The Presence Of Nemesis In Beowulf

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The Presence of Nemesis in the Middle English Epic Beowulf
“Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot” (King James Version, Exodus 21:25). This is one of the most well-known quotes concerning revenge circulating today, and if it had arisen just 11 centuries earlier, it surely would have been the motto of the ancient Anglo-Saxon warriors. The Anglo-Saxons were a tight knit group of hardy fighters and because they were together nearly all of their lives, they considered each other kin, blood related or not. This is why the death of a brother by an outsider was taken quite seriously and required revenge to be taken, which was usually in the form of another man dying. This loyal yet murderous ideal gave rise to the wergild, the man-price that a groundless murderer must pay as retribution (The Middle Ages 38). Beowulf is an epic steeped in the belief of “an eye for an eye”. Beowulf’s entire quest was based off of revenge, mainly against monsters and demons for the people that they had …show more content…

After Beowulf defeated Grendel, it came to light that Grendel was not truly alone. Grendel’s mother was also kin to Cain, and after Cain killed Abel, she was “forced down into fearful waters, the cold depths” (Heaney 69). It was the night following Grendel’s death that she attacked Heorot in a fit of rage. “His mother sallied forth on a savage journey, grief-racked and ravenous, desperate for revenge” (Heaney 69). When she attacked, she killed Hrothgar’s right hand man, and stole the body in the same way her late son had done. “Her onslaught was less only by as much as an amazon warrior’s is less than an armed man’s…” (Heaney 70). Beowulf ended up killing her in a counter-act of revenge. Grendel’s mother was a character that participated in the story for no other reason than to take revenge for her son. She had no other purpose in Beowulf, and is one of the best examples of the

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