“You are the spawn of Cain!” Grendel’s mother’s literary appropriations

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the study of three post-2000 novels appropriating Beowulf, whose common denominator is the amplification and humanization of the figure of Grendel’s mother and the reconstruction of her potential personal history. The paper argues that multiple ambiguities concerning Grendel’s mother in the poem render her a perfect vehicle for exploring modern assumptions concerning monstrosity, humanity, and femininity. By foregrounding the fact that the canonicity of Beowulf legitimizes the status quo that it represents, the paper elucidates the reasons for which modern female writers look to such an old and culturally remote text. They seem to recognize Beowulf as a carrier of cultural memory and, in their herstories, they often attempt to present the values that it espouses as the foundations of persistent objectification and oppression of women. The female authors also strive to point to the male appropriation of history and memory by presenting mechanisms leading to the dehumanization of Grendel’s mother such as defamation, exile, and oblivion. Identifying Beowulf as a text written by a man, for men, and about men, they offer its feminist reclamations written by women, for women, and about women. The paper also discusses the alternative morality and wisdom represented by women in these modern novels as well as their criticism of traditional gender roles as social constructs which fail to appreciate female self-efficiency, resourcefulness, individualism, psychological strength, and stamina.