduce Grendel’s mother to the reader, a person that is determined to enact a revenge on someone or something, which is undoubtedly a human role. Right in the next line she is called a “monster of women” by Gummere (XIX), an

“ogress, fierce destroyer in the form of woman” by Tolkien (1045-46), “monstrous hell- bride” by Heaney (1259), and “příšerná paní” [terrible lady] by Čermák (1259). All four extracts of the chosen translations indicate that Grendel’s mother does behave as a human being, acting like a human, seeking to settle a blood feud by avenging her son, only to almost instantly degrade her humanity fully (Heaney, Gummere) or partly

(Čermák) connecting her with hell or monsters or devolving her into an “ogress”

(Tolkien). Čermák’s translation of those few first lines points at the otherness and monstrousness, but still keeps the status of a lady for her, Tolkien’s and Gummere’s translations show the effort of the translators of creating a picture of human likeness,

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and Heaney’s translation, although using the lexeme bride connected with humans, undermines her humanity by connecting her with the supernatural (the hell is a realm of eternal suffering filled with demons and other otherworldly creatures). However, Alfano

(2) translates the original word aglæcwif as “warior woman”, and states that she does not see any valid reason for different translation. In her view, the reader’s perception of

Grendel’s mother is moulded by the influence of the translator and their effort to reshape her silhouette to fit the niche of a monster right from the beginning. If we compare all the translations above, some give Grendel’s mother human credit, but none of them evokes an image of a warrior woman or a female fighter. There is no trace of humanity or battle prowess in Heaney, Tolkien’s translation points at her fierceness, her ability to destroy and fight, but he paints an image of an “ogress” a sub-human creature at best. In spite of the fact that Čermák’s translation “příšerná paní” has a “lady” in it, the translation is ambiguous because we do not know whether her monstrosity

(příšernost) is based on her appearance or her actions.

In the next reference to Grendel’s mother, her role as an avenger is confirmed again in all four translations:

Gummere gloomy and grim, would go that quest of sorrow, the death of her son to

(XIX) avenge

Tolkien Grimhearted, ravenous, was minded going upon a journey full of woe

(1602) to avenge the slaying of her son.

Heaney grief-racked and ravenous, desperate for revenge

(1279)

Čermák matce lítící nyní ležela na mysli smrt, strastná výprava, šla pomstít syna

(1277) [on the furious mother’s mind death dwelled, sorrowful journey, she

went to avenge her son]

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Instead of her appearance, the lines above describe the inner state of Grendel’s mother’s mind, showing her desperation and her lust for revenge, portraying more a grieving mother determined to avenge her only son than a rampaging “monstrous hell- bride.”

To summarise, all four chosen translators are in concord that Grendel’s mother plays a role of an avenger (a role reserved for humans and well known to the Anglo-

Saxon audience), only to be demoted in practically the next line to an ogress (Tolkien), or hell-bride (Heaney) by translating the same word (aglæcwif) that Alafano translates as “warrior woman,” which has entirely different connotations than “monster of women” (Gummere) and even Čermák’s milder “příšerná paní” [terrible lady]. She is

“ravenous” and “grimhearted,” but this is probably more due to the fact that she had lost her child and was about to enact revenge on the Danes, feeling grief-stricken, rather than her being an actual monster.

1.3.2 The warrior

The following reference deals with Grendel’s mother’s battle prowess and the reaction of the Danes she confronted:

Gummere Less grim, though, that terror, e’en as terror of woman in war is less,

(XIX) might of maid, than of ken in arms when, hammer-forged, the falchion

hard, sword gore-stained, through svine of the helm, creste, with keen

blade carves amain.

(XIX) … Then was in hall the hard-edge drawn, the swords on the settles, and

shields a many firm held in hand: nor helmet minded nor harness of

mail, whom that horror seized.

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Tolkien Less indeed was the terror, even by so much as is the might of women,

(1068) the terror of a woman in battle compared with armed man, when the

sword with wire-bound hilt, hammer-forged, its blade stained with

dripping blood, trusty of edge, cleaves the opposing boar-crest high

upon the helm.

(1073) … Lo! In the hall along the benches stoutedged swords were drawn,

many a tall shield was gripped in hand and held aloft. Of his helm no

man bethought him, nor of long corslet, when that horror came upon

him.

Heaney Her onslaught was less only by as much as an amazon warrior’s

(1282) strength in less than armed man’s when the hefted sword, its hammered

edge and gleaming blade slathered in blood, razes the sturdy boar-ridge

off a helmet.

…Then in the hall, hard-honed swords were grabbed from the bench,

(1288) many a broad shield lifted and braced, there was little though of

helmets or woven mail when they woke in terror

Čermák Grendelova máti tou měrou menší budila bázeň, oč slabší v boji je mocí

(1282) žena, než jeví se muž, když kaleným mečem, kladivy kutým, planoucím

krví, kance na přilbici výbornou čepelí rozčísne v půli.

[Grendel’s mom invited fear only of such merit by which a woman is

weaker in a battle than a man when he with a hardened sword, hammer-

forged, blazing with blood, cuts with the fine blade a boar crest on a

helmet in half. ]

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(1288) … Tak v síni zdvihli ze sedadel meče s tvrzeným ostřím, okrouhlé štíty

paže pozvedly. Na přilby nedbali, široké pancíře, když v děsu procitli.

[So, they grabbed edge-hardened swords from the benches. Round

shields they raised in their arms. They did not care for the helmets,

broad armours, when they woke up in terror]

According to Hennequin (506), many critics concluded that this passage refers to the inferiority of Grendel’s mother and women in general in battle. She points out at the fact the passage does in fact not deal with the physical strength, but the terror that

Grendel’s mother was able to seed in the Danes. Hennequin (506) further elaborates on the idea that the Danes, although seasoned and disciplined warriors, were so terrified that they had forgotten to even put their helmets on through the shock and terror that

Grendel’s mother inflicted upon them. All translations except Heaney’s work with internal fear and terror in both references. Heaney is the only one that acknowledges the physical ability of Grendel’s mother by using the word onslaught, and compares her to an amazon, a legendary woman warrior that is more than equal to her male counterparts, thus putting the fighting skills of Grendel’s mother on the same level with the Danes. However, Heaney robs Grendel’s mother of her warrior title a few lines later by calling her a “hell-dam” (1293) (the word dam is used to refer to animals, most commonly the cattle) compared to the less animalistic expressions: “she” (Gummere

XIX), “she” (Tolkien 1076) and “ona” [she] (Čermák 1292). In her paper, Hennequin

(519) states that marking Grendel’s mother with phrases like “the hell-dam” is the way how the translators, lexicographers and critics deal with their own expectations on the field of gender and gender roles. In spite of being compared to an amazon, her battle

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prowess simply cannot be a testimony of her skills but is taken as a sign of abnormality or monstrosity.

In another interesting instance, when Beowulf is summoned before Hrothgar, the hero is told about the murder of Aeshere (Hrothgar’s right hand and a friend), and that the culprit is a “wandering death-sprite” (Gummere XX), “a wandering murderous thing” (Tolkien 1111), “roaming killer” (Heaney 1330), and “divá stvůra” [wild creature] (Čermák 1331). Alfano (6-7) states that the wide interpretation (from human roaming killer to unnatural death sprite) is probably a problem of lexicography. The original Anglo-Saxon word is wæl-gǣst (murderous sprite, deadly guest) Alfano (6) but, according to Alfano (6), there is actually a possibility to choose between the root “gæst” which could be translated as guest, or “gǣst” translated as a spirit or ghost. The choice of translation speaks more about the translator's point of view than the actual character or appearance of Grendel's mother, creating a criminal or a monster. Alfano's reason for prefering the gæst root is the fact that the theme of a murdering guest complements the one of the epic's main themes, the tensions associated with the Anglo-Saxon hall host/guest interactions (Alfano 7).

1.3.3 The hunt for Grendel’s mother- description of her appearance

When Hrothgar informs Beowulf about the existence of Grendel's mother, he uses testimonies of his subjects who saw two of Grendel’s kin.

Gummere (XX) One of these things, as far as anyone can ever discern, looks like a

woman

Tolkien (1127) Of these was one, in so far as they might clear discern, a shape as

of a woman

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Heaney (1349) One of these things, as far as anyone can ever discern, looks like a

woman

Čermák (1349) Jeden ten netvor - pokud se dalo postřehnout přesně - měl vzezření

ženy

[One of these monsters - if one could discern - had a look of a

woman]

All four translations suggest that Grendel’s mother is human enough to be at least identified as a woman, but when Hrothgar encourages Beowulf to seek Grendel’s mother and avenge Aeashere, Heaney uses the word “demon” (1378) taking the supernatural path, while Tolkien and Čermák decided for more neutral approach, with

“creature stained with sin” (Tolkien 1151) and “hříšné stvoření” [sinful creature]

(Čermák 1379). Gummere uses “sin-flecked being” (XX) which sounds the most human and is in concord with Alfano's (7) criminal/ evil guest theory, of Grendel’s mother being a “deadly guest” rather than a “murderous sprite” or a ghost. The interpretation of

Grendel’s mother being more a criminal than a supernatural being also fits the theme of the host, guest tensions and relations that surfaces throughout the whole story.

A few lines later Beowulf ensures Hrothgar that he will avenge Aeschere’s death. The four translations of the part where Beowulf speaks about following

Grendel’s mother differ in the way they describe her footprints. “Trail of this troll-dam”

(1391) used by Heaney is truly animalistic, using the word trail that can describe marks and signs of a passage made by a human or a beast, calling her a troll and emphasising her animalistic visage by referring to her again as a dam . Gummere uses more human centred translation “the trail of the mother of Grendel” (XXI) again using word trail

(which is a little ambiguous) but the translation acknowledges her motherhood in

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human terms. Tolkien’s translation is the most human: “the footprint of Grendel’s kin”

(1161), using the word kin instead of dehumanising dam. The most interesting part, however, is the use of the word footprint which, unlike the word track that is reserved for animal trail, refers to a human impression of a foot or shoe on a surface, so there is no ambiguity about the human origin of the Aeashere’s killer. Čermák translates this particular part as: “Po stopách Grendelovy příbuzné” (following footprint/tracks of

Grendel’s kin) (1391). This translation is ambiguous as regards the “trail” because the

Czech language does not distinguish between human and animal prints, but judging by the rest of the translation, Čermák probably inclines to the footprint version, considering the fact that he used the phrase “Grendel’s kin” which sounds definitely more human than a Troll-dam.

Further in the story when Grendel’s mother sensed Beowulf entering her domain she is described as:

Gummere the fiend who the flood-domain sword-hungry held these hundred winters

(XXII)

Tolkien Straightway that creature that with cruel lust, ravenous and grim, had a

(1250) hundred seasons held the watery realm

Heaney the one who haunted those waters, who had scavenged and gone her

(1497) gluttonous rounds for a hundred seasons

Čermák Ta, jež sto půlletí, panovala proudům, prahnouc po krvi, postřehla vzápětí,

(1497) lítá a lačná

[she who a hundred half-years ruled the currents, lusting for blood,

noticed suddenly, fierce and hungry].

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Čermák uses ona (she) which is more neutral in Czech language than in English (even inanimate objects have grammatical gender), but still, with “ona” (she) “panovala proudům” (rulled the currents) and not haunted or held her domain, the translation comes out more human than bestial. Gummere used the word fiend that can be interpreted as a monster, but also as a truly vile person. Heaney had chosen “the one who haunted those waters,” an expression that is more alienating than descriptive and instead of holding or ruling her domain, Heaney’s Grendel’s mother haunts the waters of her territory. Tolkien does grant a domain to Grendel’s mother to hold, but he calls her a “creature” completely dehumanizing her, making her an animal prowling in her territory.

Hennequin (509) suggests that the status of a warrior woman is given to

Grendel’s mother by lexical choice: there are words that indicate that she possesses qualities that are necessary for a capable fighter. In the original she is “grim” (which can be translated as grim, but also as fierce and cruel, Hennequin 509). Grim was used by Tolkien (1250), Čermák in the same line uses “lítá” (fierce) (1497). Another adjective is “heorogifre”- the translation suggested by Hennequin (509) is “sword greedy”, which is used by Gummere (XXII). Čermák’s translation of this part differs also with the time spam in which Grendel’s mother supposed to rule over the underwater hall. Where Gummere writes that she held her domain in “hundred winters,”

Tolkien and Heaney used the term “hundred seasons,” Čermák translates this part as

“sto půl letí” (“hundred half-years”). Fifty years do sound less magical and more human comparing to “hundred winters” painting the picture of Grendel’s mother in truly human colours.

In spite of the fact that all four translation are in concord with the fact that

Grendel’s mother has a womanly look (shape), Heaney (1349) calls her promptly a

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“demon” marks her foot prints as “Trail of this troll-dam” further dragging her into a category of monstrous and supernatural by claiming that she haunts the waters for hundred years, Tolkien’s translation the extracts is more human, she is a "creature stained with sin" which is still dehumanizing, but at least he did not connected her with hell. When looking for signs of Grendel’s mother, Tolkien’s Beowulf had found “the footprint of Grendel’s kin” not a trial of a troll dam. But although much more human, she still holds her watery realm for a hundred seasons. As for Gummere, he uses word trail in description of Grendel’s mother’s footprints, which is an expression used for footprints of animals, but calls her a “sin-flecked being” which sounds more like an insult and is in concord with Alfano’s theory of Grendel’s mother being more of a villain and criminal than a monster. Čermák’s “hříšné stvoření” [sinful creature] is on pair with Tolkien, but because there are no separate words for animal or human foot prints his “Po stopách Grendelovy příbuzné” (following footprint/tracks of Grendel’s kin) could be translated in both ways ,as track or footprint and it is more about the preferences of the reader than the translator. But it is his translation of (“ta, jež sto půlletí, panovala proudům, prahnouc po krvi, postřehla vzápětí, lítá a lačná”(she who a hundred half-years ruled the currents, lusting for blood, noticed suddenly, fierce and hungry) what separates his translation of the chosen texts in this section from the others.

Hundred half-years are just fifty years, which probably was in the old Anglo-Saxon times a truly blessed age, but to a contemporary reader it is a common age. Čermák in this part transformed a supernatural being into an older woman, bloodthirsty and aggressive but still in more or less achievable age.

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1.3.4 The fight with Beowulf

The clash between Grendel’s mother and her adversary starts when she clutches

Beowulf in what Alfano (3) translated as “terrible grip/grasp” dragging him into her underwater hall. Gummere (XXII) translates this reference as “grisly claws” which is not even close to Alfano’s “terrible grip”. Tolkien (1254) chose “dire claws,” an expression that says nothing about the firmness of Grendel’s mother grip but rather emphasizes her non-human appearance. Heaney (1502) used “brutal grip” which is more or less in concord with Alfano’s translation, and Čermák (1502), similarly to

Heaney and Alfano, decided to translate this passage as “v trýznivém stisku” [in a tormenting grip]. Alfano (3) in her work poses the question, why the same ability of

“terrible grip” is perceived heroically when Beowulf ripped off Grendel’s arm in unarmed combat and translated as “grisly claws” when the power of Grendel’s mother is in question. This choice of translation enhances the monstrous image of Grendel’s mother the same way as the translations of the words “ides” and “aglæcwif” at the beginning of the encounter between Grendel’s mother and the Danes, and disrupts the picture of Grendel’s mother as warrior woman (Alfano). Similar situation arises in line

15041 when an expression with a possible meaning “hostile/hateful fingers” (Alfano 3) is translated as “loathsome hand” by Gummere (XXII), and “cruel fingers” by Tolkien.

Neither translations evoke any “monstrous” or “beastly” features by itself, but this image is corrupted by the former translation of the “terrible grasp” expression. Heaney and Čermák chose “savage talons” (Heaney 1504) and “divými pařáty” (“with savage talons”) (Čermák 1505) where the fingers are transformed into talons, a definitely non- human feature.

1 according to Heaney 25

Another interesting ambiguity concerns the word wolf. On their way to the underwater hall rulled by Grendel’s mother, she is called:

Gummere (XXII) This brine-wolf

Tolkien (1257) that she-wolf of the waves

Heaney (1506) That wolfish swimmer

Čermák (1506) ta vodní vlčice [that she-wolf]

Alfano (8) and Henequin (509) agree that the word brimwylf used in the original does not have to necessary be a physical description of Grendel’s mother, but one of the ways of how to refer to a warrior, a fighter or a cruel person. Beowulf himself has

“wulf” in his name and is called a wolf in some translations; for instance, in the version by William Morris (1563) he is called “the wolf of the Scyldings”. The four chosen translations display this ambiguity, and although the translators could not completely dismiss Grendel’s mother as a female warrior or at least a very “nasty” person, the reader is probably at this point already primed by the translators to see an actual physical presentation of a she-wolf. Instead of a grappling match between two human adversaries, the reader is served a more epic and mythical scene not much different than the fight between Heracles and the lion of Nemea.

The moments before Beowulf tries his first armed attack on Grendel’s mother and fails, he observes his deadly opponent. Depending on the translator Beowulf sees:

Gummere (XXII) wolf-of-the-deep

mere-wife monstrous

Tolkien (1269,1270) The monstrous woman of the sea

She-wolvish outlaw of the deep

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Heaney (1518,1519) swamp-thing from hell

tarn-hag

Čermák (1518,1519) Tu na dno zavrženou [her banished to the bottom]

Mocnou vod paní [the mighty lady of the water]

Both Gummere and Tolkien again used the word “wolf” which could be again comprehended as a mark of an outlaw or warrior. They also admitted that Grendel’s mother possesses at least a degree of womanhood. Although she is called “mere-wife monstrous” and the “monstrous woman of the sea” there is no explicit evidence of her physical monstrosity. Heaney’s translation of the first of two lines gives no room for speculations or ambiguity. By calling Grendel’s mother a “swamp-thing from hell” he denies that Grendel’s mother is a person in one line but grants her a speck of humanity as “tarn-hag” in the other. Čermák calls Grendel’s mother “zavržená” [banished] making her more an outlaw than a beast, and also translates the second of the two references as “mocná vodná paní” which could be a reflection of both her fighting ability and the fact that it is Grendel’s mother (rather than Grendel) who is the true ruler of the underwater hall.

What all chosen translation agreed on was that Grendel’s mother is a “deadly foe” (Gummere XXII) a “mortal foe” (Tolkien 1287) a “killer opponent” (Heaney 1542) and a “smrtelná sokyně” [deadly opponent] (Čermák 1540), all of them presenting

Grendel’s mother as an seasoned and deadly fighter who was able to beat Beowulf in hand to hand combat, a discipline in which her son Grendel failed miserably.

Gummere (XXII) She paid him back with grisly grasp

Tolkien (1290) grapling cruelly, she clutched at him

Heaney (1542) Grappled him tightly in her grim embrace

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Čermák (1542) Hrábla po něm hroznými drápy

[she grabbed at him with horrible claws]

Alfano (3) translates this part as “fierce grasp” and three of four translations ale similar to her interpretation. Čermák’s Grendel’s mother is different because she does not use her “grasp” but instead she “grabbed at” (hrábla) Beowulf with her “horrible claws” (hroznými drápy). Here Čermák describes an animal armed with claws rather than a lady. Henequin (508) also considers this part as a proof of Grendel’s mother exceptional wrestling abilities and later on she elaborates on the fact that Grendel’s mother excels even in the armed aspect of waging combat. She managed to stab

Beowulf and, as Hennequin (508, 509) indicates, to spare Beowulf from injury or death, there had to be two divine interventions (God’s ruling and the enchanted mail-shirt worn by Beowulf, which was created by smith-god Weland). By contrast, Grendel’s mother fighting ability did not come from a magic or rune enchanted sword, Grendel’s mother wielded only a “seax” (Hennequin 508) or

Gummere (XXII) short sword, broad and brown-edged

Tolkien (1293) Knife with broad and burnished blade

Heaney (1546) broad, whetted knife

Čermák (1545) Dýku [dagger]

and still managed to land a hit on the hero of the epic. The possession of a weapon is an interesting fact about Grendel’s mother. Attacking Beowulf with a weapon is more in concord with Alfano’s and Hennequin’s theory of Grendel’s mother as a muscular female warrior/outlaw than an image of a rampaging monstrosity. A demon with “dire claws” or “piercing talons” has no need for a knife. On the other hand, a warrior woman

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skilled in the art of war, might have some use for a “knife with broad and burnished blade”.

1.4 Conclusion

In all translations Grendel’s mother is a slightly different monster with various degrees of human features. Gummere’s “Grendel’s mother, monster of women” (XIX), with her “grisly claws” (XXII) has almost a fairy-tale like feeling of a generic scary bed-time stories monster. Tolkien’s “ogress, fierce destroyer in the form of woman”

(1045) in “a shape as of a woman” (1128) evokes a picture of a brutish sub-human. The closest paraphrase to this portrayal would probably be a cavewoman on steroids.

Heaney, on the other hand, emphasised her evil intent by connecting Grendel’s mother with hell: “monstrous hell-bride” (1260). Further he calls her a “tarn-hag” (1519) and uses the word dam (reserved for the cattle) instead of mother, giving life to an evil creature that pacts with infernal powers. Čermák’s “mocná vod paní” [the mighty lady of the water] (1519), who attacked Beowulf with her horrible claws: “hrábla po něm hroznými drápy” [she grabbed at him with horrible claws] (1542), could be compared to

Medusa, evoking both awe and fear. In other words, where one interpretation speaks about “swamp-thing from hell”, the other calls Grendel’s mother “mocnou vod paní

[mighty lady of the water]” pointing at the possibility that the bestial pattern could be optional.

Interestingly, none of the translators question Grendel’s mother womanhood when she is discovered by the Danes. Suddenly an “ogress and fierce destroyer”, that

“swamp thing from hell” and “wolf-of-the-deep”, gets compared to a woman pointing out the fact that when powerful she is a monster, but any sign of weakness is accounted to her suddenly found womanhood. Also, all the translations mark Grendel’s mother as

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an avenger, a person trying to carry out the blood feud, a practice common among the

Anglo-Saxons in time of the original epic.

Upon comparison, the celebrated Heaney’s translation is the most biased towards the portrayal of Grendel’s mother as a non-human monster, but even he did not succeed completely, comparing Grendel’s mother to an Amazon, acknowledging her as a female warrior. Čermák’s translation presents the most human depiction, but even he could not avoid choosing “hrozné drápy” [horrible claws] instead of “fierce grasp”

(Alfano 509) for his “mocnou vod paní” [the mighty lady of the water].

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2. Grendel’s Mother in films

In his 205 Years of Translations of Beowulf, Sauer lists a number of films inspired by or based on the story of Beowulf (87-88). The list includes some very loose interpretations, such as Clash of the Titans (with Beowulfian narrative structure),

Predator, and one episode in Star Trek Voyager, many of which omit the character of

Grendel´s mother completely. For the purposes of the present thesis, two films based more closely on Beowulf were chosen, namely Beowulf & Grendel (2005) and Beowulf

(2007). Although released only two years apart and featuring the same theme – old versus new, ( in Beowulf the human hero fights with the last of the demon kind, and in less mythical Beowulf and Grendel the hero fights remnants of some other Homo species), the two films differ in their interpretations of the clash and the character of

Grendel´s mother.

2.1 Beowulf directed by Robert Zemeckis

The director Robert Zemeckis and the screenplay writers Neil Gaiman and

Roger Avary decided to present what in their view was the true story of Beowulf, that is not corrupted by the monks who wrote the original oral epic down making it boring in the process (Clark18). The film focuses on the three main battles of Beowulf, with the prologue depicting Grendel´s first attack on Heorot. In spite of little screen time, the honour of being the main antagonist through the whole adaptation belonged to

Grendel´s mother, presented as a beautiful, always naked woman (starring Angelina

Jolie), although we are given some glances of her true lizard-like form (14:00, 45:20) resembling another famous monstrous mother from Ridley Scott’s Alien (Killilea 72).

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If compared with the original story, not only was Grendel’s mother not chased away by the denizens of Heorot while avenging her child’s murder, but was capable of slaughtering the whole of Beowulf’s crew silently without much of an effort, leaving alive only Beowulf and Wiglaf, Beowulf’s right hand (not present at the time), which is almost the exact opposite of the original poem, where only Hrothgar’s right hand

Aeshere was taken and killed. Despite her excessive ability to commit violence, most of the carnage is done by her male offspring. The fact she warns Grendel to not to kill men is in stark contrast with Gummere’s “the fiend who the flood-domain sword-hungry held these hundred winters” (XXII). She is not aggressive and tries to avoid humans.

2.1.1 Appearance

As mentioned above there is an interesting duality in appearance of Grendel’s mother in Zemeckis’s movie. Most of the time she is a beautiful voluptuous woman that evokes awe and lust. This form is far from “ogress, fierce destroyer in the form of woman” (Tolkien 1045-46), “tarn-hag” (Heaney 1519) or even “monster of women”

(Gummere XIX), but her animated and constantly moving hair and her claw-like high heels create an image of monstrousness and a feeling of uncanny, which is closest to

Čermák’s “příšerná paní” [terrible lady] (1259) or “mocná vod paní” [the mighty lady of the water] (1519). We have only occasional glimpses on the second form of

Grendel’s mother. She has lizard- or dragon-like scales, she probably has wings (due to the sound of flight when attacking Heorot) and claws similar to Čermák’s “hrozné drápy” [horrible claws] (1542) or Tolkien’s “dire claws” (1254). In both of her contrasting forms Grendel’s mother possesses the ability to speak, which not only gives a spark of humanity to her monstrous form, but also further pushes Grendel’s mother away from the original model from the epic.

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Gaiman, one of the cowriters of the screenplay, had already had experience with giving voice to female characters. In his retelling of the classic Grimm fairytale Snow,

Glass, Apples (1994) he had chosen the evil queen as the narrator, granting her a lot more space in the narration and thus giving voice to women, which is a group that gets often silenced in fairytales (Pärsson 4). Surprisingly, the voice of Grendel’s mother in the film bears little to none introspection, especially in comparison to his take on Snow-

White and the voice of Dana Mills in Headley’s The Mere Wife (which will be discussed later on in its own section). Most of the time, Gaiman’s and Avary’s

Grendel’s mother acts as a seductress, she uses her voice to lure men with promises of glory and pleasure. Kershaw and Ormond (par. 28) observe that in this interpretation the character of Grendel’s mother complies with the generic film code: in order to wield or offer power, a female character must also offer sex. Even the massacre in Heorot was presented as Beowulf’s erotic dream about Wealhtheow (par 29).

Grendel’s mother uses her body, seducing and using the male characters as pawns, leaving only shadows of the former heroes, and thus differs greatly from the concept of a straightforward female warrior presented by Alfano or Henequin. The reason why Grendel’s mother is depicted as an alluring woman could lie in the demographic of the targeted audience. Forni (49) claims that Zemeckis’s Beowulf tries hard to appeal to adolescent male audience, and naked Angelina Jolie works much better than Wealtheow cup bearing mead in silence (54). Forni also points out that although the film is filled with graphic violence, in its core it is strongly conservative, where Grendel’s mother in role of seductress serves as an example of how pre- or extra- marital sex could lead to a disaster (46). Another lesson to be learned is that one should be extremely suspicious of “aggressively seductive women and occasional sex” (47). In her paper Smash the matriarchy! Fear of feminine power structures in Beowulf

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adaptations, Killilea refers to always naked and lustful Grendel’s mother as “Evil

Demon Seductress” which is a trope used for a supernatural creature, a robot, an alien or a demon, masked as an attractive woman using her sexuality to manipulate, seduce and very often eat or kill men (Sarkeesian, qtd. in Killilea 73).

2.1.2 The Battle

The battle between Beowulf and Grendel’s mother differs significantly from the original epic. In the poem, Beowulf descents into Grendel’s mother domain fully armed with a helmet, chainmail and the legendary sword Hrunting (l.1441-1464). Zemeckis’s

Beowulf decides to face his adversary only in loincloth armed with Hrunting in one hand, the golden horn in the other and his six-pack. He is not seized and dragged into the cave by Grendel’s mother, but simply walks into the cave.

The fight in the poem is described by Acker (708) as a scene with traces of sexuality, where Grendel’s mother sitting on the top of Beowulf with a knife in her hand personifies the threat to male dominance. From the psychoanalytic perspective the knife presents a phallus, the ultimate symbol of masculinity. The threat of this transgression is averted using the biggest sword in town (so to speak), which tellingly weathers down after the battle (Acker 708). In the film adaptation, traces of sexual became the main theme. Grendel’s mother does not carry a seax or knife, but she wears high stiletto heels to emphasise the sexual and “what was the feminine over the martial and masculine”

(Fitzpatrick 215). Again, this is in stark contrast with Henequin’s theory about a skilled warrior with high wrestling ability (508). After Beowulf failed to harm Grendel’s mother with his sword, he did not attack her unarmed, and he did not seize “Grendel´s dam by the shoulder” (Heaney 1538), nor grabbed “Grendel's mother by her locks“

(Tolkien 1286-87) or “kštici” [thatch of hair] (Čermák1538) and he certainly did not act

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as Gummere’s Beowulf who “Seized then by shoulder, shrank not from combat, the

Geatish war-prince Grendel's mother” (XXII). Instead of fighting he let Grendel’s mother melt his weapon with few gentle touches, seducing him with her body and promises of fame and glory. By agreeing to her offer, he succumbed to lust and failed as much as his melted sword (Fitzpatrick 219).

2.1.3 Conclusion

The movie draws a parallel between female sexuality and monstrosity (Kershaw and Ormond 29) depicting female-led sexual encounters as dangerous and emasculating

Killilea (76), thus enhancing stereotypes about female sexuality behind a mask of a strong female character (Killilea 74). Where all four translations are in concord with the fact that Grendel’s mother is an avenger, in Gaiman’s and Avary’s version Grendel’s mother forsakes her quest of vengeance and seduces Beowulf in order to teach young men to be aware of sexually aggressive women and rather stay home and satisfy their urges by watching the “juicy bits” (Forni 56) omitted from the original poem by the boring monks.

Although Grendel’s mother is in this version depicted as a potent being with supernatural powers, the dialogue between Hrothgar and Beowulf after Beowulf’s glorious return indicates that her monstrosity does not stem from her physical form:

“She’s no hag, Beowulf, we both know that” (1:04:59), but her ruthlessness, thirst for vengeance, her scheming, and last but not least, her unrestrained sexuality and seductiveness. Grendel’s mother form Zemeckis’s Beowulf is not a primal brute like

Tolkien’s “ogress” (1045), her body is a body of a beautiful woman, nor is she an animalistic “troll-dam” (Heaney 1391). Although physically powerful, she possesses the ability to speak and scheme like a human. Gummere’s “monster of women” (XIX),

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might be closer due to the human and monstrous form of Grendel’s mother, but it is

Čermák’s “mocná vod paní” [the mighty lady of the water] (1519) that stands closest to this portrayal of Greendel’s mother. When comparing Čermák’s translation, which is the most recent one, with this film adaptation, the one thing these versions have in common is the shift from animalistic monstrosity to maliciousness of monstrosity with human face.

2.2 Beowulf & Grendel directed by Sturla Gunnarsson

As the title suggests the film concerns Beowulf’s battle with Grendel and his mother, with a prologue explaining the feud between Grendel and the Danes, omitting the episode with the dragon entirely. Grendel and his mother were referred by the Danes as trolls. Both were extremely tall, muscular, and in Grendel’s case hairy, with almost inhuman strength, but with rather limited linguistic means and capabilities. The adaptation shows mortal creatures, probably some of the last remaining specimens of some other Homo branch, most probably the Neanderthals. The screenwriter of Beowulf and Grendel Andrew Rai Berzins justifies the changes in story as being true to the epic story of Beowulf, instead of the poem (Clark 18). Although this claim is similar to

Avary’s and Gaiman’s approach to their adaptation, the result is significantly different, especially concerning the character of Grendel’s mother. As in Zemeckis’s Beowulf, we actually know exactly who Grendel’s father was. At the beginning of the film we witness the birth of the conflict between Danes and Grendel. In Beowulf & Grendel, it is the Danes who started the blood feud by killing Grendel’s father practically right before

Grendel’s eyes. As Sterling (213) points out in his paper, Gunnarsson managed to create a sympathetic and more human picture of Grendel. For example, he uses the witch

Selma (also an outcast like Grendel, and mother of his son) as a middle person between

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Grendel and Beowulf, translating from Grendel’s tongue to the language of the

Norsemen. Thanks to Selma we know that Grendel refuses to fight the Geats because there is no bad blood between them, and also, we learn about the origins of Grendel’s name. His name means “grinder”, not of bones, but of teeth because he suffered from bad dreams as a child and used to grind his teeth.

2.2.1 Appearance

Grendel’s mother in this adaptation gets little attention and sentiment comparing to her son. She is portrayed as giant, pale, brutish, primal, cavewoman, with “savage talons” and crouched posture. She lacks the dark glamour of Čermák’s “Mocnou vod paní” [the mighty lady of the water] and looks more like a mere-wife monstrous

(Gummere XXII), a “monstrous woman of the sea” (Tolkien 1269) or Heaney’s “tarn- hag” (1518). And as in the three similar translations, Gunnarson’s Grendel’s mother is depicted with monstrous proportions but contains as much humanity as wife

(Gummere), woman (Tolkien), or even hag (Heaney) parts in used translations. In spite of her brutish appearance, her humanity can not be denied by the translators nor the film makers.

Unlike Grendel, she is not capable of any speech and just screams in rage. But in spite of her sub-human appearance, animalistic features and inhuman strength, she did not resort to carnage like Grendel’s mother in Zemeckis’s Beowulf when attacking

Heorot. She easily overpowered everyone in the hall, taking only Aeshere’s life for the life of her son and her son’s hand. She apparently follows the code of blood feud, acting according to a warrior code of honour which is in concord with Alfano’s “warrior woman (2) and was capable of taking care of her grandson (who acts and looks like any other child of his age) hidden in the caves, which does not sound like something a

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“swamp-thing from hell” Heaney (1518) or “wandering death-sprite” Gummere (XX) would be capable of.

2.2.2 The battle

Comparing to Zemeckis’s Beowulf (2007) the fight between Beowulf and

Grendel’s mother was more faithful to the original. Although Gunnarsson’s Beowulf takes off the leather part of his armour and dives into the sea without his helmet or the sword Hrunting, he at least keeps his chainmail. Similarly, as in Beowulf, he managed to enter the cave on his own, but, unlike Zemeckis’s Beowulf, he is physically attacked by

Grendel’s mother after he has examined Grendel’s body. Gunnarsson’s depiction of the fight between Beowulf and Grendel’s mother departs from the supernatural towards the more realistic in the scene of the failing sword. Whereas in the epic Beowulf managed to get a full hit, but the blade failed the hero and did not hurt Grendel’s mother, in this adaptation Beowulf misses and barely scratches her on the neck. However, the fact she is wounded makes her more human than Zemeckis’s version. Grendel’s mother easily overpowers Beowulf, and instead of bringing the knife into the fight, she attempts to strangle him. Beowulf does not pay Grendel’s mother back by grabbing “Grendel's mother by her locks” (Tolkien 1286-87) but breaks free only after he desperately grabs a rock, bashing Grendel’s mother in the skull. Only then he finds the giant sword on a pile of loot and decapitates his constantly screaming adversary. Paradoxically, in spite of the fact that the scene is painted in more realistic colours, Grendel’s mother is portrayed much more animalistic than the original even suggests. Even if her constant screaming is omitted as a sign of her anger and grief, the absence of the knife suggests that her strength and her upper hand in the fight against Beowulf does not dwell in the well-honed skill of a female warrior as Hennequin implies in her paper (508) but in savagery and her large and muscular frame .

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A hint as to why Grendel’s mother appearance in this adaptation is Heaney’s

“troll-dam” and tarn-hag incarnate could be found in the interview with the director, in which he was asked if he had a favourite translation or if he read the original. His answer was:

No, I didn’t read it in Old English. My favourite is the Seamus Heaney; I love

the Seamus Heaney. He was not a purist about it, by going with what worked,

rather than trying to encumber it. Most of the other translations are more literal.

The Seamus Heaney one—I used to read it to my son when he was young, and it

would just trip off the tongue; it has this beautiful rhythm. He was a young kid,

and he’d just sit there, spellbound. (Johnston, 12)

It is likely that Gunnarsson was influenced by his favourite Heaney translation and sees Grendel’s mother as “monstrous hell-bride” referring to her as “see-hag” in the interview (Johnston 13), and using this nickname even in the credits at the end of the film to refer to the character of Grendel’s mother.

2.3 Conclusion

Where Zemeckis’s Beowulf and his idea of lustful Grendel’s mother might serve as a mirror of the entertainment industry of the 2000’s, Gunnarsson’s “sea hag” probably reflects his favourite artistic translation by Heaney.

When compared to translations, Zemeckis’s Grendel’s mother stands closest to

Čermáks’s “příšerná paní” [terrible lady] (1259): her human form is a beautiful seductress, manipulating men to do her bidding, with supernatural powers and a power to shapeshift to her different monstrous form with scales and wings, armed with “hrozné drápy” [horrible claws] (1542). With her ability to execute elaborated plans and schemes, she hardly resembles Tolkien’s “Ogress” (1045) or Heaney’s “swamp-thing

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from hell” (1518) but is capable of violence on monstrous scale. On the other hand,

Gunnarsson’s Grendel’s mother could be hardly marked as ides. She is brutish, close to

Tolkien’s translation above, or even resembling Heaney’s tarn-hag (1519), and yet she and her son are depicted as the honourable (which is undoubtedly a human virtue) following the rules of blood feud and taking care of her grandson.

Zemeckis’s Grendel’s mother is human in shape, her evil is human in kind but monstrous in proportions. Gunnarsson’s Grendel’s mother is more primitive and brutal, but her virtues are human. The main shift in depiction of Grendel’s mother in

Gunnarson’s Beowulf and Grendel and Zemeckis’s Beowulf is the fact that the human side of Grendel’s mother is much more prominent and obvious comparing to the chosen translations.

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3. A contemporary novel: The Mere Wife by Headley 3.1 Summary of the plot

The Mere Wife (2018) written by Headley is a modern novel adaptation of

Beowulf set in contemporary United States.

The main character Dana Mills, an ex-soldier, kidnapped on her mission in the

Middle East, returns home damaged physically and emotionally, with amnesia, haunted by an imaginary saint and pregnant with only vague memories of the child’s father.

What she found was her hometown buried under a new suburb paradise, the Herot Hall.

Dana gives birth to her child in an abandoned train station inside nearby mountain and decides to live and raise her son Gren in solitude, outside of human society.

In the meantime, the second main character, Willa Herot, the wife of the heir of the Herot Hall Roger Herot, lives her perfect life inside of the suburban paradise. Her days are strictly divided in a flawless time schedule of daily routines with her spoiled son Dylan as little stain on her white sheet of perfection.

The clash between the main protagonists starts when Gren finds his way to

Dylan’s house and the two become friends and decide to run away from home. Dana

Mills is forced to descent from the mountain into Herot Hall searching for her son, hoping to find him, confronting Roger and Willa in the process. Willa notices that Dana, who everyone believes to be a desperate homeless person, is armed, and calls officer

Woolf. In a turn of unfortunate events, Roger Herot chases after Gren and shoots him.

The desperate mother hears the cry of her dying son and cuts Roger down with a sword.

Dana confronts the approaching officer Woolf and puts a knife at his throat, overpowering him, in spite of the strength difference, with sheer fury of a person that

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has nothing to lose, only to find out that the body lying nearby, was a bear and not her son. She managed to escape back to the mountain with both boys and a wounded arm.

Officer Woolf is put in charge of the rescue operation, starting an affair with

Willa Herot in the process. He enters the mountain via the lake and finds a vast tunnel system of the old train station. In one of the tunnels he finds a severed hand and Dylan

Herot. Woolf decides that Dana Mills probably died or will die from infection anyways, so she is not worth chasing, but in fact it was the fear of their first confrontation that kept him from the chase. He tells Dylan that he killed Dana and her son and started to dig out from the old station. Danna and Gren fled deeper into the mountain not knowing if they ever come back.

Years later the two boys meet again but their reunion leads into another clash between Dana Mills and officer Woolf, which ends with Dylan’s death, and subsequently with the final battle between Dana Mills, Gren and Ben Woolf on Dylan’s funeral.

3.2 Voice

In his paper “Grendel’s mother (Beowulf) and the Celtic Sovereignty Goddess”

William Sayers states: “Grendel’s mother is nameless, and, from a modern interpretive perspective, this anonymity makes her more archetypical and abstract but no less monstrous” (32). Headley in her book achieved the exact opposite. By naming the main protagonist, she underlined her humanity. Dana Mills has a name, a voice, and a past.

What is known about Grendel’s mother from the original poem is just that she is an entity truly old and that her son is also an offspring of Cain (126-1266). As Henequin pointed out, the fact that only Grendel is explicitly marked as Cain’s offspring could mean that Grendel’s mother does not descend from Cain (514).

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Dana Mills has a background and in contrast to Zemeckis’s Grendel’s mother she uses her voice to tell the reader her story: “I was a child born outside this mountain, a hospital, a house, a home, a mother, a father, grandmothers. I have vaccination records somewhere out there. I have a birth certificate. I was a citizen of this country, part of the world until I wasn’t” (167). She existed outside the mountain before she decided to live a solitary life, she left her home when she was sixteen, and joined the army. She fought in Middle East, she had and lost friends (comrades in arms), she was kidnapped and then somehow she managed to escape. We know that because she tells us so (the parts concerning Dana Mills are written in first person). The only thing we do not know, are the circumstances that led to Gren, but that is a mystery even for Dana Mills. The exiled mother in the original epic does not speak. We do not know her inner thoughts, only the outcome of her grief, anger or fear, but we know every thought of Dana Mills. She killed Roger Herot because she thought that he had shot her son. She kept Gren in the mountain because of the fear that someone would hurt him, and it is this combination of fear and love for her son that almost killed Dylan Herot. “I think of the little boy, and I feel my hearth fill with grief, with end of the world, because now I know who I have to kill” (47). Dana’s love for her child is limitless and she is capable of anything in order to keep her child save. But she also tells the reader that she knows that her judgement is distorted by her trauma: “The damage that doesn’t show? PTSD, amnesia. Brain, shaken by explosions. Sight, full of shadows.” (29), “Now I’ve been alone too long to be anything else”(216), and that her son should live a different live: “I know that if I were him, I wouldn’t choose this life either” (216).

The name Dana Mills resonates through the whole book. Every time Dana is mentioned it is by her full name Dana Mills. In the original poem, Grendel’s mother has no name. She is defined by her son Grendel. Dana Mills has a name, the story derives

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mostly from her decisions. It was her that the imaginary saint marked as special, not

Gren (169), and yet she also said that it will be Gren’s name, not hers, she will be remembered by (169). Alfano (12) similarly elaborates on this theme, claiming that

Grendel’s mother’s monstrosity lies more in Grendel than in herself, replicating the experience of countless women in history identified by their male relatives. Hennequin

(504) confronts this inherited monstrosity with another example from literature, namely the fact that Shakespeare’s Queen Margaret, the mother of Richard III, was definitely not a monstrous character only because her son was Richard III.

3.3 Appearance

Dana Mills is not a voluptuous seductive man-eater like Zemeckis’s Grendel’s mother, nor is she a giant brutish sea-hag lurking beneath the water surface as in

Beowulf & Grendel. She is so thin that one can see her bones prodding her skin from the inside (28). She does not have any “dire claws” (Tolkien 1254), “savage talons”

(Heaney 1504), “grisly claes” (Gummere XXII), and due to her rough appearance she does not resemble Čermák’s “příšerná paní” [terrible lady] (1259) with only one eye and with part of her hair turned grey (29). Although she commits violence and even considers to murder a child (47), she does not do all those things just for the sake of being evil like in Beowulf (2007) but only when she feels that her son is threatened, and where Zemeckis’s Grendel’s mother is stereotype incarnate, Headley managed to create a character that fights stereotypes in very effective way by just ignoring them.

In the book Extraordinary bodies: Figuring physical disability in American culture and literature Thomson discusses that most of the times, disabled characters play only a marginal role in works of fiction (9), and they are described and defined by the physical features, many times lacking any subjectivity or agency (11). Almost from

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the beginning we know that Danna Mills has only one eye and sight problems (29) but it is definitely not the focusing point of her character. She is self-reliant and able to raise her child alone in the cave system.

Later, after Dana convinces Gren to cut off her infected arm (170), she reflects on disability:

“Behold the one-armed woman! Why do I find it funny? Why am I laughing? I

can’t stop. There is something bleeding, something searing, something departing

and it’s mine, all of it, but back in the old days your losses could get you set up

in a tent being a monster. Watch the armless girl play a piano with her toes.

Watch the legless boy dance on his hands and I’m laughing but then I’m–ˮ

(Headley 183)

The severed arm serves later as a proof of Dana’s demise, and it is mentioned a few times, but not really by Dana herself. Her loss did not redefine her and her disability is mentioned only marginally. Even in her last fight with officer Woolf she knows she’s loosing, because she lost all her weapons in water and Woolf is stronger and twice her size, but she does not mention the fact that she has only one arm, thus attacking the stereotype of a passive person that is ruled by its handicap.

3.4 Heroic mother

What is particularly interesting about the character of Dana Mills is that her role is not a role of a monster, mother, soldier, or heroine. She is all those things at once. She marks herself as mother right at the beginning (4) and her maternal love resonates through the whole book. She is also a soldier and is recognised as one (6). This fusion of mother and soldier is beautifully summed up when Gren asks his mother if he is a monster and her answer is: “‘No,’ I tell him. ‘You are a soldier’s son.’” (209).

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Headley’s perception of monstrosity is more subtle compared to the more physical approach of the chosen translators: “wandering murderous thing” (Tolkien 1111), “The hell-dam” (Heaney 1293), “mere-wife monstrous” (Gummere XXII). Dana thinks that everyone might be a monster inside, including her (170), but she undoubtedly has some heroic qualities.

The scene of Roger’s Herot death resembles the killing of Æschere and depicts her natural affinity for combat: “I draw the sword I found in the mountain in the one clean motion, like I've been drawing swords my whole life” (116). She is evidently a skilled fighter, but her resolve is tested and merited during her first clash with Ben

Woolf and his men in almost identical way as Grendel’s mother’s attack on Heorot in the original epic. Although the scenes of the attack are almost identical, the outcome is different. The translations of the original suggest that her onslaught was ineffective, and because of that Grendel’s mother was forced to run away only with Æschere:

Gummere Less grim, though, that terror, e’en as terror of woman in war is less, might

(XIX) of maid, than of ken in arms when, hammer-forged, the falchion hard,

sword gore-stained, through svine of the helm, creste, with keen blade

carves amain.

Tolkien Less indeed was the terror, even by so much as is the might of women, the

(1068) terror of a woman in battle compared with armed man, when the sword

with wire-bound hilt, hammer-forged, its blade stained with dripping

blood, trusty of edge, cleaves the opposing boar-crest high upon the helm.

Heaney Her onslaught was less only by as much as an amazon warrior’s strength in

(1282) less than armed man’s when the hefted sword, its hammered edge and

gleaming blade slathered in blood, razes the sturdy boar-ridge off a helmet.

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Čermák Grendelova máti tou měrou menší budila bázeň, oč slabší v boji je mocí

(1282) žena, než jeví se muž, když kaleným mečem, kladivy kutým, planoucím

krví, kance na přilbici výbornou čepelí rozčísne v půli.

[Grendel’s mom invited fear only of such merit by which a woman is

weaker in a battle than a man when he with a hardened sword, hammer-

forged, blazing with blood, cuts with the fine blade a boar crest on a

helmet in half. ]

Danna Mills not only stayed in spite of acknowledging her disadvantage “He's much taller than me, much stronger than me” (116), but successfully attacked Ben

Woolf: “I twist sideways, grab his hair in one hand, press my knife to his throat, the soft place below his ear” (116). Similar to Henequin’s theory (506), Headley does not depict this scene as a test of strength but courage: “but he still wants to be alive. I'm ready to die” (116). And Dana Mills came out of this as the victor: “Don’t! he cries, and I smell his piss” (117). Lucier in her work Matrons, Mothers, and Monsters: The Heroine in

Beowulf, Grendel, and The Mere Wife (2020) argues that Headley in her book fused maternal and heroic, two components that are most of the time perceived as incompatible (87). When Dana Mills fights Ben Woolf for the last time, she fights him without any weapon nor claws. She did not have the upper hand like in :

Gummere (XXII) She paid him back with grisly grasp

Tolkien (1290) grapling cruelly, she clutched at him

Heaney (1542) Grappled him tightly in her grim embrace

Čermák (1542) Hrábla po něm hroznými drápy

[she grabbed at him with horrible claws]

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She fights a man twice her size and she know that sheer fury is not enough to save her son from death (286), but she keeps trying.

Headley presents a character who acts heroically and is not necessarily motivated by lust or ambition, thus creating a female warrior that fights for her child.

Dana Mill’s heroic (despite the odds) fights were driven by the same maternal love as

Grendel’s mother’s retaliation on Heorot, thus retroactively making the attack on hall filled with armed Danes at least as much heroic as Beowulf’s assault on Grendel’s mother in her under water hall.

The character of Dana Mills does not only represent Grendel’s mother and all her shades (mother, soldier, monster, heroine), but she also plays the role of all

Beowulf’s adversaries. She is Grendel (it is her hand Ben Woolf finds in the cave), she is Grendel’s mother, avenging the death of a son (the fight at Dylan’s funeral), and also the dragon, her fury awoken by the sight of a silver goblet in a display case filled with bones of her mother (233) killing Ben Woolf in the end (299).

Although she commits violence and even considers to murder a child (47), she does not do all those things just for the sake of being evil like in the film Beowulf but only when she feels that her son is threatened, and where Zemeckis’s Grendel’s mother is stereotype incarnate, Headley managed to create a character that fights stereotypes in very effective way by just ignoring them.

3.5 Conclusion

To conclude this chapter, Headley created an adaptation which unlike

Gunnarsson’s movie, differs from the image of a “see-hag” or oversexualized cunning seductress from Zemeckis’s Beowulf. By giving Grendel’s mother voice and creating a feminine space (Lucier 81) she managed to show the reader a heroic character driven by

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different values than standard sword and sorcery hero. Although she is not a “monstrous woman of the sea” (Tolkien 1270) or “wandering death-sprite” (Gummere XX), she is capable of excessive violence. The source of her monstrosity is not the possession of

“savage talons” (Heaney 1504) but the willingness to do monstrous deeds for the sake of her son. Her martial prowess comes from her soldier training and not from some supernatural source. Dana Mills has her own name, she is the main agentive person.

Unlike in the original epic, the author tells us what Dana is thinking and the reasons for her deeds. She is, like the epics’ Grendel’s mother, unable to participate in society, and takes aggressive action only when her son is threatened. Although Headley created an interesting and modern character who became the centrepiece of the novel, she also warned the reader that no matter who or what Dana Mills was, or did, she would still probably be judged and known only through her son as Gren’s mother.

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4. Conclusion

The aim of the present thesis was to analyse the depiction of monstrosity of the character of Grendel’s mother in selected translations and contemporary adaptations.

In the first chapter I analysed the selected translations by Heaney, Tolkien,

Čermák and Gummere and compared them with the translation of chosen extracts by

Alfano to support the claim that Grendel’s mother monstrosity is an arbitrary attribute that is based more on the preferences and biases of the translators than the text itself.

In all of the chosen translations, the monstrosity of Grendel’s mother manifests in physical form. For Gummere she is “sin-flecked being” (XX) which is lot more human than Heaney’s “demon” (1378). What Tolkien translated as an “ogress, fierce destroyer in the form of woman” Čermák translates as “příšerná paní” [terrible lady].

Heaney calls her “troll-dam” (1349), and yet he compares Grendel’s mother to an amazon (1282). Čermák armed her with “hrozné drápy” (154) [horrible claws] in scene which Tolkien translated as “grappling cruelly, she clutched at him” (1290). Although

Tolkien’s and Gummer’s depictions of Grendel’s mother are more animalistic,

Heaney’s “tarn-hag”, “hell-bride”, and “troll-dam” are on pair with depicting her as a monster. The newest of the translations by Čermák was more reserved in monstrous adjectives, but still creating a mental image of a monster, a lot more human, even noble

(by calling her “paní” (lady)), but nevertheless a monster. It can be concluded that this lack of consistency of the description of Grendel’s mother’s monstrosity could possibly be the result of the artistic freedom of the translators.

There is a possibility that some new adaptations are influenced by the older translations, for instance, Gunnarsson’s admiration of Heaney’s work is reflected in the fact that Grendel’s mother is mentioned in the credits as “see-hag”. Others decided to embrace more artistic freedom in their interpretation. Zemeckis’s Beowulf depicts

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Grendel’s mother as a different kind of monster. Her monstrosity lies in her sexual power, the ability to evoke lust and in manipulation. She is a classical product of

Hollywood in the 2000’s. She is beautiful but the lack of physical monstrousness is balanced by her evil deeds. This depiction of Grendel’s mother reinforces stereotypes of women using sex as means to achieve their goals but in spite of that, she is depicted more human than in the translations

On the other hand, in the newest adaptation of the epic The Mere Wife Headley gives Grendel’s mother a voice to introspect, and uses this opportunity to present her take on heroism and heroic deeds bound to motherhood, thus depicting the female warrior Alfano was talking about in her paper.

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