Grendel’s Family Tree

About Grendel →

Family

• Grendel's Mother(parent)

  Grendel is the son of Grendel's Mother, a fearsome she-creature who dwells with him in an underwater hall beneath a haunted mere, the two bound together as kin of Cain's exiled line.

Enemy of

• Hrothgar

  Grendel terrorized Hrothgar's mead hall Heorot for twelve years, attacking by night and devouring warriors in their sleep. No weapon could harm the monster, and Hrothgar's kingdom was humiliated until Beowulf arrived from Geatland.

Slain by

• Beowulf

  Beowulf tore off Grendel's arm in hand-to-hand combat in Heorot, as no weapon could pierce the monster's enchanted hide. Grendel fled to his mere and died of the wound, ending twelve years of terror over Hrothgar's hall.

Associated with

• Heorot

  For twelve winters Grendel haunted Heorot, drawn from the darkness by the sound of the scop's harp and the laughter of Hrothgar's warriors, turning the great mead hall into a charnel house that no Dane dared enter after nightfall.