So Beowulf dons his armor and seeks out Grendel's mother in her lair, beneath a fetid lake filled with water like acid and so deep no human has ever seen the bottom. Extra History.

It's clear that Grendel and his mother are antagonists in the poem. The poem references that they are descended from Cain, the biblical figure who committed the first murder.

She’s a woman without a name. A woman whom scholars cannot agree on whether she is human, Sea Hag or goddess. For centuries, she has existed only in her relationship to a man. For the next month ...