Document Type
Paper
Abstract
"Grendel's Mother Talks Back: Contemporary Women's Mythopoeic Revisions" examines how twenty-first-century feminist adaptations and translations examine the significance and point of view of Grendel's Mother, a character from the Old English poem Beowulf. In contrast to past views of Beowulf, especially in J.R.R. Tolkien's influential essay on the poem, these women writers and scholars argue for the central role of Grendel's Mother and give voice to her story. The paper discusses the main features of these adaptations, covering topics of narrative voice, borderlands, violence, and motherhood, and generally questions the concept of monstrosity as applied to Grendel's Mother. The paper was delivered at the Online Midsummer Seminar, "More Perilous and Fair: Women and Gender in Mythopoeic Fantasy," in August 2025.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Smol, Anna
(2025)
"Grendel's Mother Talks Back: Contemporary Women's Mythopoeic Revisions,"
Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings: Vol. 2025:
Iss.
1, Article 5.
Available at:
https://dc.swosu.edu/mythpro/vol2025/iss1/5
