Grendel

Norse Paganism deity

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About this deity

Grendel was not a formal Norse deity, but a monster in the Anglo-Saxon epic named Beowulf. Grendel was large, monstrous looking, and murderous. He dismembered the men he ate.

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grendel-depiction-beowulf
Sourceborgantiquarian.comRetrieval date07/01/2020
Sourceomnika.conscious.aiRetrieval date07/01/2020
Source record No.p. 37MediumPrint sketchOrientationFull frontalImage date1971CreatorLeonard BaskinSource notesBurton Raffel and Leonard Baskin, illustrator. Beowulf: Translated, with an introd. & afterword, by Burton Raffel. Drawings by Leonard Baskin (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1971), 37.
Source record No.p. 37MediumPrint sketchOrientationFull frontalImage date1971CreatorLeonard BaskinSource notesBurton Raffel and Leonard Baskin, illustrator. Beowulf: Translated, with an introd. & afterword, by Burton Raffel. Drawings by Leonard Baskin (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1971), 37.
Source record No.p. 4MediumPrint bookMaterialPaperOrientationFull frontalImage date1908CreatorJoseph Ratcliffe SkeltonSource notesMarshall, Beowulf, 4.

Also known as

Parent belief system

  • Norse Paganism Religion · Polytheistic · 3 myths
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    Norse Paganism refers to the beliefs and traditions of people from Scandinavia: Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.
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Top myths

Beowulf Epic
Prestige, Hero myth
Unknown author
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Mythological stories including Grendel

  • Beowulf Epic Prestige, Hero myth

    Nuthsell

    Beowulf, the hero, helps the Danes by killing the man-eating monster named Grendel, and his mother. Afterwards, Beowulf returns home and becomes the king of the Geats, ruling until his heroic death over fifty years later. In his final battle, he slays a dragon. The poem ends by honoring the greatness of Beowulf.

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Cite this page

MLA Modern Language Association (8th ed.)

OMNIKA Foundation Contributors. "Grendel." OMNIKA – World Mythology Index, OMNIKA Foundation, 02 Sep. 2019, omnika.org/stable/302. Accessed 28 Jan. 2026.

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APA American Psychological Association (6th ed.)

OMNIKA (2019, September 02). Grendel. Retrieved from https://omnika.org/stable/302

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CMS Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.)

OMNIKA Foundation Contributors. "Grendel." Las Vegas, NV: OMNIKA Foundation. Created September 02, 2019. Accessed January 28, 2026. https://omnika.org/stable/302.

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Bibliography

British Library. Nowell Codex / Cotton MS Vitellius A.XV: Digital Facsimile. Accessed September 1, 2019. http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=cotton_ms_vitellius_a_xv.
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British Library. Nowell Codex, ca. 975-1015 CE. Manuscript. Manuscript collections, Cotton MS Vitellius A.XV, British Library, London, United Kingdom.
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Dedović, Boban. "When Art Betrays Mythology: Acquitting Cronus (Κρόνος) in Goya's Saturn." Paper presented at the 5th International Conference on Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, Paris, France, December 1–3, 2023. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/btwsk
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Hall, John L. Beowulf: An Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem, Translated From the Heyne-Socin Text by J.L. Hall. Boston, MA: D.C. Heath & Co, 1892.
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Kemble, John M. A Translation of the Anglo-Saxon Poem of Beowulf: With a Copious Glossary, Preface and Philological Notes. London, England: William Pickering, 1837.
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Marshall, Henrietta E. Stories of Beowulf: Told to the Children by H.E. Marshall, With Pictures by J.R. Skelton. Illustrations by Joseph R. Skelton. New York, NY: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1908.
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Fast facts

Basics
Norse Paganism Belief system

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