The Anglo-Saxon gods have also been adopted in forms of the modern Pagan religion of Wicca, particularly the denomination of Seax-Wicca, founded by Raymond Buckland in the 1970s, which combined Anglo-Saxon deity names with the Wiccan theological structure. Such belief systems often attribute Norse beliefs to pagan Anglo-Saxons. Grendel Grendel is one of three foes, along with Grendel's mother and a dragon, in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf. Grendel is thought of as a huge troll like creature who dwells in a swamp or a cave. Those are the sorts of locations the Saxons thought trolls lived. Beowulf eventually kills Grendel. Meanings and Origins of Names. A to Z list of Male Anglo-Saxon Names with meanings and origins 20000-NAMES.COM: Male Anglo-Saxon Names, Page 1 of 4-origin, meaning, etymology.
- Anglo Saxon Monster Names Meanings
- Anglo Saxon Monster Names List
- Anglo Saxon Monster Names Generator
- Anglo Saxon Monster Names A-z
In Anglo-Saxon England a hill could be a dragon’s lair and a ditch the home of gods.
Anglo-Saxon literature, in both Latin and Old English, chiefly preserves the beliefs and learning of the cultural elite. We have comparatively little knowledge of how the illiterate majority who worked the land interpreted the world around them. However, an often-overlooked source of folklore and popular belief comes from the corpus of Anglo-Saxon charters and place-names. Both preserve shreds of popular belief and, though the reasons for many names are lost to us, these sources offer a tantalising glimpse into how ordinary people experienced their surroundings.
Anglo-Saxon charters are legal documents transferring land and privileges from one person or organisation to another. Over 1,000 charters survive and they date from the last quarter of the seventh century until the Norman Conquest. In common with place-names, many of which we still use today, in outlining the specific bounds of a piece of land charters preserve the local name for all manner of landscape features, from hills and woods to small pits and even individual bushes.
Early charters are written largely in Latin, but bilingual charters were common by the tenth century. Bilingual charters typically use Latin for the administrative parts of the document, such as the grant itself and its witnessing, but switch to Old English when describing the exact boundaries of the land in question. Old English boundary descriptions can be incredibly specific and detailed. A grant of land at Crediton, Devon, for example, describes the land’s extent ‘from the sour apple tree to the green way; from the green way to the wolf-pit ... from Swine Combe to Egesa’s Tree’. The historian Nicholas Howe plausibly suggested that charters used Old English for elucidating the landscape because Latin was simply insufficient for describing topography named by the people who lived there in their native tongue.
Place-names and charters thus give us a microcosmic view of the world as experienced by an Anglo-Saxon travelling on foot. Describing an area of land as it appeared to ordinary people and using their vernacular thus preserves something of their beliefs about the world around them. Most place-names have Old English roots and so can be consulted for the same purposes. The picture we get, from a broad sample of the place-name and charter corpus, is of a world inhabited by monsters and supernatural beings.
Many landscape features have a common, monstrous inhabitant. A grant of 946 makes reference to a drakenhorde (‘dragon’s hoard’), presumably a barrow, since we know from Old English poetry that dragons were thought to inhabit prehistoric burial mounds and guard the treasure therein. Place-names, such as Drakelow (draca+hlæw, ‘Dragon’s Tumulus’) in Derbyshire, record the same belief. Other man-made earthen structures are frequently ascribed to Woden. A charter of 933 mentions a wodnes dic (‘Woden’s Ditch’) and numerous linear earthworks still go by the name of ‘Grim’s Ditch/Dyke’, using Woden’s sobriquet, Grim (‘the masked one’) – not to be confused with the Norseman Grimr, who gave his name to Grimsby.
Other place-names and landmarks in charters have a broader range of residents. Water has various supernatural associations, such as the pucan wylle (‘Goblin’s Well’) from a charter of 946 and Tusmore (þyrs+mere, ‘Giant’s Mere’) in Oxfordshire. In several charters, the notorious Grendel lives in a mere as he does in Beowulf, which suggests he had a place in popular folklore: grendles mere and grendlesmere, for example. Elsewhere, other gods, elves and demons inhabit the land.
These names are all rare survivals and their exact significance is usually lost to us. While the dragon and barrow belief is explicated elsewhere, it is impossible to know why certain earthworks were associated with Woden. But it is likely that all the supernatural names refer to myths and legends, as one survival from 955 demonstrates. This Berkshire charter includes Welandes smiððan (‘Wayland’s Smithy’) in its bounds, a prehistoric chamber tomb that still exists today under the same name, so-called because of its resemblance to the legendary blacksmith’s forge.
For reasons largely lost to us, certain landscape features were commonly (though not exclusively) named with reference to specific gods, monsters or supernatural beings. The Woden names are especially interesting in this regard, for even post-Roman structures, such as the Wansdyke running through the West Country, were ascribed to him, though their date means the Anglo-Saxons would probably have known their origin. This suggests that, beyond mere superstition, local toponyms had a specific function.
The Anglo-Saxons were not cartographers: they did not produce regional maps and only one world map survives from the period. Logically, there must have been an alternative system of mapping the world in order to pass through it without getting lost, and these names are probably one of the means by which they achieved this.
An interesting name is easier to remember and differentiates a landmark from its surroundings. Naming a landscape feature after a monster or with reference to a legend appeals to common knowledge and condenses all manner of specific features into no more than a couple of words. Presumably, telling someone to follow the course of Woden’s Dyke would allow them to identify the landmark indicated better than if one simply told them to look out for a large embankment. Something about these places must have earned them their local name and no doubt there was a physical difference between a barrow occupied by a dragon and one haunted by demons. The utility of such a system may be, in part, why the Anglo-Saxons did not excel in cartography.
Charters and place-names, then, not only allow us to see how ordinary Anglo-Saxons interacted imaginatively with the world around them but even how they mapped it. Monsters and supernatural beings were key to both purposes. Thus to understand the Anglo-Saxon world, however imperfectly, we must be aware of Woden, Grendel and their neighbours.
Tim Flight is the author of Basilisks and Beowulf (Reaktion, forthcoming).
BEOWULFAND THE DINOSAURS
But first, we must dispel one particular and erroneous notionthat has bedevilled studies in this field for years. Since thepoem's 'rediscovery' in the early 18th century(although it was brought to the more general attention ofscholars in the year 1815 when it was first printed), scholarshave insisted on depicting the creatures in their translations ofthe poems as 'trolls'. 29 The monster Grendel was a troll, andthe older female who was assumed by the Danes to have been hismother, is likewise called a troll-wife.
The word 'troll' is of Nordic origin and in the fairy-tales ofNorthern Europe it is supposed to have been a human-like,mischievous and hairy dwarf who swaps troll children for humanchildren in the middle of the night. For good measure, trolls aresometimes depicted as equally mischievous and hairy giants, someof whom lived under bridges or in caves.
Now, this would be all well and good but for the singularobservation that the word 'troll' is entirely absent from theoriginal Anglo-Saxon text of Beowulf! The poem is full ofexpressions that we would call zoological terms, and these relateto all kinds of creatures (see Table 4.) But none of them haveanything to do with dwarves, giants, trolls or fairies,mischievous or otherwise. And whilst we are on the subject, themonster Grendel preyed on the Danes for twelve long years (AD 503- 515.) Are we seriously to believe that these Danish Vikings,whose berserker-warriors struck such fear into the hearts oftheir neighbours, were for twelve years rendered helpless withterror by a hairy dwarf, even a 'giant' one? For that is whatcertain of today's mistranslations of the poem would have usbelieve.
By the time of his slaying the monster Grendel in AD 515,Beowulf himself had already become something of a seasoneddinosaur hunter. He was renowned amongst the Danes at Hrothgar'scourt for having cleared the local sea lanes of monstrous animalswhose predatory natures had been making life hazardous for theopen boats of the Vikings. Fortunately, the Anglo-Saxon poem,written in pure celebration of his heroism, has preserved for usnot just the physical descriptions of some of the monsters thatBeowulf encountered, but even the names under which certainspecies of dinosaur were known to the Saxons and Danes.
However, in order to understand exactly what it is that we arereading when we examine these names, we must appreciate thenature of the Anglo-Saxon language. The Anglo-Saxons (like themodern Germans and Dutch) had a very simple method of wordconstruction, and their names for everyday objects can sometimessound amusing to our modern ears. A body, for example, was simplya bone-house <1>(banhus,) and a joint a bone-lock <1>(banloca).When Beowulf speaks to his Danish interrogator, he is said quiteliterally to have unlocked his word-hoard <1>(wordhord onleoc.)Beowulf's own name means bear, and it is constructed in thefollowing way. The Beoelement is the Saxon word for bee, and hisname means literally a bee-wolf. The bear has a dog-like face andwas seen by those who wisely kept their distance to apparently beeating bees when it raided their hives for honey. So they simplycalled the bear a bee-wolf. Likewise, the sun was called <1>woruldcandel,literally the world-candle. It was thus an intensely literal butat the same time highly poetic language, possessing great andunambiguous powers of description.
The slaying of Grendel is the most famous of Beowulf'sencounters with monsters, of course, and we shall come to lookclosely at this animal's physical description as it is given inthe Beowulf epic. But in Grendel's lair, a large swampy lake,there lived other reptilian species that were collectively knownby the Saxons as <1>wyrmcynnes (literally <1>wormkind,a race of monsters and serpents.) Beowulf and his men came acrossthem as they were tracking the female of Grendel's species backto her lair after she had killed and eaten King Hrothgar'sminister, Asshere. (The unfortunate man's half-eaten head wasfound on the cliff-top overlooking the lake.)
Amongst them were creatures that were known to the Saxons andDanes as giant <1>saedracan (sea-drakes and sea-dragons,)and these were seen from the cliff-top suddenly swerving throughthe deep waters of the lake. Perhaps they were aware of thearrival of humans. Other creatures were lying in the sun whenBeowulf's men first saw them, but at the sound of the battle-hornthey scurried back to the water and slithered beneath the waves.
These other creatures included one species known to the Saxonsas a <1>nicor (plural <1>niceras,) and the word hasimportant connotations for our present study inasmuch as it laterdeveloped into <1>knucker, a Middle English word for awater-dwelling monster or dragon. The monster at Lyminster inSussex (see Table I) was a <1>knucker, as were several ofthe other reported sightings of dinosaurs in that country. Thepool where the Lyminster dragon lived is known to this day as theKnucker's Hole. The Orkney Isles, whose inhabitants,significantly, are Viking, not Scots, likewise have their <1>Nuckelavee,as do also the Shetland Islanders. On the Isle of Man, they havea <1>Nykir.
However, amongst the more generally named <1>wyrmas(serpents) and <1>wildeor (wild beasts) that were presentat the lake on this occasion, there was one in particular thatwas called an <1>ythgewinnes. 30 Intrigued by it, Beowulfshot an arrow into the creature, and the animal was thenharpooned by Beowulf's men using <1>eoferspreotum (modifiedboar-spears.) Once the monster was dead, Beowulf and his men thendragged the ythgowinnes out of the water and laid its body outfor examination. They had, after all, a somewhat professionalinterest in the animals that they were up against. However, ofthe monstrous reptiles that they had encountered at the lake, itwas said that they were such creatures as would sally out atmid-morning time to create havoc amongst the ships in the sealanes, and one particular success of Beowulf's, as we havealready seen, was clearing the sea lanes between Denmark andSweden of certain sea-monsters which he called <1>merefixaand <1>niceras. Following that operation the carcases ofnine such creatures (<1>niceras nigne - Alexandermistakenly translates <1>nigene as seven) were laid out onthe beaches for display and further inspection, and it is these <1>nicerasthat are the creatures so consistently portrayed on thefigureheads of Viking ships (see figures 6 and 7.)
Virtually every edition of the Beowulf epic and virtuallyevery commentary on the poem, will take pains to assure thereader that what he is reading is NOT an historically accurateaccount of events or personages. Beowulf is described as a moraltale composed several centuries after the times of which ittreats, a good yarn, and so on and so forth. What it does not dois embody real history. However the best test for historicitythat can be applied to any document from the past, be itchronicle, epic poem or prose narrative, is the test of itsgenealogies and personal names. Are the men and women mentionedin the work characters who are known to us from othercontemporary sources? Can the genealogies be verified? If theycan, then we are dealing with an account that we can rely on ashistory. If their information is demonstrably wrong orfictitious, and if it is seen to contradict other acceptedhistorical sources, then clearly the rest of the matter can bedismissed as mere fiction. Thus, and in the light of thepersistent modernist assertion that Beowulf is merely fiction, weshall examine the complex genealogies that are embodied withinthe poem in the sure knowledge no compiler of fairy-stories everwent to such enormous lengths to add circumstantialverisimilitude to his tale as we find in the Beowulf. Thefollowing evidence will speak for itself.
I have relied on Klaeber (third edition, reference 20) formuch of the information contained in the notes, and for the dateswhich, as he points out, are estimated as closely as the poem andits external corroborative sources will allow. The pivtotal dateon which most of the others depend and are calculated, is AD 521,the year in which King Hygelac was slain by the Franks asdepicted in Gregory of Tour's Historiae Francorum. However,having verified Beowulf's extraordinary historical accuracy onalmost all points of the narrative, even those minorinsignificant and insubstantial points only an authentichistorical narrative can yield, Klaeber still denies theessential authenticity of the narrative. It is a peculiarposition in which many a modernist scholar has found himself...
Notes to Table 2.
(1) Swerting: This is Hrethel's father-in-law's surname, nothis fore-name. Swerting would have flourished from about AD 425onwards. He was defeated by Frotho, whom we met earlier killing adragon. His daughter, unnamed, married Hrethel. Swerting plannedto put Frotho to death but in the ensuing battle both men sleweach other.
(2) Hrethel: AD445 - 503. Having reigned over the Geats ofsouthern Sweden, Hrethel died of grief a year after his eldestson's tragic death. (See 5 and 6.)
(3) Swerting's daughter, name unknown.
(4) Waymunding: This is the surname of Beowulf's grandfather.He would have lived during the latter half of the 5th century.
(5) Herebeald: AD 470 - 502. He was killed by his youngerbrother of Haethcyn in a hunting accident.
(6) Haethcyn: AD 472 - 510. Haethcyn came to the throne in AD503. From that time war broke out between the Geats and theneighbouring Swedes culminating in the famous Battle ofRavenswood (Hrefnawudu) in the year AD 510. Just before thisbattle, Haethcyn was killed by Ongentheow (see Table 3, person 1)after having captured the Swedish queen.
(7) Daughter: name unknown.
(8) Ecgtheow: Beowilf's father, otherwise unknown.
(9) Weoxstan: Paternal uncle to Beowulf, he surprisinglyhelped Onela gain the throne of Sweden (see Table 3, person 4.)He and his son, Wiglaf (11) are henceforth known as Scylfingas,or Swedes, to denote their treacherously aiding the Swedish king.
(10) BEOWULF: AD 495 - 583. The subject of the epic thatbears his name.
(11) Wiglat: Beowulf's cousin. Otherwise unknown fromexternal sources, Beowulf adopted him as his heir. (See alsoWeoxstan [9]).
(12) Heareth: Father of Queen Hygd (16).
(13) Wonred: Father of Eofor and Wulf.
(14) Wife: name unknown.
(15) Hygelac: AD 475 - 521. The pivotal date, AD 521, andfrom which all other dates are here calculated, is provided byGregory of Tour's Historiae Francorum, where he mentionsHygelac's raid on the Franks. During this raid, Hygelac was slainby Theodebert, the son of Theodoric, the Merovingian king of theFranks.
(16) Hygd: Hygelac's queen.
(17) Hereric: Queen Hygd's brother, he was uncle to princeHeardred.
(18) Wulf: Eofor's elder brother.
(19) Eofor: In the year AD 510, Eofor slew Ongentheow king ofthe Swedes (see Table 3, person 1).
(20) Daughter name unknown.
(21) Heardred: AD 511 - 533. In AD 532, diplomatic relationsbetween the Geats and the Swedes were ruptured by Heardred'sgranting asylum to Onela of Sweden's rebellious nephews. Heardredwas killed the following year by Onela's forces.
Notes to Table 3.
(1) Ongentheow: AD 450 - 510. King of Sweden, he has beenidentified as Angeltheow of the early (pre-migration) Merciangenealogies (see CEN Tech. J., 5(1):21). In other early Nordicsources his name is also given as Angantyr and Egill. His queenwas taken captive by Haethcyn and Hygaelac (see Table 2. person 6and person 14) and he was killed in the ensuing battle ofRavenswood by Eofor and Wulf (see Table 2, person 18 and person19 respectively.)
(2) Healfdene: AD 445 - 498. Otherwise known as Halfdan, heis celebrated in other sources as the father of Hrothgar (Hroarr)and Halga (Helgi). According to the Skjoldungasaga, his motherwas the daughter of Jomundus, king of Sweden. His seat of power,which Beowulf tells us was called Heorot, is today marked by thevillage of Lejre on the island of Zealand.
(3) Ohthere: AD 478 - 532. His name is rendered Ottar inearly West Nordic sources. His burial mound containing his ashesis still known as Ottarshogen.
(4) Onela: AD 480 - 535. Otherwise Ali in old West Nordicsources, namely the Skaldskaparmal; the Ynglingasaga; theYnglingatal; and the Skjoldungasaga.
(5) Ursula: Originally Yrsa. In the Hrolfssaga andSkoldungasaga, she is depicted as Healfdene's eldest child, nothis youngest as given in the Beowulf.
(6) Heorogar: AD 470 - 500. According to the Beowulf, he diedwithin two years of inheriting his fathers crown at 28 years ofage. His is one of only two names of the Danish Royal house thatare not attested in other records (see also 16.)
(7) Hrothgar: AD 473 - 525. Otherwise Hroarr he was king ofDenmark.
(8) Wealhtheow: She was a descendant of the Helmingas, andwas renowned for her tactful and diplomatic ways. Intriguingly,her name means Celtic Servant.
(9) Halga: AD 475 - 503. He is known as Helgi in otherScandinavian sources and as Halgi Hundingsbani in the Eddicpoems.
(10) Heoroweard: Born AD 490. Heoroweard did not inherit thecrown on his father Heorogar's death. This may have been due tohis minority (he was 10 when his father died), although otheryoung lads have taken the crown at even earlier ages. Lines 2155ff of the Beowulf may hold the clue to this. His father refusedto pass on to him the royal standard, helmet, sword, andbreastplate, an extraordinary act that normally denotes the sonhas lost his father's respect. How he lost it we are left toimagine.
(11) Hrothulf: AD 495 - 545. Renowned in other Scandinavianrecords as the son of Halga, he was, according to theSkjoldungasaga (cap. XII) and the Ynglingasaga (cap. XXIX),orphaned as a boy of 8. But he was adopted by Hrothgar and hisqueen at the Danish royal court. He was counted as one of thesuhtergefaederan (close relatives of the king) and occupied theseat of honour next to Hrothgar. However, he later attempted (AD525) to usurp the throne from his cousins Hrethric and Hrothmund(see 15 and 16.)
(12) Eanmund: AD 503 - 533. He was known as Eymundr in theHyndluljoth (cap. XV) and as Aun in the Ynglingasaga. Saxolatinised his name as Homothus. He was slain by Weoxstan (seeTable 2, person 9.)
(13) Eadgils: Born AD 510. He became king in AD 535, and wasknown as Athils in other Nordic sources.
(14) Froda: King of the Heathobard's (a Danish people,) hislineage (not given in the Beowulf) is of great interest to us. Wehave already seen how the pre-Christian Saxons, Irish and earlyBritons all traced their royal descents through various linesfrom Japheth. Froda's line is likewise given as beginning with:Japhet Noa sun, fadir Japhans... Sescef [Sceaf], Bedwig, Athra,Itermann, Heremotr, Scealdna (otherwise Skjoldr - the founder ofthe Skjoldungas or Scyldings), Beaf, Eat, Godulfi, Ginn, Frealaf,Voden. Allowing for natural spelling variations and foromissions, this almost exactly corresponds with the Anglo-Saxonlineage of Woden we have already seen (CEN Tech.J., 5 (1):21).And then appears Froda's own line from Woden: Skioldr, Fridleifr,Fridefrode, (14 in the above Table,) Ingialdr Starkadar (see 18)and so on. (This information is preserved in the Langfethgatal[i.e. Vetustissima Regum Septentrionis Series Langfethgataldicta, 12th century manuscript copy of a much earlier originalsource. Thus, we can now add the Danes to the list of thoseancient (pre-Christian) peoples who independently traced theirlineage back to the Genesis patriarches.
(15) Hrethric: Born AD 499. Known in other records (theBjarkamal and Saxo [ii]) as Hroerekr and Roricus respectively, hewas slain by Hrothulf (see 11) in AD 525.
(16) Hrothmund: Born 500. His is one of the only two names inthis genealogy that can not be verified from other survivingsources. (See also 6.)
(17) Freawaru: Born AD 501. She married Ingeld of Sweden inAD 518.
(18) Ingeld: Identical with Ingjaldr of Ynglingasaga fame,his prowess was sung for ages in the halls of Scandinavia.Indeed, his fame is referred to in a somewhat indignant letterwritten in AD 797 by Alcuin to Bishop Speratus of Lindisfarne:'Quid enim Hinieldus cum Christo?' - What has Ingeld to do withChrist? This was written in rebuke of the monks of Lindisfarnewho loved to hear the old pagan sagas retold in cloisters. Yet itis to such monks we owe the often clandestine preservation ofworks like the Beowulf and the old pagan genealogies which havein turn yielded such vital information concerning our forebearsunexpected knowledge of the Genesis patriarches. Ingeld himselfmarried Hrothgar's daughter, Freawaru, in the year AD 518. In theLangfethgatal (roll of ancestors) he is listed as IngialdrStarkadar fostri.
FLYINGREPTILES
The last monster to be destroyed by Beowulf (and from whichencounter Beowulf also died in the year AD 583) was a flyingreptile which lived on a promontory overlooking the sea atHronesness on the southern coast of Sweden. Now, the Saxons (andpresumably the Danes) knew flying reptiles in general as <1>lyftlogas(air-fliers,) but this particular species of flying reptile, thespecimen from Hronesnes, was known to them as a <1>widfloga,literally, a wide (or far-ranging) flyer, and the descriptionthat they have left us fits that of a giant <1>Pteranodon.Interestingly, the Saxons also described this creature a <1>ligdraca,literally fire-dragon, and he is described as fifty feet inlength (or perhaps wing-span?) and about 300 years of age. (Greatage is a common feature even among todays's non-giant reptiles.)Moreover, and of particular interest to us, the name <1>widflogawould have distinguished this particular species of flyingreptile from another similar species which was capable of makingonly short flights. Modern palaeontologists have named such acreature <1>Pterodactyl.
But what of another reptilian monster that was surely the mostfiercesome of all the dinosaurs encountered by Beowulf?
It is too often and mistakenly thought that the name Grendelwas merely a personal name by which the Danes knew thisparticular animal. In much the same way as a horse is calledDobbin, or a dog Fido, this monster, it is assumed, was calledGrendel. But, in fact, Grendel was the name that our forebearsgave to a particular species of giant reptile. This is evidencedin the fact that in the year AD 931, King Athelstan of Wessexissued a charter in which a certain lake in Wiltshire (England)is called (as in Denmark) a <1>grendles mere. 31, 32 Otherplace-names mentioned in old charters, <1>Grindles bec and <1>Grendelespyt, for example, were likewise places that were (or hadbeen) the habitats of a particular species of animal.Grindelwald, literally Grendelwood, in Switzerland is anothersuch place. But where does the name Grendel itself come from?What was its origin, and what information does it convey? Well,there are several Anglo-Saxon words that share the same root asGrendel. The Old English word <1>grindan, for example, andfrom which we derive our word grind, used to denote a destroyer.But the most likely origin of the name is simply the fact thatGrendel is an onomatopoeic term derived from the Old Norse <1>grindill,meaning a storm or grenja, meaning to bellow. The word Grendel isstrongly reminiscent of the deep-throated growl that would beemitted by a very large animal and it came into Middle Englishusage as <1>grindel, meaning angry.
To the hapless Danes who were the victims of his predatoryraids, however, Grendel was not just an animal. To them he wasdemon-like, one who was <1>synnum beswenced (afflicted withsins). He was g<1>odes ansaca (God's adversary,) the <1>synscatha(evil-doer) who was <1>wonsaeli (damned,) a very <1>feondon helle (devil in hell)! He was one of the <1>grundwyrgen,accursed and murderous monsters who were said by the Danes to bedescended from Cain himself. And it is descriptions such as theseof Grendel's nature that convey something of the horror withwhich the men of those times anticipated his raids on theirhomesteads.
But as for Grendel's far more interesting physicaldescription, his habits and the geography of his haunts, they areas follows.
Between lines 1345 - 1355 of the poem, Hrothgar relates toBeowulf the following information when describing Grendel and oneof the monster's companions:
<1>'Ic thaet londbuend leode mine seleraedende secgam hyrde thate hie gesawon swylce twegen micle mearcstapan moras healdan ellorgaestas. Thaera other waes thaes the hie gewislicost gewitan meahton idese onlicnes, other earm-sceapen on weres waestmum sraeclastas traed naefne he waes mara thonne aenig man other thone on geardagum Grendel nemdon foldbuende...' (emphases mine.)
...the best translation of which is Alexander's:-
<1>'I have heard it said by subjects of mine who live in the country, counsellors in this hall, that they have seen such a pair of huge wayfarers haunting the moors, otherworldly ones; and one of them, so far as they might make it out, was in woman's shape; but the shape of a man, though twisted, trod also the tracks of exile - save that he was more huge than a human being. The country people have called him from of old by the name of Grendel...' 33
The key words from this passage, and from which we gainimportant information concerning the physical appearance ofGrendel, are <1>idese onlicnes when referring to the femalemonster, and <1>wereswaestmum when referring to the mate.Those Danes who had seen the monsters thought that the female wasthe older of the two and supposed that she was Grendel's mother,but what exactly do the descriptive terms tell us that is of suchimportance? Simply this: that the female was in the shape of awoman <1>(idese onlicnes) and the mate was in the shape ofa man <1>(weres waestmum.) In other words, they were bothbipedal, but larger than any human.
Further important detail is added elsewhere in the poemconcerning Grendel's appearance when the monster attacked theDanes for what was to prove the last time. In lines 815 - 818,where we are told in the most graphic detail how Beowulfinflicted a fatal injury on the monster (Beowulf held thecreature in an armlock, which he then twisted - <1>'wrythan'- line 964,) the following information is derived:
<1>'Licsar gebad atol aeglaeca him on eaxle wearth syndolh sweatol seonowe onspungon burston banlocan.'
Which may be translated thus:
<1>'Searing pain seized the terrifying ugly one as a gaping wound appeared in his shoulder. The sinews snapped and the (arm)-joint burst asunder' (my translation.)
For twelve years, the Danes had themselves attempted to killGrendel with conventional weapons - knives, swords, arrows andthe like. Yet his impenetrable hide had defied them all, andGrendel was able to attack the Danes with impunity. Beowulfconsidered all this and decided that the only way to tackle themonster was to get to grips with him at close quarters. Themonster's forelimbs, which the Saxons called <1>eorms(arms) and which some translate as claws, were small andcomparatively puny. They were the monster's one weak spot, andBeowulf went straight for them. He was already renowned for hisprodigious strength of grip, and he used this to literally tearoff one of Grendel's small arms.
Grendel, however, is also described, in line 2079 of the poem,as a <1>muthbona, that is, one who slays with his mouth orjaws, and the speed with which he was able to devour his humanprey tells us something of the size of his jaws and teeth. Yet,it is the very size of Grendel's jaws that would have aidedBeowulf in going for the forelimbs, because pushing himself hardinto the animal's chest between those forelimbs would have placedBeowulf tightly underneath those jaws and would thus havesheltered him from Grendel's terrible teeth. We are told that assoon as Beowulf gripped the monster's claws (and we must rememberthat Grendel was only a youngster, and not by all accounts afully mature adult male of his species), the startled animaltried to pull away instead of attacking Beowulf. The animalinstinctively knew the danger he was now in, and he wanted toescape the clutches of the man who now posed such an unexpectedthreat and who was inflicting such alarming pain. However, it wasthis action of trying to pull away that left Grendel wide open toBeowulf's strategy. Thus, Beowulf was able in the ensuingstruggle eventually to wrench off one of the animal's arms, as sographically described in the poem. As a result of this appallinginjury, the young dinosaur returned to his lair and simply bledto death (see figure 9 and caption.)
As for his haunts and habits, Grendel hunted alone, beingknown by the understandably frightened locals who sometimes sawhis moonlit shape coming down from the mist-laden moors as the <1>atolangengea, the terrifying solitary one. He was a <1>mearcstapa(literally a march-stepper,) one who stalked the marches oroutlying regions (<1>'haunting the moors,' as Alexanderrenders it.) He hunted by night, approaching human settlementsand waiting silently in the darkness for his prey to fall asleepbefore he descended on them as a <1>sceadugenga (literallya shadow-goer, a nightwalker.) Gliding silently along the <1>fenhlith(the waste and desolate tract of the marshes,) he would emergefrom the dense black of night as the <1>deathscua (death'sshadow.) The Danes employed an <1>eotanweard (literally agiant-ward, a watcher for monsters) to warn of Grendel'sappearance, but often in vain. So silent was Grendel's approachwhen he was hunting in the darkness of the night that sometimesthe <1>eotanweard himself was surprised and eaten. On oneparticular and long-remembered night, no less than thirty Danishwarriors were killed by Grendel. Little wonder then that Beowulfwas rewarded so richly and was so famed for having killed themonster.
In all, a comprehensive and somewhat horrifying picture ofGrendel emerges from the pages of Beowulf, and I doubt that thereader needs to be guided by me as to which particular species ofpredatory dinosaur the details of his physical description fitbest. Modern commentators who have been brought up onevolutionary ideas are compelled to suggest that monsters likeGrendel are primitive personifications of death or disease, andother such nonsense. (It had even once been suggested that he wasa personification of the North Sea!!) But really, the evidencewill not support such claims.
One modern and refreshingly honest publication on the poemmakes a far more telling comment:-
<1>'In spite of allusions to the devil and abstract concepts of evil, the monsters are very tangible creatures in Beowulf. They have no supernatural tricks, other than exceptional strength, and they are vulnerable and mortal. The early medieval audience would have accepted these monsters as monsters, not as symbols of plague or war, for such creatures were a definite reality.' 34
The study of living dinosaurs from the ancient records is afascinating one, and we have here examined only a few of thesurviving examples. One or two of the accounts (not dealt withhere) that have come down to us could, arguably, be dismissedeither on the grounds that they are plainly fanciful or that theyare so hopelessly muddled that no accurate knowledge can begleaned from them. But the vast majority of the accounts, such asthese that we have examined, are sober and detailed reports ofthe not always malevolent creatures that our forebearsencountered. The flying reptiles of Wales (see Appendix) thatsurvived until very recent times are just one further example.Those of the North American Indians are another. 35 The reportsare surprisingly consistent, and together they give the lie tothose scurrilous charges that are so often laid by modernistscholars at our ancestors' proverbial door. 36 You can only sayso often that records and traditions are fake, and that theirauthors are either habitual and unscrupulous liars andfraudsters, or else the most gullible fools in history. Therecomes a point when either it has to be acknowledged that there issubstance to the reports, or the reports themselves are ignored.Modernists have chosen the latter course.
1. The New Bible Dictionary, Inter-Varsity Press, London.1972. p. 138, s.v. Behemouth.
Anglo Saxon Monster Names Meanings
2. The New Bible Dictionary., Ref. 1. pp. 729-730. s.v.Leviathan.
3. Pfeiffer, C. F., 1960. Lotan and Leviathan. EvangelicalQuarterly. XXXII:208ff.
4. Cooper, W. R., The early history of man - part 5, inpreparation.
5. Thorpe, Lewis., (tr.) 1982. The History of the Kings ofBritain. Geoffrey of Monmouth. Guild Publishing, London. pp.101-102.
6. Jones, G. and Jones. T. (tr.). 1974 and 1989. TheMabinogion. Revised edition. Everyman's Library. J. M. Dent andSons Ltd. pp. 209-212 and 217.
7. Westwood. J., 1985. Albion Granada, London. pp. 270, 275,289.
8. This chronicle was begun by John de Trokelow and finishedby Henry de Blaneford. It was translated and reproduced in theRolls Series, H. G. Riley. (ed.). IV,in 1866.
9. Simpson. J., 1980. British Dragons, B. T. Batsford Ltd.London. p.60.
10. Simpson, Ref.9. p. 118.
11. The fighting dragons of Little Cornard. In: Folklore,Myths and Legends of Britain, Reader's Digest, 1973, p. 241.
12. <1>True and Wonderful: A Discourse Relating to a Strangeand Monstrous Serpent (or Dragon) lately discovered, and yetliving, to the great Annoyance and divers Slaughters of both Menand Cattell, by his strong and violent Poison: in Sussex, twoMiles from Horsham, in a Woode called St Leonard's Forrest, andthirtie Miles from London, this present month of August 1614.With the true Generation of Serpents. Cited in: HarleianMiscellany. III, 1745. pp. 106-109.
13. Simpson, Ref.9.p. 118.
14. Simpson, Ref.9.p.35.
15. Simpson, Ref.9.p.21.
16. Gregory., Lady, l920. Visions and Beliefs in the West ofIreland (reprinted 1976.)
17. Simpson, Ref.9.pp.42-43
18. Steiger, B., 1980. Worlds Before Our Own, W. & J.Mackay Ltd., Chatham (England.) pp. 41-66. (Steiger is by nomeans a creationist.)
19. Morris, W., 1923. Volsangassaga: The Story of Sigurd theVolsung and the Fall of the Niblings. Longmans, London.
20. Elton's translation cited by Klaeber. Fr., 1950. Beowulfand the Fight at Finnsburg. 3rd edition. D.C. Heath &Co.,Boston, p. 259.
21. The Anglo-Saxon text relied on in this study is that ofKlaeber's Ref. 20.
22. Alexander, Michael. 1973. Beowulf, Penguin Classics,Harmondsworth, pp. 112-113.
23. Cooper, W. R., 1991. The early history of man - Part 2.The Irish-Celtic, British and Saxon chronicles. CEN Tech. J.,5(1):21.
24. It also verifies the pre-Christian origin of the Mercian(and other) pedigrees, proving that the early genealogies were inexistence before the Saxons migrated to England, modernistassertions of late monkish forgeries notwithstanding.
Anglo Saxon Monster Names List
25. Historiae Francorum, Book III, chapter 3.
26. Thorpe, Lewis (tr.). 1974. Gregory of Tours: The Historyof the Franks, Penguin Classics, Harmondsworth, p. 163.
27. Cited by Klaeber, Ref. 20, p.xli.
28. Klaeber, Ref. 20, p.xli.
29. This is the one flaw that mars Michael Alexander'sotherwise excellent translation of Beowulf, Penguin Classics(Ref. 22). Klaeber (Ref.20) also, and surprisingly, makes thesame mistranslation.
30. <1>Ythgewinnes=literlly a wave-thrasher, evidentlya surface-swimming monster rather than a creature that swam atdepth like the saedracan. This would explain the ease with whichthe ythgewinnes was harpooned from the shore of the mere.
31. <1>Cartularium Saxonicum, W. de Gray Birch (ed.,)ii., p. 363 ff.
32. Cited also by Klaeber, Ref. 20, p. xxiv.
Anglo Saxon Monster Names Generator
33. Alexander, Ref. 22, p. 93.
34. <1>Longman Literature Guides. (York Notes series.)Beowulf, p. 65.
35. Steiger, Ref. 18, pp 41-66.
36. Sceptics on this subject are no new thing. Three hundredyears ago, their often stultifying academic presence led a 17thcentury scholar to pen the following:
37. Trevelyan, M., 1909. Folklore and Folk Stories of Wales.
Anglo Saxon Monster Names A-z
38. Cited also in Simpson, Ref. 9, pp. 34-35.
39. Whitlock, R., 1983. Here Be Dragons, George Allen &Unwin, Boston, pp. 133-134.
THEFLYING REPTILES AND OTHER DINOSAURS OF WALES
Flying reptiles were a feature of Welsh life, a more commonfeature than many might think, until surprisingly recent times.Indeed, as late as the beginning of this present century, elderlyfolk at Penllin (Glamorgan) used to tell of a colony of wingedserpents that lived in the woods around Penllin Castle. As MarieTrevelyan tells us:
<1>'The woods round Penllyne Castle, Glamorgan, had the reputation of being frequented by winged serpents, and these were the terror of old and young alike. An aged inhabitant of Penllyne, who died a few years ago [around the turn of the century], said that in his boyhood the winged serpents were described as very beautiful. They were coiled when in repose, and looked as if they were covered with jewels of all sorts. Some of them had crests sparkling with all the colours of the rainbow.' When disturbed they glided swiftly, 'sparkling all over,' to their hiding places. When angry, they 'flew over people's heads, with outspread wings bright, and sometimes with eyes too, like the feathers in a peacock's tail.' He said it was 'no old story invented to frighten children,' but a real fact. His father and uncle had killed some of them, for they were as bad as foxes for poultry.' The old man attributed the extinction of the winged serpents to the fact that they were 'terrors in the farmyards and coverts.'
<1>An old woman, whose parents in her early childhood took her to visit Penmark Place, Glamorgan, said she often heard people talking about the ravages of the winged serpents in that neighbourhood. She described them in the same way as the man of Penllyne. There was a 'king and queen' of winged serpents, she said, in the woods round Bewper.... Her grandfather told her of an encounter with a winged serpent in the woods near Porthkerry Park, not far from Penmark. He and his brother 'made up their minds to catch one, and watched a whole day for the serpent to rise. Then they shot at it, and the creature fell wounded, only to rise and attack my uncle, beating him about the head with its wings. She said a fierce fight ensued between the men and the serpent, which was at last killed. She had seen its skin and feathers, but after the grandfather's death they were thrown away. That serpent was as notorious 'as any fox' in the farmyards and coverts around Penmark.' 37, 38
The authenticity of the above account is enhanced in manypoints, not the least of which is the fact that it is not atypical account. The creatures concerned were not solitary andmonstrous dragons, but small creatures who lived in colonies.They had to be exterminated, unfortunately, because of theirpredilection for the local poultry, but they were not largeanimals. We must bear in mind that many 'dinosaurs'known to us from the fossil record were, in fact, quite small,some no bigger than birds. The old folk who remembered the Welshserpents agreed that they were very beautiful creatures to lookat, especially when they were in flight.
A different kind of winged reptile nested on an ancient burialmound, or tumulus, at Trellech a'r Betws in the Welsh county ofDyfed. It seems, though, to have been a larger species than thoseof Penmark and Penllin.
But whilst we are in Wales it is worth noting that atLlanbadarn-y-Garrag, Powys (is <1>Garrag a corruption of <1>carrog,or vice versa?) the church contains a carving of a local giantreptile whose features may be familiar to some of us. Theyinclude large paddle-like flippers, a long neck and a small head.We would call it a <1>Plesiosaur.
Apart from those Welsh locations mentioned in the main body ofthis article, Glaslyn (Snowdon) is another lake where <1>afancshave been spoken of and sighted, one as recently as the 1930's.On this occasion, two climbers on the side of the mountain lookeddown onto the surface of Glaslyn and they saw the <1>afanc,which they described as having a long grey body, rise from thedepths of the lake to the surface, raise his head, and thensubmerge again. 39
Other references that were useful for compilation of the textare:-
Alexander, Marc, 1982. British Folklore, Myths and Legends,Weidenfeld and Nicholson. London.
Bord. J. and Bord. C., 1987. Ancient Mysteries of Britain,Paladin. London.
Topsett, E., 1608. The History of Four-footed Beasts andSerpents, printed also by G. Sawbridge, T. Williams and T.Johnson, London. 1658.
Bill Cooper is a keen student of Bible history, archaeologyand paleontology. He first introduced he subject of livingdinosaurs in early records in <1>Anglo-Saxon Dinosaurs AsDescribed in Early Historical Records, Creation ScienceMovement (England), Pamphlet Series #280. This article isreproduced by permission of the author and the editor of the'Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal' (PO Box 302,Sunnybank, Qld. AUSTRALIA 4109.)