Between Grendel and his Mother

Grendel's Defeat and the Rising of His Mother

After the fight between Grendel and Beowulf, the hall, Heorot, must be rebuilt. Only two planets need to be here on the spring horizon, Hrothgar/Jupiter and Hrothulf/Saturn, their presence originally designated this constellation as the House of the Sun, and their return reiterates this designation, rebuilds the House. (As in Mar, 552.) This is the only mention of Hrothulf, Saturn, in the house. (Heaney 2000, l. 1015) Thus, with the presence of these two important planets in the constellation Heorot, is the House of the Sun rebuilt. One indicator of the amount of time that passes is in the movements of Wealhtheow. She comes in, sits between the two men, then she moves to sit on the benches among her sons, then moves to “her place.”(l. 1232) Such a motion takes some two months, as in March-May , 730.

The planets move on; Jupiter has a twelve-year cycle and is seldom in the house more than one year. Saturn is slower; he may stay in the house for three years, but his return is as slow, thirty years.

Around CE550 the morning sun appears in the “V” of Heorot, Pisces, on March 21st or 22nd, precisely on the equinox. This begins their year. There are plenty of stars in Heorot that are on the ecliptic; they, and the disputed stars between Heorot and Grendel/Cetus, appear at the horizon in a sequence almost daily from March 21st until April 21st when the low point of Heorot begins to leave the dawn horizon. Thus Grendel can take its place since it is beginning to appear when mu Ceti and iota Ceti come on the horizon, then the constellation is up and available for a calendar. Grendel does well until the last obvious star in the constellation, Diphda, appears May30th.

In the poem Grendel dies; his constellation moves away from the horizon at dawn, ceases to be a good calendar designation. On June first or second, two prominent stars on the horizon at dawn can step in to replace Grendel and keep the calendar: alpha Tauri and Castor. The sun has, however, passed Taurus and is entering Gemini. The astronomer chooses Gemini by using one of the images of Castor in the poem repeatedly.

“Then away they rode, the old retainers with many a young man following after, a troop on horseback, in high spirits on their bay steeds….”L 852-55

“At times the war-band broke into a gallop, letting their chestnut horses race wherever they found the going good on those well-known tracks.” L863-66

“Meanwhile the Danes kept racing their mounts down sandy lanes. …” L915-16

On Roman coins of the Classical period the twins were often depicted as “…two young men on horseback’ Allen 225. Coins of southern Italy bore the “heads of the twins on one side and their mounted figures on the other.” (Allen 1963, 225) The “sandy lanes” and the ‘well-known tracks” refer to the ecliptic, and the stars racing along them. Time passes.

The author of the poem has chosen to use Gemini to keep the time from June 1 until it moves up from the horizon on July 2nd. The last of Gemini can be determined by the vertical line of four stars in the constellation: 13 Mu Geminorum, 18 Nu Geminorum, 24 Gamma Geminorum, and the last star in this constellation on the horizon, 30 Geminorum. The author must now choose another group of stars to keep the local time.

A word here about the change in direction of the poet’s calendar. From our point of view we would have continued along the zodiac to Cancer and then Leo, but the poet is a man of his time. He cannot go where there is nothing. As far as his astronomical myth was concerned, there was no time before Gemini. (Santillana and Dechind; 245)

When someone, either Babylonian or Sumerian according to the latest arguments, began to calculate time it was organized as cyclic, rather than arbitrary or phenomenological. The sun’s movement north and south during a year was cyclic; hot weather and cold weather were cyclic; rain and drought, even the movements of the gods across the night sky were cyclic. But they kept time also as time of the current ruler: “Sixth year of the reign of Urgon.” So they looked for something that signified the beginning of the reign of Time.

They found it in the longest cycle they could observe and calculate, the turning of the Milky Way across the heavens. For them time began when the Milky Way was exactly horizontal at the equinox in the sixth millennium BCE, and the gates to the afterlife, the constellations Gemini and Sagittarius, were at the horizon. Since for this poet time began with the Gemini at the horizon, it couldn’t go back into Cancer, which had never been the House of the Sun. The poet chose to go south, to the next constellation on the horizon. This has much to say about the poet’s religion and training.

A space of ten days occurs when no particular object is mentioned on the horizon as the author wants to get to a particular constellation, Canis Minor, and the two stars, Gomesia and Procyon. Procyon is the European name for the main star in Canis Minor, known to the Arabic astronomers as Aschere. (cite Allen) These two stars form most of the constellation which has many functions as an advisor. Its presence on the horizon at dawn foretells the heat of summer; it is the original constellation that designates Dog Days. It foretells the rising of Sirius within three weeks, and the liquid turbulence associated with that star, and to those who have Aschere as a special sign it foretells wealth and influence. (Allen)

At this latitude seven days, a quarter moon, passes between the last of Canis Minor and the main star in Canis Major, Sirius, the flag of summer. This constellation introduces the High Summer, Lammastide, first harvest. This is the time for preparation for the long harvest of grains, storable vegetables and fruits.

Then, as the last star in Canis Major, Adhera, 21Canis Major, leaves the eastern horizon August 23rd, Puppis, Argo, Beowulf’s ship that flew like a bird, begins to emerge in the southern sky. Also Grendel is beginning to go down, no longer be active, and in a very few days Heorot will follow it under the western horizon at dawn. When Puppis is as far up as it is going to get it is September 22nd; summer is over. Both Grendel and Heorot are, for all astronomical purposes, under the western horizon.

These times I have given are for the constellations if the calendar is read in Northern Europe. However, if the calendar is read in Rome or Constantinople the time between the constellations is eliminated and the calendar runs smoothly. Since the author of the poem does not suggest any spare time between constellations he is working with a calendar constructed considerably south of England, Ireland or Denmark.