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.

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.

And so, Beowulf succeeds in slaying Grendel’s mother on her home turf, even though she is full of fury and helped by a bevy of underwater sea monsters. And here is the problem with Robert ...

Grendel is brilliant and his mother is ... a monster. So I was interested in taking this in a different direction and portraying Grendel's mother as a human. The Mere Wife.

Then he fights Grendel’s mother, a water monster, diving into her demonic pond (where Grendel crawled to die) and running her through with a sword, which promptly melts. And then , back in ...

His stalwart warriors are but hors-d’oeuvres to Grendel, until the Geatish hero Beowulf arrives and wrestles the monster barehanded, tearing off his arm. When Grendel’s mother, a kind of ...

When Heorot is attacked by Grendel's mother, Beowulf leads a team to kill her, too. Beowulf returns to his home in Geatland and serves the king there, until the king and his son both die in combat.

NPR's new kids' fiction column — by Juanita Giles, founder of the Virginia Children's Book Festival — kicks off with an explanation of why the epic poem Beowulf is the perfect bathtime read.

The revenge of Grendel's mother. Joyful celebrations ring out in the cold night air Grendel the monster is dead and gone But something still lurks out there…. That night in the swamp a monster ...