Beowulf, A Precessional Myth, page 12

Defeating Grendel's Mother

Aggrieved at the death of her son, Grendel's mother comes into the picture hell-bent on revenge for the murder of her spawn. Not surprisingly she sets about slaughter, laying into the Danish nobles and laying waste to the land.

Beowulf is no laggard when it comes to heroic struggles and takes on the new battle. Needless to say, he is eventually successful and defeats the monstrous hag and rids Hrothgar's land of its twin scourges. After much feasting, Beowulf returns home, laden with treasure from a grateful king.

Looking for mother

Having pinned down Grendel, it was now time to look for the monster's mother. 'Mother' implies some kind of relationship. But this was a bigger puzzle as the text of the poem gives away no other clues than the relationship. So far, our Anglo-Saxon author had not established a time for these events, he was simply describing precessional events in allegorical and poetic form. It seemed to me that Beowulf represented the precessional force, so my search amongst the constellations had to focus on a similar constellation to Scorpius that was being affected in some obvious way by precession.

This creature had me stumped for some time and I nearly abandoned my quest. I assumed she must be either Cancer, or Capricorn, focused as I was on zodiacal constellations. Referring back to my planisphere, I wanted a constellation that had somehow preceded Scorpius in these situations. Grendel's mother also has ancient associations, according to the Saga, that reach back to the earliest Biblical times.

The saga seemed closed off to me, as I couldn't see an obvious candidate. Mother lived under water, implying she must have slipped below the celestial equator but none of the zodiacal constellations matched the requirement. In one translation, the writer described Grendel's mother as "that wolfish swimmer", but wolves, like dogs, can hardly be described as expert swimmers. In another translation she is described as a "sea-wolf". What an odd description for a creature with an underwater lair.

Looking for the dog

A dog, or a canine figure, in a myth is a good hint that we have an astronomy lesson. Look for the dog and you'll find the answer, so I looked for a canine association amongst the stars. Sirius, the dog star, was far too high in the sky to qualify so I turned my planisphere to Scorpius, who represented Grendel. The answer must be close by as suggested by the mother/son relationship. To the east of Scorpius I noticed a constellation called Lupus, the wolf. It too had been 'drowned' because of precession, entering the mythic waters just before Scorpius. When I checked Lupus' mythic associations I knew I had struck gold.

Figure 11. Scorpius and Lupus at 4000BC.

No wonder the Saga had Grendel's mother living in an underwater lair as she had slipped below the celestial equator many ages ago. The Saga mentions her as being coexistent with the biblical Cain, son of Adam and Eve, implying she was immensely old.

The mythic connection

It is hardly surprising that a Christian scholar should express such loathing for this hell-dam because Lupus represents the ancient pre-Christian world and its pagan beliefs. (We should note that the constellation was only named Lupus in the 2nd century AD by Ptolemy.) Lupus, the mythic creature, has ancient Greek and Roman associations like Pan and fauns, and its Roman festival survived quite late into the Christian era. Let's not forget that the mythical founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, were both suckled by a she-wolf.

This ancient enemy of the Judaeo-Christian religions had also slipped into the mythic waters long before Scorpius. The fact it could barely be seen from Anglo-Saxon latitudes is a supreme compliment to the astronomical knowledge of our scholar.

Figure 12. Lupus at 1000AD.

The last time it was above the horizon was about 3000 years earlier. Not only did he have access to sky charts, but he knew how to interpret them from the precessional viewpoint.

We assume that these days of the Dark Ages and the Medieval period were times of lost knowledge. In fact this is not so as both Christian and Moslem worlds were copying ancient tracts of the Greeks and Romans during these periods of apparent darkness. Such copied works could be bought in both worlds, so it is not improbable that our scholar had access astronomical works.