Sara Hatab
Rebecca Krug
Engl 3003W
October 19 2016
Women during the Anglo-Saxon Time Periods
In the epic poem Beowulf, Grendel 's mother attacks Heorot 's mead hall to get back at the people who murdered her son, Grendel. Doing so causes Beowulf to follow her, and she yanks him down to her hidden lake where he manages to behead her with his magical sword. In Judith, the nominal character, Judith herself, behaves just as heinously as Grendel 's mother; she defies her society 's commanders ' commands, creeps into the enemy camp furtively, and maliciously beheads their king, only to go back home, to Bethulia, with the king 's head in her hands. Unlike Grendel 's mother, however, and despite Judith 's unfeminine actions and her outright defiance …show more content…
Generally, she is seen as a heroine in the Anglo-Saxon oeuvre. Unlike Beowulf 's female character, Grendel 's mother, who happens to live at the brink of society and only briefly invades Heorot to extract revenge for the sake of her murdered son, Judith is abundantly compensated for her leadership and is repeatedly called a saint or a holy person, such as “holy maiden” (line 56) and “the Lord 's woman” (line 261). Just like Beowulf, the masculine hero, Judith is taken into the middle of public acceptance and appreciation for her brave actions. Both ecclesiastical and literary bases during the Anglo-Saxon times exalted Judith while the Beowulf poet castigates Grendel 's mother and sentences her to banishment and then later on death when she tries to do something to avenge her son 's death. Judith …show more content…
Going back to the paragraph that mentioned that peace-weavers have the power of words, that is one of the powers that Judith has to help encourage the people of her city. She promises that if they become a “host of brave and keen men” (line 199), they will overthrow the Assyrians. However, unlike Judith, Grendel 's mother fails every aspect of being a peaceweaver; although she has a son, she has no husband or people of her own who rely on her for peace and is also a stranger. She cannot be a symbol of peace like Wealhtheow or Judith. An active part of being a peaceweaver is speech, which Grendel 's mother fails because she says nothing throughout her entire appearance in
Rebecca Krug
Engl 3003W
October 19 2016
Women during the Anglo-Saxon Time Periods
In the epic poem Beowulf, Grendel 's mother attacks Heorot 's mead hall to get back at the people who murdered her son, Grendel. Doing so causes Beowulf to follow her, and she yanks him down to her hidden lake where he manages to behead her with his magical sword. In Judith, the nominal character, Judith herself, behaves just as heinously as Grendel 's mother; she defies her society 's commanders ' commands, creeps into the enemy camp furtively, and maliciously beheads their king, only to go back home, to Bethulia, with the king 's head in her hands. Unlike Grendel 's mother, however, and despite Judith 's unfeminine actions and her outright defiance …show more content…
Generally, she is seen as a heroine in the Anglo-Saxon oeuvre. Unlike Beowulf 's female character, Grendel 's mother, who happens to live at the brink of society and only briefly invades Heorot to extract revenge for the sake of her murdered son, Judith is abundantly compensated for her leadership and is repeatedly called a saint or a holy person, such as “holy maiden” (line 56) and “the Lord 's woman” (line 261). Just like Beowulf, the masculine hero, Judith is taken into the middle of public acceptance and appreciation for her brave actions. Both ecclesiastical and literary bases during the Anglo-Saxon times exalted Judith while the Beowulf poet castigates Grendel 's mother and sentences her to banishment and then later on death when she tries to do something to avenge her son 's death. Judith …show more content…
Going back to the paragraph that mentioned that peace-weavers have the power of words, that is one of the powers that Judith has to help encourage the people of her city. She promises that if they become a “host of brave and keen men” (line 199), they will overthrow the Assyrians. However, unlike Judith, Grendel 's mother fails every aspect of being a peaceweaver; although she has a son, she has no husband or people of her own who rely on her for peace and is also a stranger. She cannot be a symbol of peace like Wealhtheow or Judith. An active part of being a peaceweaver is speech, which Grendel 's mother fails because she says nothing throughout her entire appearance in