Hagiographic motifs in Beowulf’s fight with Grendel’s mother

Journal article

Analogues for the narrative structure and content of Beowulf’s first two battles have long been identified from northern legend and folklore; it is only in relatively recent years that hagiographic motifs have been considered for Beowulf’s first and third fights, against Grendel and the dragon (Rauer, 2000; Leneghan, 2023; Ramey, 2024). So far, hagiographic motifs—and their implications—have been overlooked in relation to Beowulf’s second fight, against Grendel’s mother, perhaps due to their less than straight-forward application. This article assembles five of the most prominent hagiographic motifs present before, during, and immediately following Beowulf’s fight with Grendel’s mother, and proposes a new hagiographical analogue for this episode. In doing so, this article considers the implications of hagiographic resonances for our interpretation of this enigmatic episode, and for the poet’s engagement with their literary and narrative inheritance, both secular (folkloric and northern legend), and hagiographic.

Authors: Kehoe, N

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Journal: English Studies
• Publication date: 2026-06-04
• Acceptance date: 2026-04-27
• DOI: 10.1080/0013838x.2026.2671122
• EISSN: 1744-4217
• ISSN: 0013-838X
• Language: English
• Keywords: Beowulf; hagiography; Old English