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 1 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 2 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 3 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.