04-10-2024, 03:17 AM
She was worn into a hag
raising up an enemy of Man
whose feud with Hrothgar
brought the mindless killer Beowulf
into her last watery refuge
where she fought a final battle
to revenge against his bloody hands
the extinction of her clan.
The Anglo-Saxon poets
refused to give her a name.
She was the matrix of the mere
that all men feared,
where woe stalked the two-legged,
the invaders whose hall
blared out the song of patriarchy.
So I mourn Grendel’s mother
whether she was the last of Cain,
or something greaterÂ
than we latter day monsters
can understand.
raising up an enemy of Man
whose feud with Hrothgar
brought the mindless killer Beowulf
into her last watery refuge
where she fought a final battle
to revenge against his bloody hands
the extinction of her clan.
The Anglo-Saxon poets
refused to give her a name.
She was the matrix of the mere
that all men feared,
where woe stalked the two-legged,
the invaders whose hall
blared out the song of patriarchy.
So I mourn Grendel’s mother
whether she was the last of Cain,
or something greaterÂ
than we latter day monsters
can understand.