Sacred Groves, Marvellous Waters, and Grendel's Abode

Abstract

Neither Germanic nor Latin literature provides an exact copy of Grendel's abode, though most elements of the scene in Beowulf can be found in one place or another. Evidence of borrowing has been detected, but there is considerable difference of opinion regarding the matter of "sources." Malone convincingly dismissed the older view that we have in Beowulf a folklore setting analogous to that in chapters 65 and 66 of the fourteenth century Grettir's Saga Indeed, Andersson argues that the "scenic fullness" of the place is owed to Virgil and not to Germanic tradition. Renoir is among those pointing to the Virgilian parallels, but he does so mainly to compare the techniques of the two poets, using one to illuminate the other without claiming to prove that the Beowulf-poet necessarily drew upon Virgil. I would like to broaden the field of Renoir's comparison to include the relevant topoi in classical and later Latin literature. In addition, Andersson’s argument can be extended to show that the nearest previous analogues to Grendel's home, if not its sources, areto be found in the Latin tradition beginning with Virgil, together with certain commonplace features of the Christian hell.