Fitt 24 of 43
Fitt XXIV — Beowulf is Double-conqueror
Among war-treasures in the cave Beowulf spots a giant-forged sword — larger than any man could wield — and kills Grendel's mother with it.
Summary
Among the war-treasures in Grendel's mother's cave Beowulf spots a giant-forged sword — ancient, magnificent, and larger than any ordinary man could carry. He seizes it and strikes. One blow through the bone-joints kills her; she falls to the cave floor. The blade is bloody and the hero exults.
He finds Grendel's corpse lying nearby and cuts off its head with the same blade. The venomous blood begins to work immediately: the sword-blade shrivels and melts, dissolving away until only the gold hilt remains in his hand. The weapon that killed two monsters destroys itself in the killing. He keeps the hilt.
Above the mere, the Danes have concluded Beowulf is dead and departed. Only the Geats remain at the water's edge. When Beowulf surfaces the eddies are clean — the alien spirits gone from the water. He swims ashore with Grendel's head and the melted hilt. Four men are needed to carry Grendel's head on a spear to Heorot's gold-hall.
All 43 chapters — click to jump
- Fitt 1Scyld Scefing's funeral ship is loaded with gold and set adrift — the poem's opening image of power given, used briefly, and...
- Fitt 2Heorot rises as the wonder of the age — and from the moor-fens, Grendel hears its songs of creation and is filled with hatred.
- Fitt 3Grendel tears thirty thanes from their sleep and rules Heorot's nights for twelve unbroken winters — no weapon can touch him, and...
- Fitt 4News of Grendel's reign reaches Geatland, and Beowulf — strongest of living men — orders a ship fitted out and crosses the sea...
- Fitt 5Beowulf speaks plainly of his errand and his lineage; the coastguard, satisfied, leads the Geats to Heorot with their boar-crested...
- Fitt 6A second challenge inside Heorot's walls — Beowulf names himself and requests an audience, and Wulfgar carries the message to...
- Fitt 7Hrothgar recognizes Beowulf's lineage and calls his arrival an act of God; Beowulf volunteers to fight Grendel barehanded, framing...
- Fitt 8Hrothgar tells Beowulf of Ecgtheow's old debt and describes twelve years of brave men who swore to face Grendel — and were gone...
- Fitt 9Unferth taunts Beowulf across the ale-bench, claiming Beowulf was bested by Breca in their famous swimming contest — and demanding...
- Fitt 10Beowulf corrects Unferth's account: the sea-contest involved five nights of monster-killing, not a simple race — and Grendel, he...
- Fitt 11Beowulf removes his armor and sword to fight Grendel bare-handed; the hall sleeps; through the darkness the twilight traveler...
- Fitt 12Grendel enters Heorot blazing-eyed, devours a sleeping warrior, and reaches for another — and finds himself caught in a hand-grip...
- Fitt 13Swords cannot bite Grendel's hide, but Beowulf's hand-grip holds until the monster's shoulder tears; Grendel flees to the mere to...
- Fitt 14At dawn, warriors ride out to trace Grendel's death-trail to the blood-churning mere; riders race and the scop weaves Beowulf's...
- Fitt 15Hrothgar stands beneath Grendel's hanging claw and calls Beowulf the son he never had — thanking God and the hero in the same...
- Fitt 16Hrothgar presents Beowulf with standard, mail-coat, helmet, sword, and eight gold-bridled horses — the poem's most elaborate scene...
- Fitt 17The scop's lay of Finn and Hnæf — a failed peace, a winter at the enemy's hearth, and a hall destroyed — casts its shadow over...
- Fitt 18Hengest's winter captivity ends in the slaughter of Finn and the recovery of Hildeburg; the lay closes and Wealhtheow presents...
- Fitt 19Wealhtheow completes her gifts to Beowulf; the warriors clear the benches and settle to sleep — the poet noting quietly that one...
- Fitt 20Grendel's mother comes in the night and seizes Aeschere, Hrothgar's most beloved counselor — the first killing solved nothing; the...
- Fitt 21Hrothgar describes the monsters' haunted mere — frost-white forests, black water, fire at night, and a deer that would rather die...
- Fitt 22Beowulf arms with Hrunting, the poison-stained sword, and follows the trail to the blood-welling mere where sea-serpents haunt the...
- Fitt 23Beowulf enters the haunted mere without hesitation, sinks to its cave floor, and finds Hrunting useless against Grendel's mother...
- Fitt 24Beowulf finds a giant-forged sword in the cave, kills Grendel's mother, severs Grendel's head, and watches the blade dissolve in...
- Fitt 25Beowulf returns Grendel's head to Heorot, Hrothgar reads the Flood-story engraved on the ancient hilt, and begins his great sermon...
- Fitt 26Hrothgar warns Beowulf that pride invades even the greatest warrior like a wound — then the hall feasts, and Beowulf returns...
- Fitt 27Beowulf bids Hrothgar farewell; the old Danish king weeps openly, calls him the finest young man he has known, and watches the...
- Fitt 28The Geats sail home to their own cliffs; Beowulf gifts the shore-warden a sword, and the poet pauses to contrast two queens...
- Fitt 29Hygelac questions Beowulf eagerly in his hall, relieved he returned alive; Beowulf reports on Denmark and predicts Hrothgar's...
- Fitt 30Beowulf retells the Grendel nights for Hygelac, naming the slain Hondscio and describing Grendel's bag of human skins — details...
- Fitt 31Beowulf gives Hygelac everything Hrothgar awarded him, passing even the great neck-ring to the queen; Hygelac rewards him with...
- Fitt 32A runaway slave takes a cup from a buried hoard; the dragon sleeping on it for three centuries wakes, traces the theft, and burns...
- Fitt 33Beowulf learns his hall is ash, grieves, orders an iron shield, and recalls swimming home from Friesland after Hygelac's death...
- Fitt 34Beowulf marches to the barrow with eleven men and a reluctant guide, pausing to remember Hrethel — the king who died of grief when...
- Fitt 35After recalling the Swedish wars that will undo the Geats after his death, Beowulf makes his last speech to the eleven and walks...
- Fitt 36Wiglaf watches Beowulf burning under the dragon's fire, recalls the gold given in the hall, and goes to his side alone — the ten...
- Fitt 37Wiglaf stabs the dragon from below; Beowulf cuts it through the middle with his war-knife — but the venom from the neck-wound is...
- Fitt 38Wiglaf carries the dragon's hoard to the dying Beowulf, who thanks God and gives Wiglaf his collar, helmet, and mail before dying...
- Fitt 39The ten deserters return to find Wiglaf sitting exhausted beside the two dead bodies; he delivers a cold, specific indictment of...
- Fitt 40A messenger announces Beowulf's death to the waiting Geat host and immediately names the consequence: the Franks, Frisians, and...
- Fitt 41The messenger recounts the Swedish wars in full: how Eofor killed Ongentheow, how Hygelac rewarded him — the history the Geats...
- Fitt 42Wiglaf leads seven men into the barrow; the dragon is pushed into the sea, the hoard loaded onto a wain, and Beowulf's body...
- Fitt 43The Geats burn Beowulf on a pyre hung with helmets and war-coats, raise a great mound at Hronesness, bury the entire hoard in his...