Author's Note: Hi. So this is a short one-shot about Grendel's Mother (who I have named Jorunn), a seriously underplayed character in Beowulf. Sorry for any grammatical mistakes, because I'm sure I made many. And yes, I know there are sentence fragments—but you don't expect a monster to speak in full sentences, do you?
She was wild, answering to no one, killing as she pleased—and was rather good at it, too. She was devious and deadly beautiful, with ferocious concentration and sharply trained skill. Her clawed fingers dripped with fresh blood more often than not, and she spoke in her language of shrieks and howls and croons. She was a monster.
The one thing that kept her tied to humanity, besides her human-like appearance, was being a mother to Grendel.
Grendel, her dear son, her child, who had kept her company in this lonely, dark world. Grendel, who she had taught how to kill and hunt and to loathe the humans; her son, who she had kept safe from those very enemies and all others who were against them in their dark, wild world. Grendel, who she had come as close as a monster ever could to loving, to caring about...
And now he was dead. Slaughtered, brutally, his arm ripped off and he slowly stumbling home to bleed to death. Killed by those wretched humans!
When Jorunn had found his body, she hadn't comprehended. Grendel was her son, the one who had ripped apart thousands of worthless men—how could they do something like this to him?
Incomprehension.
Sorrow.
For a fleeting moment, fright.
Rage.
Revenge.
She let out a shriek of horror and laughter. She was a monster, a creature of darkness and terror and fear, and those humans would feel her wrath!
She stood up, back arched and legs bent in a predator's crouch, eyes flashing with wild determination and murderous rage. A monster like Jorunn would not sit by, weeping, uselessly mourning. Jorunn would seek revenge—a bloody, painful revenge—on the human who had dared to harm her son. Her tie to some level of pity and mercy was gone. For when a monster is hurt, the wound is deep and unforgivable.
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