The Walking Dead, Part 5 (for Old English Scholars Only)
Gunnora Hallakarva
gunnora at bga.com
Fri Aug 30 18:17:12 PDT 1996
The Walking Dead: Draugr and Aptrgangr in Old Norse Literature
Part V: Parallels between the Scandinavian Draugr and Beowulf's Grendel
(All Old English is from Frederick Klaeber's edition of Beowulf and the
Fight at Finnsburg. 3rd ed. Lexington MA; D.C. Heath & Co., 1950. All
translations to modern English and any mistakes therin are my own.)
Parellels can be drawn between Beowulf and Grettirs Saga based on
the similarities between Beowulf's encounter with Grendel in heorot and
Grettir's struggle with Glamr at Thorhallsstadir. These two tales have more
in common than just their plots, however, for there are many similarities
between their monstrous adversaries: "The important thing is that Grendel
is related to the corpse demon (aptrgangr) Glamr..." (Nicholas K. Kiessling,
"Grendel: A New Aspect," Modern Philology, 65 (1968), p. 201). In many
respects, Grendel himself seems to exhibit the characteristics of the
walking dead.
Chadwick, in her analysis of words used in Beowulf to describe
Grendel, points out that Anglo-Saxon glossaries relate these descriptions to
Latin words "associated with the underworld, with necromancy and the harmful
influence of the spirits of the dead" (Chadwick, "The Monsters and Beowulf,"
p. 175). Like the draugr, "swollen to the size of an ox," Grendel is "mara
thonne aenig man odther" (l. 1353, "greater in size than any other man") and
possesses strength proportional to his size which enables him to carry
fifteen men away to his lair:
Thonne he Hrodthgares heordth-geneatas
sloh on sweofote slaepende fraet
folces Denigea fyftyne men,
and odther swylc ut offerede
ladthlicu lac. (ll. 1580-1584a)
(Then Hrothgar's hearth companions
he slew in their beds, ate them sleeping,
of the Danish people fifteen men,
another fifteen likewise he carried off-
a hateful gift.)
It would also seem that Grendel shared with the undead the ability to
shape-shift. As O'Keefe points out, Grendel is clearly described as a man
by the words "guma" (ll. 973, 1682), "haeledtha" (l. 2072), "rinc" (l.
720), and "wer" (l. 105), and yet he also partakes of a monstrous nature
(Katherine O'Brien O'Keefe, "Beowulf, Lines 702b-836: Transformations and
Limits of the Human," in Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 23
(1981), p. 486). After his disasterous encounter with Beowulf, the arm left
behind by Grendel is seen to be a sort of taloned paw:
... foran
aeghwylc waes,
stidthra naegla gehwylc style gelicost
haethenes handsporu hilderinces
eglu unheoru... (ll. 984b - 987a)
(... at the end of
each
every one of the hard nails was most like steel
the handspurs of the heathen warrior
were awful, monstrous things...)
This description recalls the cat-like form assumed by the draugr Thrain of
Hromundar saga Greipssonar while battling Hromund.
Grendel exhibits the vampire-like propensities of the draugr as
well. Kiessling links the word "maere" (ll. 103, 762) used to describe
Grendel with the Latin "lamia," "a blood-drinking witch," based on the
evidence of Old English glossaries (Kiessling, "Grendel: A New Aspect," pp.
195-196). Grendel himself certainly drinks the blood of doomed Hondscioh:
Ne thaet se aglaeca yldan thohte,
ac he gefeng hradthe forman sidthe
slaepende rinc, slat unwearnum
bat banlocan, blod edrum drank...
(Nor did the combatant think to delay
but he quickly caught the first time
a sleeping man, greedily tore him,
bit the joint, drank the
blood streams...)
Grendel's abode may also be related to the barrow of the draugr.
The dwellings of the dead were often said to be located beneath a stone or
boulder, and the mere of Grendel is likewise to be found beneath a "harne
stan" (l. 1415, "grey stone"). There are three other occurences of the
phrase "under harne stan" in Beowulf, each describing the lair of a dragon
(ll. 887, 2553, 2744). Old English literature firmly links dragons to
barrows: "To the Anglo-Saxon poets there is little doubt that a burial
mound containing treasure was the 'hill of the dragon.'" (Ellis-Davidson,
"The Hill of the Dragon," p. 178). The dragon's lair in Beowulf is
explicitly described many times as a barrow ("beorh"), and after Beowulf has
directed Wiglaf to seek out the dragon's treasure "under harne stan" (l.
2744), the young warrior obeys and retrieves the gold from "under beorges
hrof" (l. 2755, "under a barrow's roof"). Thus the description "under harne
stan" acts as a kenning for a barrow, a form of verbal shorthand conveying
the idea of the supernatural and the home of the dead.
The mere itself has connections to the dwelling of the dead: "thaer
maeg nihta gehwaem nidthwundor seon, fyr on flode" (ll. 1365-1366a, "There
each night may be seen a fearful wonder, fire on the flood.") The waters of
the mere burn with a dread fire, like the flame that is seen above the
barrows of the dead. The water of the mere and the "fyrgenstream" (ll.
1359, 2128) also recall descriptions of the dragon's barrow: "hlaew under
hrusan holmwylme neh, ydthgewinne" (ll. 2411-2412a, "the howe under the
earth near the sea-surge, the wave-strife") and "standan stanbogan, stream
ut ponan brecan of beorge (ll. 2545-2546a, "a standing stone arch, from it a
stream that burst forth from the barrow"). Like Beowulf's barrow (ll.
2156-3158), the howes of many Scandinavian draugar are built upon headlands
near the sea (see for example Egils Saga, p. 150). Thus the mere, too, is
recognized as a place of the dead.
The land around the mere is reminiscent of the hvammr in which so
many aptrgangar are found. The mere is located beneath enclosing mountains
within a narrow valley, in a place where the hills restrict the light of the
sun:
... Hie dygel lond
warigeadth wulfhleothu windige naessas,
frecne fengelad, dthaer fyrgen stream
under naessa genithu nither gewitedth...
(ll. 1357b - 1360)
(... They hold to
a secret land
ward the wolf-slopes, the windy headlands
the dangerous fen-paths; there the mountain stream
under dark hills goes downwards...)
and
Ofereode tha aethlinga bearn
steap stanhlidtho, stige nearwe,
enge anpadthas, uncudth gelad
neowle naessas... (ll. 1408 - 1411a)
(The aethling's son rode over
the steep rocky slopes, the narrow paths,
single-file tracks, strange ways,
steep hills...)
This landscape, like the hvammr, is also a place of boundaries, for Grendel
is known as the "mearcstapa" (l 103a, "rover of the borders").
beneath the waters of the mere, Beowulf enters the "nidthsele" (l.
1513a, "hostile hall"), the home of the Grendel-kin. Like a barrow, it is
described as a hall --- or rather, as the inverse of a hall: "Anti-halls of
this sort gain poetic resonance from their affinities with the grave" (Hume,
"The Concept of the Hall in Old English Poetry," p. 68). The "nidthsele" is
provided with "fyrleoht" (l. 1557a, "firelight") and furnished with
"searwum" and a "sigeeadig bil" (l. 1557, "armor" and "a victory-blessed
sword"): rich treasure indeed for a fighting man. Plundering this hoard is
not a simple task, for it is guarded by Grendel's mother, as cat-like as her
son or the "ketta" found in Scandinavian barrows, with her "grimmum grapum"
(l. 1542a, "grim claws").
Grendel's attacks upon the living are motivated by the same force
that drives the draugr: envy of the living. Grendel was excluded from
Heorot, that "circle of light and peace enclosed by darkness, discomfort and
danger" (Ibid., p.11):
Dtha se ellengaest earfodthlice
thrage getholode, se the in thystrum bad,
thaet he dogora gehwam dream gehyrde
hludne in healle; thaer waes
hearpan swaeg,
swutal sang scopes. (ll. 86 - 90a)
(Then the estranges spirit hardship
suffered for a time, he that in
darkness dwelt
for every day he heard rejoicing
loud in the hall; there was the
sound of the harp
the clear song of the scop.)
This passage has been deliberately placed before the description of
Grendel's first attack to suggest to the audience Grendfel's motivation
(David Williams, "The Exile as Uncreator," in Mosaic, 8 (1975), p. 11).
Grendel, however, is not only deprived of the joy and comfort of Hrothgar's
hall, he is also denied participation in the social bonding of lord and
theign via the distribution of treasure: "no he thone gifstol gretan moste"
(l. 168, "nor was he allowed to approach the gift-throne").
Grendel hungers for the things of life, and this hunger is expressed
by his savage feasting upon Hrothgar's retainers. Grendel is separated from
the joys of the hall, therefore he will separate the theigns from their
"sibbegedriht" (;. 387, "band of kinsmen") as well as from their life
(Robert W. Hanning, "Sharing, Dividing, Depriving --- The Verbal Ironies of
Grendel's Last Visit to Heorot," in Texas Studies in Literature and
Language, 15 (1973), pp. 204-205). He does this in the same way as the
draugr of "Egils saga einhenda ok Asmundar saga berserkjabana":
bat banlocan blod edrum dranc,
synsnaedum swealh; sona haefde
unlyfigendes eal gefeormod,
fet ond folma. (ll. 742 - 745a)
(he bit the joint, drank the blood streams,
swallowed huge morsels; he immediately ate
the dead man all up,
feet and hands.)
The very etymology of Grendel's name indicates "the grinder" or "the
destroyer" (Kiessling, "Grendel:A New Aspect," p. 194), a name quite
appropriate for a draugr, who were known to kill by crushing their victims
to death. Grendel wreaks his revenge upon the living, destroying what he
cannot have.
Like the draugr, Grendel is a creature of the night. He is "deogol
daedhata deorcum nihtum" (l. 2775, "the hidden doer of hateful deeds in the
dark night"), the "scridthan sceadugenga" (l. 703, "the gliding
shadow-goer"), who moves through the landscape of shifting shadows and
intermittent moonlight so characteristic of the undead: "Sceaduhelma
gesceapu scridthan cwoman wan under wolcnum" (ll. 650-651a, "the
shadow-cloaked shape comes gliding, black under the clouds.") Grendel
conceals his actions beneath a mist, "Dtha com of more under mistleothum
Grendel gongan" (ll. 710-711a, "Then he came from the moor, under hills of
mist Grendel went"), and the intermittent moonlight suggested by the clouds
and mist may be responsible for the gleam of light from Grendel's eyes:
"him of eagum stod ligge gelicost leoht un faeger" (ll. 726b-727, "from his
eyes came an ugly light, most like a flame").
Upon his arrival at Heorot for the final battle, Grendel announces
his presence with the single blow at the door that was ytaken by the
Icelandic sagas to be the sign of a ghost seeking entry:
... Duru sona onarn
fyrbendum faest, sythdthan he hire
folmum aethran;
onbraed tha bealohydig dtha he gebolgen waes,
recedes muthan. (ll. 721b-724a)
(... The door
immediately sprang open
tho fastened with forged bands when he touched it with
his hands
driven by evil desire swollen with anger,
he tore open the hall's mouth.)
The destruction of the door and the damage to the hall engendered when
Grendel struggles with Beowulf recall the attacks made by the undead against
Scandinavian homes:
... Reced hlynsode.
Tha waes wundor micel, Thaet se winsele
widthhaefde heathodeorum, thaet he on hrusan ne feol,
faeger foldbold... (ll. 770-b-773a)
(... The hall
resounded.
There was much wonder that the wine-hall
withstood the battle-brave, that the fair
earth-dwelling
did not fall to the ground...)
Finally, the methods used to overcome Grendel are those used to lay draugar.
Beowulf is intuitively aware that iron swords will be of no avail until he
has properly wrestled with the ghost (ll. 677-683, 798-805a, 987b-990).
When the two meet in combat, they are nearly evenly matched --- Beowulf can
harm his foe, but cannot prevent Grendel from fleeing before the creature is
killed (ll. 967-970a). At the end, it is not Beowulf's mighty handgrip that
ensures that the menace of the Grendel-kin is ended, but the beheading of
the creatures:
... Hra wide sprong
sythdthan he aefter deadthe drepe throwade
heorosweng heardne, and hine tha heafde becearf.
(ll. 1588b-1590)
(... The body
bounded wide
when after death it suffered the blow,
the hard sword-swing and thus he cut off his
head.)
So ended Grendel, and his mother likewise:
aldres orwena, yrring sloh,
thaet hire width halse heard grapode,
banhringas braec; bil eal dthurhwod
faegne flaeschoman. (ll. 1565-1568a)
(despairing of life, he angrily struck
so that on her neck it bit hard,
broke the bone-rings; the blade went all the
way through
the doomed body.)
The physical description of Grendel as a giant shape-shifting creature, a
dweller in a supernatural environment, who acts at nighty in a mist-shrouded
landscape out of motives of envy and desire for the things of life, strongly
suggests the Norse motif of the walking dead. However, as Kiessling notes,
Grendel is "a product of that point in time when the southern, classical and
the Scandinavian traditions merged" (Ibid., p. 201). Grendel is possessed
of a complex nature, one that incorporates elements from the old Germanic
culture of the Anglo-Saxons and the newer influences of Christianity. Each
facet of Grendel's nature is different, and examination of any of the many
motifs that are integrated to form the complex whole throws new light on the
subject, enhancing understanding of the entire poem.
The End!
::GUNNORA::
Gunnora Hallakarva
===========================================
"Better the Hammer than the nail." --- Kief af Kierstead
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