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Beowulf is abundant with Biblical allegories, one of which being the Heorot, the hearth hall built by Hrothgar as a testament to his posse. In Maria D. Headley’s translation, Grendel is directly linked as lineage of Cain, a “cursed” kin descended from the ultimate sin of murdering his brother, Abel, in a fit of jealousy. The night that Beowulf arrives and pretends to lay slumbering in preparation of attack, Grendel’s final journey to the Heorot piqued my interest.
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Throughout Beowulf, there is an overarching motif of “light” versus “darkness,” similar to the fight of “sin” against “purity” within Christian texts, specifically, the Bible. Considering the time period in which Beowulf was written, the Anglo-Saxons had recently invaded Britain (following the departure of the Romans), and the poem has clear references to the spreading power of the Christian church.
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As Grendel approaches the hall, the narrator emphasizes this contrast between light and darkness in lines 713-716: “Under storm clouds, he stalked them,/in his usual anguish, feeling a forbidden hearth,/that gilded hall atop the hill, gleaming still,/through years of bloodshed,” (Headley 33). Whilst the poem tackles the broader message of kinship and fighting off the wilderness and monsters of the Medieval era, there is also a deeper underlying message of how factions can easily be destroyed by enemies within. This instantly brings forth religious imagery in mind, specifically with potential critiques of the sins rampant within the Christian church.
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The “gilded hall atop the hill” serves as a metaphor for the church, with multiple “heavenly” allegories used to describe the function and purpose of the Heorot. In this specific line, it is directly referred to as a blazing emblem of light in the surrounding darkness of the unpredictable wilderness, and sanctuary for those under Hrothgar’s rule. Similar to the Christian church, the Heorot serves as a place of celebration, safety, sanctuary, and even worship. The mead-laden soldiers sing songs praising God for “gifting” them with dominion over the land, resources, and creatures surrounding them (much to the irritation of Grendel, whose kind had resided there for centuries before the Danes).
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Heorot can be seen as a symbol of divinity, enduring “years of bloodshed” to stand proudly above the unknown lands below. Below that, however, the “bloodshed” could also stand as a metaphor for the violence that the Christian church seems all-too-hasty to forget in their retellings of their religious history, completely ignoring their long lineage of exclusion, genocide, and forcing their religion onto many others across centuries. Against the light of the Heorot, Grendel’s juxtaposition is highlighted earlier in the poem, his land being described as “dark” and fog-shrouded moorlands.
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Grendel is beneath Heorot, both literally and figuratively. The vehicle of the metaphor is Grendel, the angst-ridden giant, lumbering below in a land blanketed by night’s shadowy embrace, gazing longingly up at the glowing (but restricted) hearth above. The tenor, however, is more so in regards to Grendel’s active grief and rage about his exclusion from this warmth and steady light of refuge. He is literally “casted in sin,” which is further emphasized by the imagery of stormy clouds above. The hearth is considered “forbidden” for Grendel because he was always painted as a monster, an outsider.
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The Heorot was originally built for Hargorth's men, and them alone, excluding many others like the Christian church does. Grendel could stand for both sin consuming the Catholic church or social marginalization: but who’s to say that one is not the product of the other? After all, the building of light must operate on the principle that certain individuals will be cast in its shadows, shunned and shut out from its so-called “welcoming” front doors.
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The usage of “gilded” and “gleam” all reinforce these images of glowing light, whereas Grendel is covered in “storm clouds” akin to sin, grief, jealousy, and rage. In Headley’s translation, there is a tangible sense of longing in Grendel as he looks up at the joy-filled hearth above, yet he knows that is not welcomed and actively excluded. Heaven is often portrayed as something above humanity, and in this case, above Grendel’s sin and tempest of negative emotions. This constant light and divine-centered music greatly upsets Grendel, to the point of desecrating Hrothgar’s hall, further symbolizing the corruption and sin that seems to consistently plague the Christian church. Whilst in the Medieval era, this could be seen as subtle criticism of the violence and money-oriented nature of the church, with time-period specific history of the church insinuating the more “donations” one gives, the closer one is to heaven (and therefore salvation). However, this light that provides a home to the Danes is torturous for him, because it’s a constant reminder that his kind is not welcomed in the circle of love above him, much similar to how the Christian church tends to outline and exclude minorities (such as the LGBTQ+ community, many people of color, and those who will not whole-heartedly abandon their religion to join Christian values).
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Additionally, the “storm clouds” above are not only a vehicle of poor weather, but also symbolism for the dark and chaotic nature of what exclusion and marginalization can do to another person’s suffering. After all, would Grendel be so hellbent on death and destruction if he had grown with the same kinship that the Danes had experienced? Despite their claims of the righteousness, the Christian church has done irrevocable damage over the years with their premises of exclusion and puritan culture, casting aside those deemed “sinful” or “unsaveable” (which often times is more alluding to the fact that the individual cannot be easily converted to their religion).
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The reason why Heorot was built was to provide riches, joy, and a place for safety for those deemed “worthy” by Hrothgar, similar to how members of the Christian church are provided a place of community and worship by those who are baptized and welcomed by a priest. While this may seem a bit of a stretch, the alliteration and contrast between “gilded” and gleaming” to “stalked” and “storm” further expounded my connection between Christianity and the Heorot as a metaphor for the church. Grendel is associated with these negative connotations of dangerous weather and the dark/unknown wilderness, whilst the hall is described in positive connotations of golden light and opportunities. The Heorot’s light is not only a symbolism of holiness and divinity, but also of purity on the basis of exclusion. For there to be “pure” and “holy” individuals (such as Beowulf), there must also be “sinful” and “darkened” individuals (such as Grendel and his mother). Even the church can be sinful, because it was their exclusion and casting of Grendel as “Cain” (despite him having nothing to do with the original sin committed thousands of years ago) that caused him to grow up so bitter and jaded with the hearth and their astoundingly endless parties.
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This metaphor of moral tension carries strong throughout the rest of Beowulf, and Headley emphasizes this with her contrast between motifs of light and dark, specifically within the Heorot itself. Grendel’s “darkness” is painted as some sort of inescapable suffering, a curse he had been “damned” with since birth. The dimensions of this metaphor extend far beyond simple weather comparisons and a literal “high-ground” (the hearth atop the hill) and “low-ground” (Grendel’s home in the swamps below). It’s a plain contrast of Christian order, with the Heorot being a church of fellowship deemed morally above Grendel and his mother, and Grendel’s kind a minority outlined and lowered by alienation. The hall’s glowing light is both holy and condemning, because people like Grendel are continually denied access.
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To Grendel, the light of the hall is literally unreachable, an ideological salvation he will never be able to attain thanks to the exclusion of the Danes within. While Miyashiro’s essay critiques Headley’s translation as lacking a racial lens, I do believe this line can even add to the argument of Grendel being painted in a racially or colonially charged lens (in specific attribution to the animalistic characteristic surrounding his character that we discussed in class), although that's an entirely different essay in itself.
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Whilst Grendel could also be viewed as “sin” consuming the church (I mean, he literally busts in nightly to devour the humans within), I believe this more relates to the idea of spiritual exile. The light from Heorot is not redemptive to Grendel, but rather an ever-lasting accusatory finger, a constant reminder of his “blame” to exclusion, which was simply him being born different to the Danes. The metaphor is quite saddening, as it reveals what the agony of being pushed out from a warm place of belonging can do to someone.
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REFERENCES
Headley, Maria Dahvana. Beowulf: A New Translation. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, First ed. 2020.
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