Beowulf

Hrothgar is a model king: generous, brave, and perhaps most importantly, humble. While he can’t figure out how to defeat Grendel himself, his people still love him for being a good and wise leader—not a given in this warlike culture. His last embrace of Beowulf prefigures Beowulf’s final comradeship with Wiglaf: Hrothgar is a strong man accepting, and even loving, the fact that he cannot stand alone. 

Hrothgar also plays an important role in the poem’s reflections on mortality. He counsels Beowulf to remember that power and treasure are finite, and that all goods come from the hands of God. Beowulf carries this wisdom into his own kingship. Hrothgar is not simply a strong leader, but a representative of the importance of human connection.

A monstrous creature descended from the line of Cain, Grendel is a perversion of humanity. He is cannibalistic, envious, and merciless, motivated to kill and devour the men of Heorot by his hatred for their camaraderie—and thus for civilization itself. He’s invulnerable to weapons, and Beowulf must defeat him by wrenching his scaly arm from its socket. 

Though Grendel is a terrible monster, he’s also recognizably human. The poet gives us access to his inner life, and we may well feel a strange sympathy with his loneliness and his fear. He represents all that is beastly, selfish, and hateful in humanity—the inner forces that this world’s complex social codes try desperately to guard against.

Even scarier than Grendel is his mother, who rises from the mere to take revenge after Beowulf slaughters her son. In a world founded on patriarchal lineage, she represents a cultural horror of female power: Her bestial allegiance to her child drives her bloodlust. This horrific maternity is the fundamental attribute of Grendel’s mother, who has no name of her own and is “fatherless.”

Like her son, she’s also a reminder of deep human evils. Her vengefulness mirrors the blood feuds that mar the peace of the clans. Though Beowulf defeats her, her energy remains: After the death of Beowulf, the Geats (rightly) fear that a tide of vengeance is about to sweep them off the map. Grendel’s mother is the shadow of the warrior honor culture.

Unferth provides a note of discontent in the stalwart camaraderie of Hrothgar’s court. He is an envious braggart and a traitor, suspected of killing his own brothers. He challenges Beowulf, but also ultimately tries to help him, lending him his sword Hrunting to battle Grendel’s mother because he’s too afraid to do the fighting himself. Unferth contains the seeds of all the sins that make Grendel a monster, but he is ultimately folded back into the world of the Danes. Beowulf returns his sword to him respectfully, as befits a famous warrior even if his character is in some doubt. 

Unferth might usefully be contrasted with Wiglaf: the one an image of the bad citizen, the other an image of the good. Unferth provides a note of realism in this world of epic heroes: inner heroism is a personal responsibility, and one that not every human is willing to work for. Somehow, culture needs to work with and around those who shun its demands.

Hrothgar’s lovely Queen Wealhtheow serves as a paragon of femininity and a representation of the cultural values that the Danes and Geats wish to preserve against the darkness. She binds the men together, serving them all from a communal cup, and anchors their understanding of lineage—for instance, when she reminds Hrothgar that he’s got to consider what will happen to his children when he dies.