Abstract
This article examines Beowulf's speeches regarding his fight with Grendel's mother. In the speeches to both Hrothgar and Hygelac, Beowulf revises unwitnessed events in Grendel's mother's mere in order to cover up details of the fight that threaten to undermine his masculine and heroic identity. Both the sexual nature of the fight and her role as a phallic mother cause Beowulf to conceal not only what happens in this battle but also the transgressive body of Grendel's mother. Just as he distracts attention from the woman at the center of the text, so too does he affirm her danger and significance, revealing his own fractured masculinity.
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