“… Grendel’s mother
attacked and entered. Her onslaught was less
only by as much as an Amazon warrior’s
strength is less than an armed man’s…”
“…Grendles modor. Waes se gryre laessa
efne swa micle, swa bid maegtha craeft,
wig-gryre wifes, be waepned-men…”
Two things are immediately apparent: Firstly, the author of Beowulf is able to assume that his listeners will find the comparison of the strength of Grendle’s dam and Grendle comprehensible when described in terms of the difference between the respective strengths of a female warrior to her male counterpart. Secondly, the term “Amazon” does not appear in the Anglo-Saxon original. Grendle’s mother is a “wig-gryre wifes”. Elsewhere we see the word “wif” applied to women in general; “gryre” is obligingly translated for us two lines earlier as “onslaught”. This gives us a partial translation as “wig (?) onslaught woman” to be the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of “Amazon”.
Beowulf, translation by Seamus Heaney. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. 2000.
