Beowulf and Grendel's Mother

The Arrival of Grendel's Unpleasant Mother

Having finished his summer calendar the author of Beowulf begins his description of the winter dawn sky. In November the last constellation used for the summer sky, Canis minor, leaves the dawn sky just as Lupus appears. The poet turns his attention to the bigger picture in two areas, the total picture of the sky for an entire astronomical year, and a more controversial observation, the precession of the pole.

Procyon rises two weeks ahead of Sirius and goes down two weeks after. The sky is left to be timed by Procyon before and after the star Sirius is in the sky. This is why Hrothgar refers to Procyon, Aeschere, as his most trusted advisor; he advises the king in the spring before Sirius comes up and after it goes down in November. (Allen, 133) Lupus can “steal” Aeschere as that star is going down when Lupus comes up.

Grendel’s mother, Lupus, attacks Heorot. Her attack is brief and relatively weak since she is almost down as Heorot rises. (The Sky, November 25 CE 500) She takes Aeschere who is going down as she rises, and goes down the well between Scorpio and Sagittarius to the waters under the earth.

But “Beowulf was elsewhere.” (Heaney 2000, l. 1299) Beowulf was not available to counter Lupus’s attack because he was down, not in the winter sky. (The Sky, CE 599 Dec. 2nd) After Grendel’s mother’s attack Beowulf must be called to Heorot, rise. He was surprised; he was not able to see the attack because of his position below the horizon.

Hrothgar describes the well Grendel’s mother used, the mere, as the well at the Sagittarius end of the Milky Way. The path the war party takes to the well is the ecliptic, the narrow, well-traveled path of the sun, moon and planets, between the waters under the earth and the mountain that holds up the North Pole. Wild beasts frequent the waters but cannot get to the people on the path. The head of Aeschere at the well suggests it is also Mimir’s well, and the hunting horn’s continuous sounding is Heimdal’s horn, the new moon. (Grant 2002, 47) The characters present determine the time of day. It is sunset; the moon is new; Hrothgar is there, as are his troops, Mars, and Unferth/Mercury. Beowulf is there, but he is in the Milky Way. If Unferth is there the sun is close by, so he could show if the sun were down. He follows the sun because Beowulf lauds him as a wise brehon. In fact, Unferth in the evening is such an honorable man that Beowulf makes him his heir should Beowulf die pursuing Lupus.

The time is August; Sirius is up as the poet makes plain; “the bloodshot waters / surged” (Heaney 2000, l. 1416-1417) and “the hot gore / kept wallowing up.”(1423) The waters are responding to the presence of the water master, Sirius. This grouping, Jupiter and Mars at the Milky Way in the southern sky in August and Mercury at least above the horizon, is very unusual, but not unique. One occurrence is in August 12, 549, (The Sky, Aug. 13, Sunset, 549. Look south) and another in August 4, 786. Because it is away from the eastern dawn sky the poet makes sure we know where he intends for us to look. Beowulf takes a bow and arrow, weapons not mentioned before, and shoots one of the monsters in the well. He does this to call attention to Sagittarius, the archer, at the foot of the Milky Way, and the serpent in the middle of the Milky Way that the men dragged up on shore. Yes, we are supposed to be watching the southern sky in the evening.

After the usual bragging Beowulf/ Perseus plunges in; “It was the best part of a day / before he could see the solid bottom.”(Heaney 2000, l. 1495-96) Perseus is at his nadir about the middle of January as Lupus is reaching her most exposed position. She is in position to grab Beowulf and carry him to her lair. Here Beowulf went through a “Hellish Turning.” If Lupus carried Beowulf across the sky she would have crossed under Orion, where there was a giant whirlpool at his feet. (Raymo. The Soul of Night. 110) “Look”, says the poet, “This is the way she went.” But Beowulf is ascending and Lupus is descending, “he pitched his killer opponent to the floor.” (l.1540) Perseus rises; Lupus descends. This defines, covers, measures, the eight months from late February when Perseus rises and Lupus sets, until late November when Perseus sets. Then Beowulf stumbles, goes down, and Lupus “…pounced upon him” (1545). Lupus ascends and Perseus descends. This covers the remainder of the year from November when Lupus rises until February when she sets and Perseus rises.

As Perseus rises Beowulf finds the old sword and cuts off Lupus’s head, calling attention to the fact that at this latitude Lupus shows only her head above the horizon; this is the only part of her body open to attack. He searches her lair and finds Grendel’s body. He must wait until Grendel is above the horizon before he can cut his head off also. It seems, by the reaction of the well observed by Hrothgar and Beowulf’s troops, that he waited until August when Grendel is declining because the waters again boil up. (Heaney 2000, l. 1592)

Beowulf is now free to return to the ecliptic through the well between Taurus and Gemini. Because he comes up “…at the ninth hour…,” during daylight, (Gemini, the return well, is on the western horizon at three pm, the ninth hour after sunrise) Beowulf cannot wear his chain mail. His warriors strip that off as soon as he comes up. His return with Grendel’s head recalls Perseus’ return with the head of Medusa; his constellation is often shown having four men, stars, carrying the head of Medusa. Also his friends once again number fourteen, the lost warrior has been restored. This is one way of saying that Algol, the highly variable star that Grendel took, has returned to the sky. This is life in the sky, not a battle on earth.

The question remains to be answered; why didn’t Beowulf bring back Grendel’s arm that had been on the roof? He couldn’t, and this is a very knowledgeable comment. The poet commented that the stars could not be stopped in their courses when Beowulf could not stop Grendel from returning under the waters. Now he is stating that the pole has come loose, the center of rotation of the sky is changing. This is called the polar precession, the movement of the pole in the great circle caused by the earth’s wobble as it rotates. If Beowulf brought the arm back, it would just slip off again. Currently the constellation Ursa Major, the arm, is circumpolar and does not set. In the future, as the pole shifts away from it, the arm will come closer and closer to the horizon. Eventually it will dip below the horizon; the arm will return under the waters. No one, Beowulf nor anyone else, can stop the precession.

Line 1904. The first poem is finished; the calendar is finished. All the narrative threads have ended and the hero has triumphed and been suitably rewarded.