Siobhan Julia O'Dwyer Dissertation 2012 FINAL
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Transcript of Siobhan Julia O'Dwyer Dissertation 2012 FINAL
Dissertation for BA (Hons) Degree 2012 in Theatre: Technical Arts and Special Effects
Wimbledon College of Art
Mother, Monster, Warrior
Woman as Monster: A Study of Boudica of the Iceni Tribe and Grendel’s Mother from Beowulf
Siobhan Julia O’Dwyer
Siobhan Julia O’Dwyer
Table of Contents
Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………………………..03
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………....04
Part One: BOUDICA
Boudica’s role in a patriarchal society, and her differences to the Roman Woman………………………………………………………...…………………………………………09
Hair Colour and Victimisation: Boudica and her physical attributes……..…14
Caratacus: Did Boudica steal this successful rebel leader’s thunder?.............16
Part Two: GRENDEL’S MOTHER
Grendel’s Mother as the Monster Stereotype…..…......………………………………...19
Translation Confusion………………………………………………………………………….23
The Phallic Mother…………………………………………......…………………………………..25
The idea of how exactly fantastical Beowulf is, and how monstrous is
Grendel’s mother?...................................................................................................................27
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………………29
Appendix I: A Brief Introduction to Boudica………………………………...…………………33
Appendix II: A Brief Introduction to Grendel’s Mother…………………………………….37
Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………………………39
Further Reading……………………………………………………………………………………………41
Woman as Monster: A Study of Boudica of the Iceni Tribe and Grendel’s Mother from Beowulf
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Abstract
The purpose of this essay is to understand further why the moniker ‘monster’
has been given to two strong female ruling figures: one historical, and one
fictitious/semi historical. Both Queen Boudica of the Iceni Tribe and Grendel’s
Mother from Beowulf have been savaged in past literature, and the motivations
for this will be explored through my findings. Because all existing documentation
of Boudica, as well as the creation of Grendel’s Mother originates from
patriarchal ruling periods, it can be concluded that the labelling of these figures
spurs from a misogynistic attitude towards a ruling woman. What is interesting
to note is how opinions have changed dramatically since then towards the non-
fictitious, mighty, auburn-haired Boudica, alleviating her status in culture to
something of a role model. Grendel’s Mother on the other hand, with lack of
description in the Beowulf text and a swarm of translators denoting her
character as monstrous, has been arraigned in history as a foe, her actions still
looked upon as antagonising.
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Introduction
The defining line between what exactly makes a woman monstrous; and
in reverse, what exactly makes a monster feminine, has been foggy since the
foundations of literature, and often this designation does not just depend on
appearance: rather it is the motivations of the woman, and her actions, that can
gain the character such a title.
Often the term ‘monster’ is used in fantastical stories and legends. One of
the first, and most prominent of these stories will be discussed in this study.
Grendel’s Mother from the Old-English poem ‘Beowulf’ is a perfect example:
where an aspect of the tale is the inability of the poet to fully define the term
‘monster’. Critics such as Oswald, Damico and Olsen have raised the difficulty of
defining Grendel’s mother as a monster, as the attributes of what exactly is
monstrous about her are multi-faceted.
In addition, Boudica of the Iceni tribe was designated a lot of bad press in
history through her altercations with the Roman Empire, and sadly, this
propaganda is the only existing description of the Warrior Queen. It is from these
accounts by the historians Dio Cassius and Tacitus [see Appendix I] that we then
have to use our judgement on what was actually the truth, and whether or not
we can rely on their monstrous allegations.
“Monster” is defined as a: “Misshapen creature; horribly cruel or savage
person; huge object. Something marvellous or prestigious”1, and as with many
words in the English language, confusion has set in because there is a complete
1 The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, 1966 edition
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antithesis between the meanings defined. How can a subject be described firstly
as ‘savage’ and then as ‘marvellous’? From this, it can be implied that the term
has gone on to be disambiguated in numerous ways, depending on the situation
and context in which it is used.
The general consensus, however, is that the monster is “an outlier within
its race or ‘kind’, whether that kin group is human or animal” (Oswald, 2010,
p.2), and is therefore, is perhaps a form of “otherly”: the monster does not have
any characteristics that can be defined as normality.
When we consider the notion of ‘woman as the monster’ in both history
and literature, the situation becomes even more complex. Prior evidence
suggests that there is a very fine line in history between the two. Often a woman,
when taking on masculine characteristics, immediately becomes defined as
“monstrous”. An example of this can be applied to the image of the Amazonian
tribes:
“A group of monstrous women- the Amazons- lack a breast and thereby function as both creatures of lack and also potentially as hybrid because they attempt to take on a male physical characteristic (breastlessness), perform their monstrosity in that they govern themselves, and act as warriors” (Oswald, 2010, p.7)
Here the Amazonian monster is therefore perceived as neither one nor the other,
and therefore “is a dangerous form suspended between forms that threatens to
smash distinctions”(Cohen, 1996, p.6). In continuation with this, Creed (1993,
p.3) suggests that “the reasons why the monstrous-feminine horrifies her
audience are quite different from the reasons why the male monster horrifies his
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audience”. Oswald (2010, p.13) raises the issue of gender in defining the
monstrous where the “bodies [which] bear signs of human gender identity and
reproductive capability are those monsters that spur the most vehement
responses of characters and readers.” In other words, under a male gaze, the
image of a monstrous woman becomes a more significant, and perhaps
frightening perversion of nature.
Additionally, Oswald suggests that “these monstrous bodies require more
than killing- they merit the most remarkable acts of erasure, both literal and
figurative” (Oswald, 2010, p.13). It seems that more of an effort has to be made
to destroy the feminine monster, and this reflects back to the complex definition
raised of how a monster can be ‘prestigious’, in stature, and meaning also.
Following Creed’s argument, the idea of a monstrous female is
consequently more terrifying, irrespective of whether the term is contextualised
in fantasy or reality. In Monsters, Gender and Sexuality in Medieval English
Literature (2010, p.5), Oswald suggests that critics often try to limit the category
by “declaring that monsters only exist in fantasy or imagination”, however she
suggests that “others focus on more amorphous qualities, such as ‘inherent evil,
that is, unmotivated wickedness towards humanity” (Oswald, 2010, p.5).
Fundamentally, the idea of a monster that is female in this context is a terrifying
notion. To witness a monster who is strong and yet possesses feminine
characteristics is threatening, especially in relation to perceived gender roles.
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However, the social context in which the role of woman, in both Boudica
and Grendel’s Mother, differs because of the perceived rights and roles of women
in each culture respectively2.
Interestingly, as historical narratives have developed the “real”, Boudica
has been almost elevated to a saint-like level. The patriotism behind her plight
along with her gender has transformed her story into something of ‘Braveheart3’
proportions. The story of the Boudican revolt [refer to Appendix I], which has no
existing concrete truths remaining, has been altered constantly until it has begun
to hold almost mythic qualities in terms of battle details and who the queen
really was. We are uncertain about Boudica’s real identity simply because there
are no primary sources depicting her.
The significance of Boudica’s gender is a critical part of the “monster”
argument that is highlighted in Roman sources. Importantly, the only sources
from the Iron Age period that speak of Boudica are of Roman origination, the
Iceni tribe’s enemy. The Romans “established the rule that all women, because of
2 The rite of patriarchy has changed dramatically in history, and in the time span I will be looking at in this study. Roman women were regarded as the property of their husband, whereas Celtic women in the times of Boudica and the Iron Age were considered to be as free as their male counterparts. This then changes in the progression of a few hundred years to the early medieval period, and the time of the publication of “Beowulf”, where again, a patriarchal society rules, and women are perceived as the lesser gender.3 Collingridge (2006, p.1) makes this link to ‘Braveheart’ also, and I find the similarity quite interesting. The character of William Wallace was entirely changed in the Mel Gibson film (YEAR HERE) to suit a Hollywood audience, much to the horror of Scottish natives, who disowned the production entirely. Similarly, Boudica’s image has been mutilated, as will be studied further in this essay.
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their weakness of intellect, should be under the power of guardians” (Cicero via
Lewis, 1990, p.543), and Boudica represented the polar opposite of this belief.
To contrast, the constant depiction of Grendel’s mother being
“monstrous” populates a wide range of discussions in critical literature theory.
Grendel’s mother as a “mythic monster” existing in an imaginary world has been
recently depicted as a monstrous expression of sexuality.4 There have been a lot
of arguments whether or not the term is a physical assumption, or a gender-
specific and sexual role ascribed to women. The female role in society is also a
talking point here: “Such a woman might be wretched or monstrous because she
insists on arrogating the masculine role of the warrior or lord” (Damico, Olsen,
1990, p.249) But, what makes Grendel’s mother “interesting and troubling is that
she resists these binaries: she is a woman, she is a mother, and she is a monster”
(Oswald, 2010, p.78). In other words, the issue of sexual psychology and
physicality are more deeply intertwined in the image of Grendel’s mother.
The next section of this study will examine the role of Boudica and how
she is perceived in her social context: how she is read and her monstrous
attributes can be directly related to how she is distinguished by her critics.
4 The 2007 CGI-Animated film ‘Beowulf’ features Angelina Jolie as Grendel’s Mother, and this choice of casting was not coincidental. Jolie is perceived in modern day society as a sex symbol, and thus the choice to portray Grendel’s Mother as an attractive woman negates the original intentions of the Beowulf poet to make the character ‘monstrous’, and highlights the need of modern Hollywood to sexualize what could have been a formidable character within the story.
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PART ONE:
BOUDICA
Boudica’s role in a patriarchal society, and her differences to the Roman Woman
One of the main reasons that Boudica’s reputation has remained so
prolific in history is due to her gender. She stood at the front of an army that was
fighting against a patriarchal society, fronting a force perceived to be barbaric to
the Romans, and she challenged the civilising ideas of the invading force:
“The Romans had a very clear concept of themselves. They called it Romanitas or ‘Roman-ness’. It meant using the Latin language, respecting Latin literature, obeying Roman law and tradition, and even following the custom of having three names. Everyone else, everyone foreign, was a Barbarian and was to be feared.” (Jones, 2007, p.16)
This almost fascist ideology circulates around the dread of the unknown, and as
Jones (2007, p.16) suggests, “fear seems to have played a key role in the history
of Rome. It’s almost as if the grandeur of Rome was born of paranoia and
desperation”. The Romans, through their Romanitas movement, labelled
everyone who did not share their way of living a “barbarian”. After all, “the Celts
were in every way inferior, with poorer technology, fewer skills and less science
and understanding” (Jones, 2007, p.27). Ammianus Marcellinus adds to this
terrifying perception by describing the wife of a barbarian where:
“The wife is even more formidable. She is usually very strong, and has blue eyes; in rage her neck veins swell, she gnashes her teeth, and brandishes her snow-white robust arms. She begins to strike blows mingled with kicks, as if they were so many missiles sent from the string of a catapult. “(Marcellinus, via Beresford-Ellis, 2003, p.87)
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As Collingridge (2006, p.11) argues, histories may have tried to convince,
but are not the truth, as they are “full of drama, rhetoric and moralising”.
To make matters worse for Boudica in the midst of this onslaught of
Roman propaganda, because of her gender, she was “an affront to everything any
decent Roman stood for: a female who was not only assertive and dominating,
but a warrior and a leader.” (Jones, 2007, p.50) Essentially, the fact that because
the woman in Roman society was conceived as possessing a “weakness of
intellect”(Cicero, 1995, p.27), it was considered outrageous for her to be
considered a dignitary in any right, let alone royalty. “Under Rome, women were
deprived of power and were the property of men”(Jones, 2007, p.61), and “there
was no legal validity to anything any Roman woman did unless a man had
approved it” (Jones, 2007, p.51)
There was never a ruling empress in Roman history, but yet “Celtic
women could exercise power in their own right, and queens are known
throughout the Celtic world” (Jones, 2007, p.53), and as Tacitus (via Murphy,
2010, p.26) noted, “In Britain, there is no rule of distinction to exclude the female
line from the throne, or the command of armies”. For a woman to have this rite of
power must have been considered monstrous to the Romans, “because monsters
contest cultural categories of ‘normality’”(Oswald, 2010, p.7).
In contrast, the role of the Celtic Woman in society and her rights differed
from the Roman beliefs:
“Women were in a completely different position. ‘Barbarian’ households were not owned by the head of the family, and women did not become
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their husband’s property the moment they married: they retained their own integrity and their own money” (Jones, 2007, p.52)
The lack of patriarchal values in Celtic society reflected the difference in law
between the two civilisations. Celtic law stemmed from the Irish Brehon Laws-
which “respect[ed] individuals more than property, treat[ed] contracts as sacred,
impose[d] duties of hospitality and protection to strangers, and assume[d] that
women have equal property rights to men and can divorce”(Ginnell via Jones,
2007, p.52).
In Celtic society, the woman was as free as the man. Evidence for this can
be found in multiple occasions across Celtic history. It is interesting to consider
that “in Rome, rape was not a crime against a woman, but an injury to her male
guardian, an offence against his property. In the Celtic world, if a woman was
raped she was entitled not only to personal compensation but also to revenge”
(Jones, 2007, p.53). One of the most prolific examples is the capture and rape of
Chiomara- a chieftain’s wife who was raped by a centurion, who was then in turn
beheaded at Chiomara’s demand upon her safe return to her husband.5
5 “When the Romans invaded the Celtic lands of Galatia (in modern Turkey) in 189 BC they captured a chieftain’s wife by the name of Chiomara. A centurion raped her and, when he discovered her high rank, had the gall to send a ransom note to her husband. An exchange was arranged, and agents from her people came and handed over the money. However, as the centurion took an affectionate leave of her, Chiomara signalled to one of her compatriots to cut off his head. She took the gruesome object home with her, as Celtic warriors tended to do, and threw it at her husband’s feet. He was appalled at this truce breaking: ‘Woman! Good faith is a fine thing!’ To which Chiomara replied: ‘Yes, but it is even better that only one man who has slept with me should remain alive” (Jones, 2007, p.53)
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According to Tacitus (via Jones, 2007, p.61), “Boudica suffered the humiliation of
being beaten; her daughters were raped, and the Icenian aristocracy were
stripped of their titles and inheritance”. The rape of Boudica’s daughters was
only another reason to seek justice against her enemy, for it was her belief that it
was a right to hunt revenge.6
Sexual violence was no more acceptable in Roman culture as it was in the
Celtic.7 This breech of law by the Empire’s own centurions is something that
Tacitus was obviously opposed to, seeing as he does not indulge into a lot of
graphic detail in his description:
“His wife Boudica was flogged, and his daughters raped.” (Tacitus: Annals, XIV 31)
and this was all that was said of the matter. “While women were expected to
behave demurely, men were also expected to behave with honour” (Collingridge,
2006, p.190), and Tacitus describes a violation of his own law. This lack of
information sheds light on at least one similarity that the Celts shared with the
Romans: it was purely monstrous to flog a woman, and even more so to defile a
virgin.
6 Because “virginity was highly respected throughout Iron Age cultures as it signified both purity and also powerful, latent sexual energy: to have it forcibly stolen was a double insult; the fact that it was the young princesses’ maidenheads that were stolen trebled the insult”(Collingridge, 2006, p.191).
7 “Under Roman law, it was unlikely that any free women would ever be flogged even in punishment, while any man found guilty of rape would face execution; as a final insult to the Roman moral code, both the beating and the rape would have been regarded as particularly odious as they were perpetrated on members of the ruling class” (Collingridge, 2006, p.190).
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And as the Romans believed that the Briton barbarians were “wildly aggressive
and easily provoked”(Jones, 2007, p.26), this was more reason to describe
Boudica as so monstrous in her rebellion [see Appendix I].
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Hair Colour and Victimisation: Boudica and her physical attributes
The only existing description that exists of Boudica suggests a monstrous
appearance, on all accounts:
“…In stature she was very tall, in appearance most terrifying, in the glance of her eye most fierce and her voice was harsh…”(Dio via Hingley, 2005, p.54)8
Dio’s description is very much a classical portrait of the common
barbarian, which stresses the ‘tawny’ red hair and an angry demeanour. It was
very much steeped in the propaganda of the times (the works of Dio, Tacitus, and
Marcellinus to name a few) against the Native Britons, and was supposed to be a
negative portrayal of Boudica: “the reference to her “tawny” hair- interpreted
through the ages as meaning “red”-sets her apart from the more “normal” darker
Latin hues” (Collingridge, 2006, p.9). Any reference to red hair in literature in
Ancient Rome alludes to being “symbolic of a flaw in morality” (Collingridge,
2006, p.9), and furthermore, a red head can be considered as an “outlier”
(Oswald, 2010, p.2), or monstrous, as Oswald discusses in Monsters, Gender and
Sexuality.
Even Roman historians from the time believed the Celtic women to be
stronger, and more stalwart than their Roman counterparts, and this could even
be made apparent through hair colour:
8 (continued) “…a great mass of the tawniest hair fell to her hips; around her neck was a large golden necklace; and she wore a tunic of diverse colours over which a thick mantle was fastened with a brooch. This was her invariable attire.”(Dio) While not as relevant, this part of the description lends to the Roman ideal of what was acceptable in culture, and what was not.
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"The women of the Celtic tribes are bigger and stronger than our Roman women. This is most likely due to their natures as well as their peculiar fondness for all things martial and robust. The flaxen haired maidens of the north are trained in sports and war while our gentle ladies are content to do their womanly duties and thus are less powerfulthan most young girls from Gaul and the hinterlands." (Marcus Borealis via Pizza, 2012, via web)
It is interesting to think “It was the association of Celtic women with
barbarism that persuaded the Senate to decree in AD 40 that prostitutes should
make their hair blonde- the colour that the Romans associated with the
Celts.”(Jones, 2007, p.52) However, “it was the eroticism that persuaded ladies at
the highest level of Roman society to put on blonde wigs” (ibid). This need to
differentiate sects of society is integral to how the Romans defined Boudica as
monstrous, even down to her appearance. Even from a common ground, the
Greek historian Diodorus Siculus states that:
“The women of the Celts are nearly as tall as the men and they rival them also in courage” (Siculus via Savino, 2002, via web)
conveying the difference between the expected demure conduct of the Roman
woman, and Boudica’s outspoken behaviour.
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Caratacus: Did Boudica steal this successful rebel leader’s thunder?
An important male figure to take note of when studying Boudica’s rise
and rise in popularity through the ages is another rebellious Briton who existed
at the same time as the Queen. Caratacus9, in his campaign, “outshone Boudica
completely”(Collingridge, 2006, p.4), but yet, “two thousand years on, his name is
little more than a wisp of memory in the wake of the warrior queen” (ibid). The
reason for this is obvious: because Caratacus was “just another male insurgent”
(ibid), his legacy has been lost amongst the hundreds of other male
revolutionaries from the time.
If anything, in terms of publicity, Boudica benefitted from Caratacus’
short-lived legacy10, because the Romans had already formed stigma around the
9 “Caratacus was a mighty warrior who led a remarkable war of resistance against the foreign invaders for almost a decade. […] He managed to unite disparate tribes into an effective force of freedom fighters and then lead a successful guerilla campaign against the Romans, which diverted their attentions from empire building to mere survival. It took one of the best armies in the world eight long years to defeat this legendary fighter and by the time of his eventual capture, he was revered throughout Rome and her provinces as a great soldier and leader of men.” (Collingridge, 2006, p.4) 10 It is interesting also to note the inclusion of a character called Caratack in a Jacobean tragic-comedy entitled Bonduca by John Fletcher, from 1613. Caratack is anachronistically featured as a “mighty British warrior who commands Queen Bonduca’s army of Britons and is the real seat of military and authoritative power”(Collingridge, 2006, p.316), opposed to Boudica having a queenly role. The “rampant misogyny”(ibid, p.317) that Caratack expresses in the play (amongst other examples, “the audience’s sympathy is in no way directed towards [Boudica’s daughters] as the young women seek revenge by capturing and torturing their rapists until the men are released by a furious Caratack”(ibid, 316) and the daughters are then told by the character that they “should have kept [their] legs closed”) is very relevant for Jacobite England: “women [were] ordered back to their ‘natural’ sphere- as opposed to being unnaturally in the military domain of men, they are stripped of their power to think or act independently of men’s authority”(ibid, 317). The patriarchy was still existent in Jacobean times, and in this instance, Boudica is even stripped of her ruling powers.
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Britons from Caratacus’ attacks against their rebellion11. By the time Boudica
became known to the Romans, Caratacus was already responsible for setting the
scene and “shoring up the myth of a barbarous Britain” (ibid, p.5). She then
outshone Caratacus by alienating herself as something that would be considered
monstrous to the Romans: “a woman who dared to step outside the ‘normal’ role
of wife and mother, and to take up arms against Rome” (ibid). Boudica’s gender
alone has ensured her a permanent place in history, and as Collingridge (2006,
p.5) states,
“For not only the Romans, but also the Anglo-Saxons, the Elizabethans and today’s Britons, her sex is not just a point of curiosity, it is fundamental to understanding her longevity and why she has endured the snakes-and-ladders of fame and infamy over the last two thousand years.”
It is interesting to consider what could have happened if Boudica had
survived and overcome the Romans. Collingridge (ibid) reminds us that indeed,
“the underdog is meant to win”. Bearing in mind that from a modern perspective,
Boudica should be considered the underdog in all sense of the word (she is a
woman, she is a Briton, she is a warrior, she is a ruling queen). Boudica should
“have earned her place in history by beating the Romans in that last, fateful
battle and sending them scurrying back to Rome”(ibid), but yet, she was defeated
[see Appendix I]. If the battle had been in Boudica’s favour, she “could have been
the most powerful woman in the western world”(ibid), and the Roman stigma
11 “To Rome, Caratacus was the product of the dark and dangerous island of Britannia where wild, hostile landscapes were teeming with savage, painted and fearless fighters.” (Collingridge, 2006, p.4)
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surrounding her in propaganda obliterated, furthermore destroying her
monstrous reputation.
The next section of this study will look into the confusion about the real
identity of Grendel’s mother, and whether or not her described monstrous
properties are just primarily physical, or rather there is a deeper significance to
the description.
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Part Two:
GRENDEL’S MOTHER
Grendel’s Mother as the Monster Stereotype
Beowulf was primarily written for a male audience in a time where a
patriarchal society governed, and so to write Grendel’s mother as monstrous is
definitely more shocking for the reader: “Grendel’s mother, too, a monster of
excess like her son, performs a hybrid kind of monstrosity when she takes on the
male privilege of getting revenge for her son’s death” (Oswald, 2010, p.7).
J.R.R Tolkien’s famous analysis of Beowulf in his lecture “The Monsters and
the Critics” only cements that the poem was written for this male audience:
“Responding as a male to a male experience, he perceives a poem of two parts
which (in broad terms) depict the hero’s rise and fall” (Damico, Olsen, 1990, p.2).
The few references to Grendel’s mother as a ‘monstrous-woman’ and a ‘lady
monster-woman’ reflect the attitudes of patriarchal power at the time12. In The
Issue of Feminine Monstrosity: A Reevaluation of Grendel’s Mother (1992, p.8),
Christine Alfano argues that Tolkien perhaps tries to “ignore [Grendel’s
Mother’s] existence” because “he did not consider her truly monstrous”(ibid,
p.15), but, as would be more understandable for the time The Monsters and the
12 “Men rather than women, and particularly older men, were seer as the natural rulers and governors of both family and society” (McSheffrey, 2006, p.137)
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Critics was given as a lecture (1936)13, Grendel’s Mother most probably “seemed
too extraneous to merit attention”(ibid).
Another male critic, Edward Irving (1992, p.70) has historically realised
his misconception of Grendel’s Mother in his past work:
“It now seems remarkable that my own unconscious biases then prevented me from perceiving an even more significant way of embedding someone in a stereotype. She is, once you notice it, systematically reduced, ignored, discredited, and deprived of the ordinary dignity any ravening monster is entitled to- because of her sex.”
This concludes exactly the mistreatment of Grendel’s mother in critical
literature. Simply, the confusion with her identity is down to her gender: she
breaks the archetype, and as such, there is an impossibility to correctly
categorise her without stereotyping.
However, as Alfano (1992, p.8) justly points out, “despite declarations of
feminist enlightenment, […] Irving continues to categorise [Grendel’s Mother] as
a monster.” The stereotypes remain despite the realisation of them existing: it is
purely easier to place her in this caste rather then to change the categorisation.
13 Women had only just managed to win a parliamentary vote eighteen years previous to this date, and at the University of Oxford, where Tolkien taught, women had only been partly admitted from 1920. It was only in 1974 that the five all-male colleges began to admit female students. <http://www.ox.ac.uk/about_the_university/introducing_oxford/women_at_oxford/index.html> [accessed 6th February 2012] It is interesting to note that despite the suffragettes winning the vote, a patriarchal society still governed in education, and this carried down to learning attitudes. Women were still not entirely liberated at this time.
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What confuses the audience (irrespective of the gender of the reader), is
the multiple facets of Grendel’s Mother’s identity that have come from this: “what
makes her interesting and troubling is that she resists these [gender] binaries:
she is a woman, she is a mother, and she is a monster” (Oswald, 2010, p.78), and
perhaps the original poet decided on these different facades to add an air of
mysteriousness to her identity14: “she is both a lady and a warrior woman; she is
a woman, but she is of the water not the land; she is water-wolf and a female
outlaw” (Oswald 2010, p.78).
Alfano (1992, p.9) discusses that perhaps “Grendel’s Mother might have
been created in reaction to cultural stimulus as in agreement with a folkloric
precedent”, which almost lowers the character to be used as a media tool with
which to shock the audience. Perhaps the reason why Grendel’s mother has
remained in history as a monstrosity for so long is because, as Randall Bohrer in
Beowulf and the Bog People (1982, p.133) discusses, maybe some sort of
“historical revaluation” triggered her conception.
However, recent feminist criticisms, through their critiques, have
managed to condemn the monstrous title, but through this constant name giving,
they have gone on to “perpetuate, legitimise, and even institutionalise the idea of
Grendel’s Mother as monster”(Alfano, 1992, p.11). This is because the “woman as
14 It is interesting to note that ‘armed women’ in compounded Old English is ‘wæpenwifshe’, but Old English vocabularies designate the word to mean ‘hermaphrodite’. “In this sense, then, a woman who takes up a weapon is figured as taking on masculine characteristics” (Oswald, 2010, p.93)“Grendel’s mother has a formidable strength. She is a merewif mithig ‘mighty sea-woman’, a mithig mansca∂a ‘mighty evil ravager’, a micle mearcstapa ‘great boundary stalker’, and she delights in carnage- she is a ‘horror, glorying in the carrion,’ a tol āesewlac”(Damico, Olsen, 1990, p.178)
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monster trope has achieved almost archetypal status. As with any archetype,
however, the chief danger then lies in its complacent acceptance.” (ibid)
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Translation Confusion
Because there have been so many different translations15 of Beowulf,
there have been a lot of different transformations of Grendel’s Mother’s
description. As Christine Alfano (1992, p.3) suggests, the various translators
“divest Grendel’s mother of her humanity largely because she disrupts
convenient gender stereotypes”. Additionally, we must remember, “translation
itself, is essentially an act of recreation”(ibid, p.2), and that the translators
themselves “face a constant dilemma: should they produce a literal rendition of a
text or use it merely as a basis for artistic creation?”(ibid, p.1)
It is evident that through these multiple translations, Grendel’s Mother
has morphed “from unconventional queen to the realm of monstrosity”(Alfano,
1992, p.9), and this “underscores the unfair treatment [she] has received” (ibid).
This has happened slowly through history with each different translation, a
multitude of which took place in the nineteenth century, as Alfano (1992, p.12)
discusses:
“Since that century hosted the first major surge of Anglo-Saxon scholarship, the first Old English scholars were probably at least partially responsible for incorporating feminine monster imagery into the Beowulf text.”
Lexicographical issues are perceptible when comparing a much-disputed
part of the text through the different translations: the only words used to
describe Grendel’s Mother in the text:
15 There are at least nine different translations: see <http://www.editoreric.com/greatlit/translations/Beowulf.html> [accessed 6th February 2012]
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Grendles modor, ides, aglæcwif, ymþe gemunde (lines 1258-1259)1. Grendel’s Mother, a monster woman, kept war-grief deep in her mind2. Grendel’s Mother herself, a monstrous ogress, was ailing for her loss3. Grendel’s dam, a monstrous woman, knew misery4. The demon’s mother, a witch of the sea, resenting her sorrow5. Grendel’s mother, woman, monster-wife, was mindful of her misery.
(Alfano, 1992, p.2)
The contrasts are very noticeable, and range from labelling Grendel’s Mother as a
woman- through to the fantastical title of an ogress: she “disrupts gender
conventions; to the Anglo-Saxons, this made her atol, ‘terrible’, but to
contemporary translators, it makes her ‘monstrous’ (Alfano, 1992, p.2).
Furthermore, in “stripping Grendel’s Mother of humanity, translators transform
an avenging mother into a bloodthirsty monster”(ibid), but, it is important to
remember that, as Burton Raffel discusses in On Translating Beowulf (1964-5,
p.533), “no poem in translation is the original from which it takes its life”, and
simply, “there must be distortion, to a greater or lesser degree, simply by
definition”(ibid).
Each individual reader will always understand each different realisation
of a text differently, and unfortunately, over time, this ‘monstrous’ description
has been grafted on Grendel’s Mother’s identity.
The Phallic Mother
Grendel’s mother can very much be likened to Ian’s (1996, p.8)
visualisation of the ‘Phallic Mother’, because she “represents the absolute power
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of the female as autonomous and self sufficient”. Ian then discusses that “she is
neither hermaphrodite or androgyne, human or monster, because she is
emphatically mother” (ibid, p.8). The reader’s confusion as to what Grendel’s
Mother actually is can be multiplied because she is “described in human and
social terms. She is specifically referred to as a ‘monstrous woman’, and a lady
monster-woman” (Damico, Olsen, 1990, p.249).
The notion of the Phallic Mother16 can be very easily lent to the fight
between Beowulf and Grendel’s Mother [see Appendix II], especially from a
modern viewpoint.17 Especially since in translations, this monstrous idea of
Grendel’s Mother has surfaced, it is understandable to note how sexually charged
the battle could be read as. The poet “exploits the basic resemblance between
sexual intercourse and battle to emphasise the inversion of the feminine role of
the queen or hall-ruler by Grendel’s mother”(Damico, Olsen, 1990, p.255), and as
Damico and Olsen go on to describe in New Readings on Women in Old English
Literature (1990), this is done through three steps within the scene. Firstly, “the
emphasis upon clutching, grasping and embracing while they fight”(ibid, p.253),
secondly, “the contest for a dominant position astride the other”(ibid), and the
third, “the use of fingers, knife or sword to penetrate clothing or the body, the
latter always accompanied by the implied figurative kinship between the sword
and the phallus and between decapitation and castration”(ibid). To have to
“exploit the basic resemblance between sexual intercourse and battle” (Chance
16 “A grown woman with breasts and a penis” (Ian, 1932, p.1)17 “[Marcia] Ian seeks the deconstruct of the concept of the phallic mother as one that is culturally and socially constructed, not merely based on a naturalised vision of women’s bodies”(Oswald, 2010, p.91)
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via Fulk, 2005, p.258) to a patriarchal audience immediately denotes Grendel’s
Mother to a monstrous role, simply because of her expected passive role within
society. Furthermore, the taking on of masculine items such as swords “threatens
the patriarchal order as well as the integrity of the male body by maintaining a
body that is at once feminine and phallic” (Oswald, 2010, p.92).
However, when Grendel’s Mother loses the battle, the fact becomes
apparent that she is “incapable of exceeding her role as a woman, and therefore
Beowulf’s masculinity, like his armour, remains unbreached” (Oswald, 2010,
p.96). Leading back to the identity confusion that has become apparent with each
translation of Beowulf: if Grendel’s Mother really is a monster, how did she not
manage to kill Beowulf?
The idea of how exactly fantastical Beowulf is, and how monstrous is Grendel’s
mother?
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This leads in to the question: How exactly fantastical is the Beowulf story?
Tolkien (1997, p.8) describes the poem as being a “mythical allegory”18, and as
such, if we are to contextualise Beowulf back to the time that it was written,
where a Christian patriarchal society was the governing power, we can
understand why Grendel’s mother was chosen as an antagonist for such a story:
she is the antithesis to the archetypal medieval woman19 of the time. In parallel
to Boudica’s freedom and right to revenge in Celtic culture, Grendel’s mother was
expected to simply assent to the death of her child, as “a mother must passively
accept and not actively avenge the loss of her son” (Damico, Olsen, 1990, p.251),
and this only solidifies her monstrous properties to the reader at the time of
publication. 18 Tolkien’s in depth analysis of Beowulf in The Monsters and the Critics brings up various arguments that are not integral to this study, but yet worth considering when contextualizing Beowulf for the time that it was written: ““Beowulf” is a half-baked native epic the development of which was killed by Latin learning; it was inspired by emulation of Virgil, and is a product of the education that came in with Christianity; it is feeble and incompetent as a narrative; the rules of narrative are cleverly observed in the manner of the learned epic; it is the confused product of a committee of muddle-headed and probably beer-bemused Anglo-Saxons (this is a Gallic voice); it is a string of pagan lays edited by monks; it is the work of genius, rare and surprising in the period, though the genius seems to have been shown principally in doing something much better left undone (this is a very recent voice); it is a wild folk-tale (general chorus); it is a poem of an aristocratic and courtly tradition (same voices); it is a hotch-potch; it is a sociological, anthropological, archaeological document; it is a mythical allegory (very old voices these and generally shouted down, but not so far out as some of the newer cries); it is rude and rough; it is a masterpiece of metrical art; it has no shape at all; it is singularly weak in construction; it is a clever allegory of contemporary politics (old John Earle with some slight support from Mr Girvan, only they look to different periods); its architecture is solid; it is thin and cheap (a solemn voice); it is undeniably weighty (the same voice); it is a national epic; it is a translation from the Danish; it was imported by Frisian traders; it is a burden to English syllabuses; and (final universal chorus of all voices) it is worth studying” (Tolkien, 1997, p.p. 8,9) 19 It was not acceptable in this culture to have a ruling female figure, nor was it attractive: “The reactive or passive female role was particularly important when advertising oneself as a potential wife” (McSheffrey, 2006, p.86)
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In an allegorical context, while it can be realised that Beowulf is a
fantastical poem, Grendel’s mother can be perceived as representational of
everything that a woman was expected not to be. “Unlike most mothers and
queens, she fights her own battles”(Damico, Olsen, 1990, p.249), and “even when
Grendel’s mother merits critical attention, this monster bias excludes the
possibility of fair treatment.” (Alfano, 1992, page 8)
There is a lot of confusion about how to exactly identify Grendel’s Mother,
simply because there is no existing physical description from the Beowulf text.
CONCLUSION
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What can easily be garnered from this study is that both Boudica and
Grendel’s Mother have been given the epithet ‘monster’ and ‘monstrous’ in the
times of their origin, and slowly but surely, these designations have become
irrelevant for the figures, over time. However, it is interesting to note that whilst
both women are mothers and warriors in their own right, Boudica has been
humanised as time has progressed, whilst Grendel’s Mother has been savaged in
history.
From all of the propaganda there is from Roman sources on Boudica’s
‘barbaric’ appearance and behaviour, it could easily be thought that the Iceni
queen would be thought of in today’s light as a barbarian also. After all, “Celtic
women participated in political and public life in a way that was an affront to the
Roman concept of decency”(Jones, 2007, p.53). The Romans have influenced
large parts of our civilisation through technology, and yet, social ideals have
changed:
“Women grow up and want something more substantial than the role models offered to them in celebrity magazines. I’ve been fascinated by Boudica since childhood: she was so inspirational with such pure, naked energy that her renaissance has to happen; she won’t ever fade away- she’s too strong a role model, an icon, a metaphor for modern women. I adore the imagery of Boudica in her chariot, defiant having given birth and killed. I love that contradiction: the power to give and take life. Back in her day, women were warriors, they were leaders. I think the greatest conspiracy in the history of mankind has been to deny women their power- but that’s exactly what has been happening. For me, she’s the last remaining vestige we have of that ancient and primal capacity. She is the ultimate role model” (Toyah Willcox, 2005)20
20 Interview with Vanessa Collingridge for her biography “Boudica”, 2006, p.392
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This need for modern women to seek out a role model who does not conform to
the modern propaganda ideals is apparent: and through this we can see that “this
is the force behind the legendary Boudica- that she can be all things to all
mankind because she is a living oxymoron: noble, yet one of us, a mother but a
warrior, a stateswoman though barbarian, and loyal yet a rebel, dead but very
much alive” (Collingridge, 2006, p.401). The modern woman is not one-
dimensional, and neither was Boudica: “today, her many faces reflect the
complexity of modern women’s lives” (Collingridge, 2006, p.402).
The ‘monster’ ideology has very much been left behind with Boudica, as
much as the Roman empire no longer exists: “The fact that she lost her brave
fight against the Romans gave us an enduring role model for the “great British
underdog”; and now she’s held up as a champion in the fight against cultural
oppression” (Collingridge, 2006, p.402). And, as the archetypal modern woman
of today has realised, “Must all monstrous humans act rationally- and do, indeed,
all humans act rationally?” (Oswald, 2010, p.4)
The fact that Boudica did exist in history only glorifies her name further
as a role model, and this is the main difference that sets her apart from Grendel’s
Mother. Despite the two both sharing roles of woman, warrior, and monster, it
must be remembered that Grendel’s mother is a ‘monstrous’ fictitious figure
from a semi historical background, and this is why she has been savaged in
history.
Because “Grendel’s mother is neither just a woman or merely a monster”,
she has been “doubly removed from the centre of social power and authority”
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(Oswald, 2010, p.78). There is no existing physical description of her from the
Beowulf poem, and so the fogginess surrounding her will forever continue
change.
The many different translations of Beowulf through the years have
muddled with the original identification of Grendel’s mother, and by “applying
distorting nouns” (Alfano, 1992, p.3) to the initial text, translators have managed
to “dehumanise her in other ways” (ibid). To be able to morph “atol” from
“terrible”21 into “monstrous” is quite a lexicographical jump, and this artistic
license that the translators have used is how Grendel’s Mother’s name has been
tainted through history.
Essentially, because the “other epithets [usually] applied to [Grendel’s
Mother] are usually applied to male figures: warrior, destroyer, and [male]
guardian” (Damico, Olsen, 1990, p.249), both the translator and audience have
evaluated the character as “monstrous”, because she breaks the archetypal
gender boundaries in past cultures. This is nothing to do with Grendel’s Mother
bearing the appendage of either monstrous or masculine physical qualities, but
simply because her reactions are considered so outlandish for the time that she
has to be contextualised in, and rather than justify her behaviour, it seems that
“these feminist arguments seek to simplify her hybrid nature: either she is all
monster/masculine, or she is no monster/feminine” (Oswald, 2010, p.78).
21 This was how the word would have been perceived in the Anglo Saxon period. See: Alfano, Christine, 1992. The Issue of Feminine Monstrosity: A Reevaluation of Grendel's Mother.
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To conclude, the unfortunately documented history that both Boudica and
Grendel’s Mother have suffered has ensured a very stereotypical view22 for many
decades. It has only recently come to light how these figures both need to be
entirely vindicated in order for them to be correctly preserved in history through
correct representation, in a fair light.
Appendix I:
Boudica, a Brief Introduction
22 “The cultural and political accretions that have been forced on [Boudica’s] story over two millennia tell their own story of the hopes, dreams and prejudices of the chroniclers throughout the ages who built Boudica into the icon she still is today. […] The story of Boudica is therefore both the exemplar and the allegory for how we make our histories.” (Collingridge, 2006, p.3)
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“…all this ruin was brought upon the Romans by a woman, a fact which in itself caused them the greatest shame….But the person who was chiefly instrumental in rousing the natives and persuading them to fight the Romans, the person who was thought worthy to be their leader and who directed the conduct of the entire war, was Buduica, a Briton woman of the royal family and possessed of greater intelligence than often belongs to women….In stature she was very tall, in appearance most terrifying, in the glance of her eye most fierce, and her voice was harsh; a great mass of the tawniest hair fell to her hips; around her neck was a large golden necklace; and she wore a tunic of diverse colours over which a thick mantle was fastened with a brooch. This was her invariable attire.” (Dio via Hingley, 2005, p.54)
In simple terms, Boudica was the wife of Prasutagus, King of the Iceni
tribe, situated in what would now be the modern-day county of Norfolk
(Collingridge, 2006, p.183). The monarch was essentially a client king23 (ibid),
and as such, shared his estates with the Romans, who had invaded in AD 43
during the Claudian invasion (ibid, p.184). Prasutagus died naturally in AD 61,
but instead of leaving his land and his wealth to the Roman rule, as was
commonplace for the situation, he shared his kingdom between Rome and his
two daughters24. This was basically ignored by Rome25, and the procurator Catus
Decianus invaded the land. Boudica was publicly flogged, and her daughters
raped26.
23 “King Prasutagus was a “client king” of the Romans; he was allowed to keep his kingdom as logn as he maintained a pro-Roman stance and paid his dues to his conquerors. (Collingridge, 2006, p.184)24 “Boudica was now head of the royal household, a situation meaningless in Roman law.” (Jones, 2007, CITE)
25 “The trouble was, while that may have been appropriate for a citizen in Rome, it was not deemed appropriate behaviour from someone who was to all intents and purposes a vanquished ruler of a barbarian tribe”(Collingridge, 2006, p.184)26 Prasutagus’ dominions were ravaged by the centurions; the slaves pillaged his house, and his effects were seized as lawful plunder. His wife, Boudica, suffered the humiliation of being beaten; her daughters were raped, and the Icenian aristocracy were stripped of their titles and inheritance” Tacitus
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What is interesting to note is Boudica’s familiarity with the Romans. It is
evident that Boudica was “most likely a wine-drinking, fashion-conscious, bi-
lingual Roman citizen with a sophisticated palate and relatively cosmopolitan
tastes- far removed from the raw stereotype we were taught about in school, and
all the richer for that” (Collingridge, 2006, p.3).
Unbeknownst to the Romans, mainly because of their lack of knowledge
on the ways of the Britons and their openness to having a female as a leader27,
Boudica herself raised an army of hundreds of thousands28 in order to avenge the
attacks upon her people, and along with neighbouring tribes, went on revolt29.
The Iceni sacked Camulodunum (modern day Colchester), razing the settlement
to the ground, and massacring the residents30. Boudica continued on to
Londinium31 and then on to Verulamium32.
The revolt eventually came to a head at the Battle of Watling Street33,
27 See page 10 of this study: “Boudica’s role in a patriarchal society, and her differences to the Roman Woman”
28 “Dio alleges that Boudica had an army of two hundred and thirty thousand people and even though this is probably grossly inflated, even half of this number would have looked invincible.” (Collingridge, 2006, p.246) 29 “The Iceni were now joined by their southern neighbours, the Trinovantes, who were also close to bursting with their own unvented anger against the occupying army. They had been the first native Britons to sign up to a treaty with the Romans way back in 54BC when Julius Caesar had made his second attempt at invading the island. But a century of supposed friendship with the occupying army was about to come to an end. (Collingridge, 2006, p.200)30 “And then, at Boudica’s command, a cacophony of battlecries, horns and hoofs announced the warrior queen’s arrival, and hell was unleashed on the Roman town of Camulodunum.” (Collingridge, 2006, p.211)31 See chapter: “Boudica’s Assault on London”, Collingridge, 2006, p.22532 See chapter: “Boudica’s Assault on St Albans”, Collingridge, 2006, p.23833 See chapter: “The Final Battle”, Collingridge, 2006, p.244
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where the Britons were ultimately defeated, with heavy losses of up to 80,00034,
whereas the Roman losses were significantly smaller at only 40035. This was
partly due to the Britons being so ill equipped in terms of armour and
weaponry36, but also due to how the battle was staged: Gaius Suetonius Paulinus,
Roman Governor of Britain, had his legions move forward in a wedge
formation37, cutting through the Briton forces quickly and easily. This combined
with the fact that the governor had chosen a good pitch for battle, and Boudica’s
willingness to meet at such a location is suggested by historians as being
contributing factors to the warrior queen’s demise.
Boudica’s death remains undecided in history: Tacitus states that Boudica
‘put an end to her life by poison’38, whereas Dio says that she became ill and died,
and the Britons gave her a ‘costly’ burial39. Nevertheless, she has remained in
history as a landmark representation of how the perception of women has
changed in society.
34 “Even though the figures quoted by Tacitus are almost certainly exaggerated, there is no doubt that substantial proportions of Romans and Roman sympathisers had been wiped out by Boudica’s army. (Collingridge, 2006, p.244)35 Tacitus. Annals. 14.37 (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Tac.+Ann.+14.37&redirect=true)36 “Traditionally, the British tribes had always had their greatest successes in the type of guerilla warfare fought by leaders like Caratacus” (Collingridge, 2006, p.245)37 [Suetonis Paulinus] chose a position approached by a narrow defile, shut off at the rear by a forest, having first ensured that there were no enemy soldiers except at his front, where an open plain extended without any threat of ambush” (Tacitus, Annals, XIV.34)38 Tacitus. Annals. 14.3739 Cassius Dio, Roman History 62.12.6
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Appendix II:
Grendel’s Mother and Beowulf: A Brief Introduction
Beowulf is an Old English poem written in England towards the end of the first
millennium, consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines. The poem centres on the
prince, Beowulf, and his life, and is set in Scandinavia.
The poem is often divided into three parts, or ‘battles’40, or structured into
four ‘funerals’41, depending upon the preference of the reader- in which Beowulf
comes to the aid of Hrothgar, king of the Danes, and fights42 and defeats
Grendel43, a troll-like creature who has previously attacked Hrothgar’s kingdom.
40 Jane Chance (Professor of English, Rice University) article "The Structural Unity of Beowulf: The Problem of Grendel's Mother"41 Owen-Crocker, Gale (2000). The Four Funerals in Beowulf: And the Structure of the Poem. New York: Manchester University Press42 Line 426. (All line references hereon are cited from Heaney, 2000)43 Line 116.
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Grendel’s mother, in the second ‘battle’, takes revenge upon Beowulf’s
people by killing one of the settlement’s most trusted warriors44. Beowulf then
seeks out Grendel’s mother45 and exacts revenge upon her, having to dive into a
lake to find her. They battle46 at the bottom of the lake in a cavern, beside
Grendel’s remains. Grendel’s mother at first seems to prevail, but soon it is
realised that she cannot break through Beowulf’s armour47. Eventually Beowulf
beheads48 Grendel’s mother with a ‘sword of the giants’ that he finds in Grendel’s
mother’s weaponry, moves to behead Grendel’s remains49, and returns to the
surface a hero50.
The third and final battle, based fifty years51 after the defeat of Grendel’s
mother, sees Beowulf up against a great dragon52, which has come to exact
revenge upon a slave under Beowulf’s power, who had stolen a cup from the
beast53. Eventually the dragon is slain, only after Beowulf is mortally wounded
first54. Beowulf is buried in a great tumulus55, along with the dragon’s treasure, in
accordance to his wishes.
44 Line 1280.45 Line 1474.46 Line 1518.47 Line 1548.48 Line 1566.49 Line 1578.50 Line 1612.51 Line 2200.52 Line 2210.53 Line 2221.54 Line 2590.55 Line 3156.
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Creed, Barbara, 1993. The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis.
(Popular Fictions Series). Edition. Routledge.
Damico, Helen; Olsen, Alexandra Hennessey, 1990. New Readings on Women in
Old English Literature (A Midland Book). Edition. Indiana University Press.
Ellis, Peter, 2003. Brief History of the Celts. Edition. Robinson Publishing.
Heaney, Seamus, 2000. Beowulf. Bilingual Edition Edition. Faber & Faber.
Hingley, Richard, 2005. Boudica: Iron Age Warrior Queen. Edition. Hambledon &
London.
Ian, Marcia, 1996. Remembering the Phallic Mother: Psychoanalysis, Modernism
and the Fetish. Edition. Cornell University Press.
Woman as Monster: A Study of Boudica of the Iceni Tribe and Grendel’s Mother from Beowulf
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Irving, Edward B., 1992. Rereading Beowulf (Middle Ages Series). Edition.
University of Pennsylvania Press.
Jones, Terry, 2007. Terry Jones' Barbarians: An Alternative Roman History.
Edition. BBC Books.
Lewis, Naphtali, 1990. Roman Civilization: Selected Readings, Vol. 2: The Empire .
3rd Edition. Columbia University Press.
McSheffrey, Shannon, 2006. Marriage, Sex, and Civic Culture in Late Medieval
London (The Middle Ages Series). Edition. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Murphy, Arthur, 2010. The Works of Cornelius Tacitus: With an Essay On His Life
and Genius, Notes, Supplements, Volume 4. Edition. Nabu Press.
Oswald, Dana M., 2010. Monsters, Gender and Sexuality in Medieval English
Literature (Gender in the Middle Ages). Edition. D.S.Brewer.
Pizza, Pete. 2012. Celtic Women. Available at:
<http://www.bigrags.com/Stories/celticinvasion.htm>. [Accessed 6 February
2012].
Raffel, Burton, 1964-1965. “On Translating Beowulf”, Yale Review 54
Savino, Heather Payne, 2002. The Lives of Ancient Celtic Women. Available at: <
http://www.celtlearn.org/pdfs/women.pdf> . [Accessed 6 February 2012]
Tolkien, J.R.R., 1997. The Monsters and the Critics. Edition. Grafton.
Woman as Monster: A Study of Boudica of the Iceni Tribe and Grendel’s Mother from Beowulf
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Siobhan Julia O’Dwyer
FURTHER READING
Aldhouse-Green, Miranda, 2007. Boudica Britannia. 1 Edition. Longman.
Ginnell, Carolyn D, 2009. The Brehon Laws: A Legal Handbook. Edition. BiblioLife.
Jung, Carl, G, 1982. Aspects of the Feminine. Edition. ARK Paperbacks.
Sjoberg, Laura, 2007. Mothers, Monsters, Whores: Women's Violence in Global Politics. First Edition Edition. Zed Books.
Williams, Carolyn D, 2009. Boudica and Her Stories: Narrative Transformations of a Warrior Queen. Edition. Lexington Books.
Wood, Michael, 2007. In Search of the Dark Ages. Edition. BBC Books.Perspectives of the Middle Ages. Ed. Patricia W. Cummins et al. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press.
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