From the fen, in morning mist with winter’s breath,
Grendel rising
Spray of water, shook from matted mane,
Filled the air with his roaring.
Then came he, filled with fury
Gainst golden Heorot
Where drank warriors many.
Cups of mead and roasted spit meats,
Feast of heroes victorious,
Interrupted.
The hall doors burst, broke asunder
Violence entered –
Grendel raging.
Hrothgar’s men, at ease, ill-
Prepared not for the onslaught.
Anger rising, weapons rising
Tables turning,
Mighty Heanor, of Harim’s getting,
His blood angry
Facing Grendel, turned, meeting.
The first was he to the fray
Brute and Man
Met with savage blow
Each to each with burning anger
Hewed mightily
Blood and mead mixing.
Warriors gathering arms and armour
Time passing, Heanor calling.
He saw his doom in Grendel’s eye.
Battle silenced, Grendel smiling,
Heorot’s walls with blood running.
Grendel fled.
Heanor fell with much lamenting
Mortal wound from Grendel bleeding.
Laughter from the blackened fen.
Hrothgar, grief tormented,
Called for heroes, to valour and fame
Grendel to slay, Heorot to save
From afar one heard the call -
Came Beowulf then, with his men.
Proud borne.
Vast his prowess with strength and steel
Legend wove around his deeds
Peerless warrior.
The creature Grendel from the fen to slay
Plans drawn to lure the monster
And Beowulf’s blood the bait.
Came he again on midnight frenzy
Man blood on his fang still fresh, hunger burning.
Grendel returning
Heorot’s heroes he found sleeping
The great doors gaping and fire dying
Grendel entered.
Midnight cloud hid Beowulf’s face
The sleeping feign of death on his feature’s played
His arm still ready, muscle knotted
The trap sprung, up rose vengeance,
Grendel caught in grip of steel.
Beowulf and Grendel, man and monster
Wrestled together and battle raged.
Titanic struggle in the red-
Locked together in mighty strength
Grim determination to kill the other.
Grendel, with animal eye, trapped
Like a wild beast caged, panicked
Turned with sickening crunch of bone
From broken socket his arm torn
Flesh yielded, pain bellowed through the hall
Grendel fled, Beowulf glorious.
The spoil nailed to Heorot’s great door
Token of victory, Beowulf’s glory
His prize Hrothgar’s favour for the asking.
Night passed with heroes feasting
Grendel to the fen, wounded
His lair seeking.
Time passed, Heorot’s king thanking
Friendship made ‘tween men of standing
Beowulf leaving
In black fen water, deeply hidden
Grendel’s monster mother wailing
As Grendel dying
Shrieking from the blackened water
Rising now with mother’s rage and vengeance swearing
Beowulf to claim
To Heorot came she, found heroes resting
And carried off sleeping Aeschere’s corpse
Their doom returning
Beowulf returning,
Once more to Heorot at Hrothgar’s call
Blood bound.
To the fen warriors journeyed
To seek the lair of foul fen mother
At water’s edge Beowulf praying.
Unferth’s sword height Hrunting, keen edged blade
Battle proven, to Beowulf given for battle once more
Beneath the fen
Down dived he through murky water
Battle seeking
He found the cave of Grendel’s mother
In darkness dwelt she, keen her eye
In murky water Beowulf spied
Then on came she – curses shrieking
Gainst Man and King who slew her son
Blade of Hrunting, not fair enow for arm of Beowulf,
Broke, shattered ‘pon his foe
Broken, useless, Bewowulf cast hilt of Hrunting from his sight
For greater weapon from cave mud prised
There, gleaming, golden, true sword of heroes
Masterful blade of ancient casting
Red its steel, in blood tempered
Now battle rejoined with wondrous weapon
Mighty was the wrath of Beowulf
Fiercesome was Grendel’s Mother
Both fought hard in murky water
Then, hand of Odin guided hand of hero
The blood-
Mother of fen beast true and dead
This same blade then itself in blood consumed
Only hilt remaining, to Hrothgar given, to hang above royal hearth
O’er fire and fiefdom, Heorot’s honour
Beowulf king, mighty hero
Great are the stories told of him
But none are told so wide as this
Of Hrothgar, Grendel and his mother
