Grendel’s Night

Grendel’s Night

It was a very cold night. The moon was already shining above the swamplands and above
the deep dark lake. Grendel, whom you may have heard of before, was a monster. But do not take
all you know for granted, as he may have actually been a quite different, or at least a more complex
monster than what you may think…
On this terrible night that was to be his last one, Grendel was soflty resting, lost in his
melancholic thoughts. He was lying in front of his mother, Grendella, trying, as usual, to catch with
his closed and tearful eyes a glimpse of his beloved lady, of his torturing yet regretted Wealhtheow.
Lost in a distant – yet pleasant – place between reality and dream, he remembered that day when he
first met her. Both Wealhtheow and he were very young. Grendel, though already possessing some
disturbing and even scary physical features, had at the time a rather human-like face. His eyes,
mostly, were not those of the ruthless and bloodthirsty monster he had become by that cold night
some twenty years later. They were, back in those days, full of emotions, full of fear. These eyes
almost looked like they had been removed from some miserable and pitiful creature to eventually be
placed on Grendel. These eyes, along with his general disposition to smile with his huge
asymmetrical teeth, actually gave him a friendly air. But his deformed body, of course, had always
caused him trouble during his childhood. Needless to say that a child can happen to be cruel, and
when Grendel started to mingle with human kids, it did not take long before the latter began to
mock his strange appearance. His mother, who had always taken care of her son alone, decided that
they would live shut off, far from the cruelty of human kind. Grendel thus spent a great part of his
lonely life just with his mother, missing of course the company of a friend or someone of his age.
For a long time, it was terribly painful for him as little Grendel was everything but a solitary soul.
However he did not have any other choice than to remain alone, far from humans, as he feared
another humiliation. And what he feared even more was his mother and what she would say to him
if she learnt that he had looked for human company again. Indeed, since they had moved to their
remote lair, Grendella’s wrath against men had not ceased to increase. So much so that she had
become a bitter and resentful monster. She did not long for any kind of revenge – yet! –, however
she cultivated a hatred for these mean and intolerant people and, more than anything, she wished
her son would never have to deal with them again in the future. That is why she frequently and
carefully reminded him of the cruelty of men, of what they were capable of… Sometimes, she would
go as far as lying to her own son by making up bewildering stories about men that chased monsters
in the woods, showing absolutely no pity for them and killing them just because of their physical
difference. Grendel would listen to her, petrified, at times putting his clawed hands on his strange
atrophied ears, at the same time willing to hear what would follow and at the same time being
completely afraid of it.
But let us go back to that very first – and decisive – encounter of Grendel and Wealhtheow.
For the reasons that have just been developed, when she first saw him, Grendel was alone, supine
on the grass under a tree, day-dreaming as always, reflecting on his solitude. He did not notice her
at first. Wealhtheow was a beautiful blond girl with an intriguing impish smile. As a descendant of
an important family, she was to become Lady of the Helmings and had been raised as so since her
youngest age. However, deep inside herself, Wealhtheow was a dreamer, an adventuress who liked
to play outside and to lose herself within the distant, odd and numerous lands that lied somewhere
in her powerful imagination. On that beautiful day of spring, she had decided to cross the wood in
order to achieve a specially invented mission consisting in delivering a people terrorised by a huge
and merciless dragon at the other end of the land. As she ran between the trees, the soft wind gently
ruffled her long curly hair and the striking sun ruling that day made these ringlets and her skin look
even fairer than usual. All of a sudden, her eyes caught a glimpse of what seemed to be a weird
human, or an animal – she could hardly say– lying on the grass. She stopped immediately. Her light
steps had not taken Grendel out of his thoughts, and Wealhtheow took a moment to examine the
creature carefully; she was intrigued, but not afraid nor repulsed. It amused her how he looked like
one of her invented creatures in her stories, but with a suprisingly friendly air. As she was slowly
walking around him, Grendel opened his little eyes and beheld – there was no doubt for him – the
most beautiful creature he had been able to behold in his entire life. However, after a slight moment
of contemplation, he remembered all the scary tales of his mother and his first wish was to vanish.
In a rush, he got back on his feet and started to run. But Wealhtheow followed him and cried that he
had no reason to be afraid of her. Her divine appearance, added to Grendel’s chronic and hard desire
for company, were enough motives to make him stop. And this is how it all began…
From that day on, the two young friends never ceased to see each other. They liked being
together, sometimes talking for hours about harebrained subjects, sometimes sharing their lives that
were so different or sometimes, even, just staying close to each other motionless and speechless. On
these occasions, they felt that words were useless: they simply understood each other, regardless of
their respective backgrounds. And, as years passed, this powerful friendship led to something more
ambiguous, more difficult to define. Was it pure and classic love? Only they could say! But what is
certain is that the link that existed between those two was undeniably strong, unprecedented and
beyond understanding. Obviously, during all these years their meetings remained a complete secret.
They both made up excuses to leave their families and homes and then met in remote places. They
knew their relatives would not be able to understand nor to deal with their relationship. So in a way,
they were aware that a future together was very hard to foresee. But all this did not matter at the
time; the only thing about which they really cared was to spend one more hour, one more minute,
one more moment, together. On the rare occasions when Grendel expressed his doubts and fears
about their future, Wealhtheow would come and sit calmly next to him and, without saying a single
word, she would appease him and they would forget about their troubles for a while… Therefore all
was well and, except for certain tough moments of sad realisation, they were fully happy.
However, one day, this whole perfectly set harmony was suddenly put to an end.
Wealhtheow’s parents decided that she had to marry Hrothgar in order to become Queen of the
Danes. At first, she objected the idea. But of course she could not give the true reason of her
opposition. Then, as her mother kept explaining why she really needed to marry Hrothgar and what
she would obtain by becoming Queen, Wealhtheow slowly changed her mind and eventually
accepted the proposal. Everything was settled and the royal wedding took place. This episode
simply and tremendously broke poor Grendel’s heart who felt, at the time, more betrayed than ever.
Since she had told him about her acceptance for marrying, she had not sought to see him, nor tried
to have a word with him. Inside, she was burning with guilt and sadness, while he was dying of
grief and anger. In all this lies the truth, the true reason why Grendel, after that, had no other wish
than profound revenge and then came to attack Heorot, Hrothgar’s symbol of richness and of course,
symbol of his happy union with his wife. But revenge was surely not his only motive for coming
back to Heorot every night. Even though he was full of hatred, his nightly attacks were a way for
him to have a look, sometimes, at his beloved blond creature. Of course, Wealhtheow never said a
word of this whole affair to Hrothgar. Instead, she helped spreading the rumour affirming that the
awful monster was bothered by the noise coming out of Heorot; and soon, everyone believed in this
theory. After all, they thought, for a terrible and frightening monster as Grendel, a silly reason such
as this one was possibly enough to terrorise a whole kingdom…
On that last night though, Grendel, after having lied still for about an hour, decided that it
was time for him to go back to Heorot, clearly hoping to inflict a bloodshed while secretly and
profoundly wishing deep in his heart to catch even the slightest sight of Wealhtheow. However, that
night, that cold windy night, as you probably know, turned out to be different from all the previous
nights of terror. While he was attacking the men in Heorot, Grendel himself was attacked by what
seemed to be an even stronger force. Beowulf beat him, tore his arm off and, as Grendel realised he
would probably die that night, he swept the room with his eyes, looking for Wealhtheow.
Unfortunately, he did not find her, he did not have the chance to behold her for the last time… Thus,
he flew back to the swamplands, let himself fall onto the ground and, feeling his end dangerously
approaching, made every effort to recollect all the memories of Wealhtheow in his mind. And,
finally admiring the blond ringlets that were falling perfectly on her nicely drawn shoulders,
Grendel, for the last time showing his large imperfect fangs in a blissful smile, sank into the most
wonderful and soothing dream of his existence