Parallels of Supernatural Beings in Beowulf and Grettir's Saga
by Nicole Janice Wallace
[Disclaimer: I am just a college student and do not claim to be as knowledgeable as scholars in this field. Please keep in mind that as you read. These are just my ideas. Do not plagarize or steal my work.]
In the Germanic tradition, most literary texts contain some form of supernatural beings such as giants, monsters, trolls and dragons. Usually they are parts of mythological texts but sometimes they are found in historical and biographical texts. In that context, the supernatural beings take on a metaphorical significance. Beowulf and Grettir's Saga are parallel in terms of some of the monsters yet their metaphorical significance is not always the same. There is a theory that the authors of these texts must have known the other story through oral tradition because there are many similar scenes.
In Beowulf, the main character Beowulf, must fight three monsters: Grendel, Grendel's mother and a dragon. In Grettir's Saga, the main character Grettir, must fight a zombie named Kari, several dangerous berserks, a savage bear, Glam - a supernatural being of evil disposition, and a She-Troll and her giant sidekick. Glam and the She-Troll parallel Grendel and Grendel's mother. However, these supernatural beings do not necessarily hold the same metaphorical significance.
In Beowulf, first supernatural being, Grendel, is a perfect personified example of ethnic hatred.
"Thus this lordly people lived in joy, blessedly, until one began to work his foul crimes - a fiend from hell. This grim spirit was called Grendel, mighty stalked of the marshes, who held the moors and fens; this miserable man lived for a time in the land of giants, after the Creator had condemned him among Cain's race - when he killed Abel the eternal Lord avenged that death. No joy in that feud - the Maker forced him far from mankind for his foul crime. From thence arose all misbegotten things, trolls and elves and the living dead, and also the giants who strove against God for a long while."
He spent many nights terrorizing and tormenting Hrothgar's kingdom because Grendel absolutely hated Danes. By his association with Cain's race, the author implies that, by nature, Grendel is excluded from this mead hall and kinship. Grendel uses this exclusion to power his violence towards this close-knit kin group. Grendel is a cannibalistic monster who would devour the Danes while they sleep in the hall. Taking the warriors one by one each night symbolizes the slow genocide of the Geats. Beowulf comes to attack Grendel in order to repay a favor to Hrothgar for keeping his father Ecgtheow safe in his time of need. Grendel manages to kill and eat one of the men in the hall before Beowulf is able to attack him. Grendel, severely wounded, then leaves and returns to his lair.
In Grettir's Saga, there is the parallel of the place being terrorized by these supernatural beings. In Beowulf, it is the hall Heorot that is being tormented. In Grettir's Saga it is Thorhall's farm. Thorhall is unable to keep a shepard because some supernatural being torments and kills his shepards. It is suggested to him that he use Glam "a huge man and very strange looking, with glaring grey eyes and a head of wolf-grey hair." Glam accepts the challenge. He never goes to Church even on Christmas. This anti-Christain attitude is also found in Grendel who is suppose to be the descendent of Cain who was exiled from mankind. The monster haunting Thorhalls' farm kills Glam on Christmas. They find his body "dark-blue in color and swollen up to the size of an ox." Despite many attempts to bring the body to Church, they had to leave him where he lay. Any attempt to bring a priest near the site caused the carcass to disappear. With this gruesome death, Glam is transformed into a supernatural being that resembles a zombie - one of the walking dead.
Now it was Glam who tormented the house, by sitting on the roof and rattling the rafters. A second shepard attempted the job but was killed by Glam. They found him "with his neck broken and every bone in his body crushed." However, they were able to take his body to Church and it never caused any problems thereafter. The farmer then abandoned his farm for the winter because he felt that it was no longer safe to stay there.
Thorhall returns to his farm in the spring. Grettir hears about Glam and by his proud nature, goes to Thorhall's farm to see what the fuss is about. Thorhall is thrilled to have Grettir as a guest and the first night, the house was left alone and Grettir's horse had not been tampered with. Grettir accepts the challenge to stay another night. The second night, the house was left untouched but his horse was killed. The third night, Grettir appears to be sleeping, just like Beowulf, while he awaits the arrival of Glam.
When Glam enters the hall, he notices a heap lying down under a cloak and grabbed it but was surprised at what force opposed him. Finally, the cloak ripped in half between the two of them. This surprised Glam just as Grendel was surprised at Beowulf's strong hand grip:
"that he had never met on middle-earth in any region of the world, another man with a greater handgrip, in his heart he was afraid for his life, but none the sooner could he flee."
The battle between Glam and Grettir begins.
"At the very moment Glam fell, the clouds cleared away, and Glam glared up at the moon. Grettir himself once said that that was the only sight he ever saw which frightened him. Then, because of exhaustion and the sight of Glam rolling his eyes so fiercely, Grettir was overcome by such a faintness that he could not draw his short sword, and so he remained there lying closer to death than to life."
It has been theorized that Grettir saw parts of himself in Glam's eyes and that is what is so frightening. Glam is a metaphor for Grettir's almost superhuman character because of his strength and fierceness. Glam is also a metaphor for fate because he lets Grettir know that no matter what he does, fate shall kill him in the end. However, it is his pride that is the greatest problem. Glam foreshadows the downfall of this pride and Grettir's death.
" 'I will tell you this: you have acquired by now only half the strength and vigor which you were destined to get if you had not met me. I cannot take away fro you what you already have, but I can see to it that you will never be stronger than you are now, and yet you are strong enough, as many will find to their cost. Up until now your deeds have brought you fame, but from now on outlawry and slaughter will come your way, and most of your acts will bring you ill luck and misfortune. You will be made an outlaw and forced to live by yourself. I also lay this curse on you: you will always see before you these eyes of mine, and they will make your solitude unbearable and this shall drag you to your death.'"
In Beowulf, Hrothgar also tries to limit the pride of Beowulf by pointing out that one can only postpone fate but can never completely avoid it.
"care not for pride, great champion! The glory of your might is but a little while; soon it will be that sickness or the sword will shatter your strength, of the grip of fire, or the surging flood, or the cut of a sword, or the flight of a spear, or terrible old age - or the light of your eyes will fail and flicker out; in one fell swoop death, o warrior, will overwhelm you."
Irrelevant of how many victories are won and oppositions overcome, fate will have its way. Both of the above quotes prove true. Grettir is outlawed and due to the curse is always afraid of the dark. Therefore he is always surrounding himself with people, one of whom accidentally aids his death. Beowulf finally is overcome by the fire of a dragon in the end just as Hrothgar predicts based on the usual path of fate. According to fate in the context of Germanic times, the moment of success is the same moment of damnation. There are still more supernatural beings to overcome before these characters meet their deaths. The next supernatural beings are female without proper names and they both live in a watery domain.
Just as Beowulf thought he had defeated Grendel, a second monster comes to avenge Grendel's death. This monster is Grendel's mother.
"It was clearly seen, obvious to all men, that an avenger still lived on after that enemy for a long time after that grim battle - Grendel's mother, monster-woman, remembered her misery, she who dwelt in those dreadful waters, the cold streams, ever since Cain killed with his blade his only brother, his father's kin; he felt bloodstained, marked for murder, left the joys of men, dwelled in the wasteland."
Unlike Grendel, whose violence was fueled by ethnic hatred, love and kinship fuel her violence. Her love for her son makes her go mad and in a fit of violence she breaks into the hall and kills Hrothgar's most beloved advisor. Her character and actions represent the cyclic nature of war and feud. In feuding societies, it is common to avenge the death of a loved one or one of the kin group. This is the an eye for an eye principle. However, Grendel and his mother, foiled against the men in Hrothgar's hall, are an example of a flawed kin group due to the fact that their ancestor Cain broke the laws of kinship when he killed his brother. This caused their exclusion from the functional kin group of the Danes.
The motif of haunting a place reoccurs. While Grendel's mother is terrorizing the same hall, because that is where her son met his death, the She-Troll in Grettir's Saga is haunting a different farm owned by Stein.
The motif of Christmas affecting the actions of the supernatural beings also reoccurs. While his wife goes to Church, Stein stays home and is devoured by this troll. The next year, she asks her servant to stay home and the same thing occurs. Grettir hears of this and comes to the rescue because he has a perception of himself as being the hero who saves the day. He helps the housewife get to Church and then he returns to the house. As predicted, the She-Troll enters the hall soon afterwards.
Another motif reoccurs. Beowulf has to fight Grendel's mother in her watery lair:
"Right away she who held that expanse of water, bloodthirsty and fierce, for a hundred half years, grim and greedy, perceived that some man was exploring from above that alien land…Then that she-wolf of the sea swam to the bottom and bore the prince of rings into her abode so that he might not - no matter how strong - wield his weapons, but so many wonders set upon him in the water, many a sea-beast with battle-tusks, tearing at his war-shirt, monsters pursuing him."
as does Grettir with the She-Troll:
"The ogress shoved him down to the river and all the way to the edge of the gorge…when they reached the gorge, he gave the ogress a swing, so that his right hand was freed. At once he seized the short sword at his waist, drew it, and struck at her shoulder, slicing off her right arm. With that he was freed, and she dived down into the gorge and vanished under the waterfall."
There is one more similarity between these two scenes. There were a group of Scyldings who sat around waiting for Beowulf to arise from the murky water and after the ninth hour, they, sick at heart, gave up. In Grettir's Saga, a priest accompanied Grettir to the water and waited until he too gave up and presumed that Grettir was dead. The only major difference with this scene is that the She-Troll has disappeared and Grettir meets a giant instead who is guarding her lair. He overcomes the giant and rescues the bones of the dead farmer and servant so that they can have a proper burial.
In terms of metaphorical significance, Glam and the She-Troll represent paganism in a rapidly converting Christian society. The references to Christmas, mass, and not being able to bury Glam in a Church only reinforce this idea. In Beowulf, the men of the hall were Christian but the supernatural beings, Grendel and his mother, were not and they were also permanently excluded from the Christian community because they are descendents of Cain. This question of Christianity verses Paganism was very real during the historical time period in which these stories were recorded and therefore it appears often within these texts.
In conclusion, there are many parallels within these two stories regarding the characters and the supernatural beings. To recap, there are two men, Beowulf and Grettir, who have powers that exceed most mortal men. They are faced with supernatural beings and obstacles of immense peculiarity. Some of these beings parallel each other: Grendel and Glam, and Grendel's mother and the She troll. Each "monster" has metaphorical significance: Grendel is ethnic hatred, Grendel's mother is love and kinship, Glam is pride and fate, and the She-Troll is paganism. It can only be pondered how these two stories could be construed in two different parts of the world, Iceland and England, and yet have not come into contact with each other through travelers and oral tradition. The similarities are so strong that there had to have been an exchange during the oral tradition period before these stories were written down.