Origin Composed in Old English and preserved uniquely in the Nowell Codex, copied around 1000 CE; the poem's own date of composition is separately disputed.
A monstrous night raider in the Old English poem Beowulf, described as a descendant of Cain and kin to giants, elves and other monsters exiled from human company. For twelve years he attacks Heorot, King Hrothgar's hall in Denmark, killing and devouring the king's retainers in the night, until Beowulf lies in wait and tears off his arm in bare handed combat, a wound from which he dies. His mother comes the following night to avenge him and is in turn killed by Beowulf in her underwater lair. The poem gives him a genealogy and an inner life unusual for a monster of its period, which is part of why his figure has drawn extensive critical attention.
Facts
Origins
Place of OriginThe poem places Grendel's lair in a fen and mere outside the hall, in a landscape generally understood as early medieval Scandinavia rather than England. 1 Origin PeriodComposed in Old English and preserved uniquely in the Nowell Codex, copied around 1000 CE; the poem's own date of composition is separately disputed. 2 Origin of the NameThe name's origin is disputed among scholars; proposed derivations include Old English grindan, 'to grind', and a lost place-name, with no consensus reached. 2 Attestation
HistoricityLegendary: known from narrative tradition, not the historical record 1 Meaning in the Attesting SourceDescribed in the poem as a descendant of Cain, exiled among the race of monsters. 1 Meaning in the Attesting SourceRaids Heorot for twelve years before Beowulf tears off his arm in single combat, the wound that kills him. 1 Browse and compare
Disposition Toward People Function
Domain / FunctionGrendel raids Heorot, the mead hall of the Danish king Hrothgar, out of hatred for the sounds of joy and feasting he can hear from the fen where he dwells. 1 Position Profile
Key TextThe Nowell Codex that preserves Beowulf also preserves other texts including the Old English Wonders of the East and a fragment of a Life of Saint Christopher depicting a dog-headed man, grouping Beowulf in its one surviving manuscript with other accounts of monstrous races rather than with heroic poetry alone. 2Tradition: Klaeber's Beowulf, fourth edition Connections
Associated With
Source BeowulfAnonymous (Nowell Codex)
Belongs to Tradition
Opposes
Grendel is slain by Beowulf at Heorot in the Old English poem.
Source BeowulfAnonymous (Nowell Codex)
Sources
1. Beowulf
Anonymous (Nowell Codex)- Domain / Function: Grendel raids Heorot, the mead hall of the Danish king Hrothgar, out of hatred for the sounds of joy and feasting he can hear from the fen where he dwells.
- Historicity: Legendary: known from narrative tradition, not the historical record
- Meaning in the Attesting Source: Described in the poem as a descendant of Cain, exiled among the race of monsters.
- Meaning in the Attesting Source: Raids Heorot for twelve years before Beowulf tears off his arm in single combat, the wound that kills him.
- Place of Origin: The poem places Grendel's lair in a fen and mere outside the hall, in a landscape generally understood as early medieval Scandinavia rather than England.
View the Source 2. Klaeber's Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, fourth edition
R. D. Fulk, Robert E. Bjork and John D. Niles (eds.), University of Toronto Press, 2008Introduction, on the contents and codicology of the Nowell Codex
3. Grendel (Wikipedia)
Lead sectionQuote, Lead section
He is also described as a descendant of the Biblical Cain and "a creature of darkness, exiled from happiness and accursed of God, the destroyer and devourer of our human kind." He is usually depicted as a monster or a giant, although his status as a monster, giant, or other form of supernatural being is not clearly described in the poem and thus remains the subject of scholarly
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