Beowulf strips for bed, noting again (677 ff.) that he will not use weapons against Grendel because the ogre “does not know the warrior’s arts” (681), the skills of a fighter trained in the use of weapons. Although this is called a “boast” (676), it sounds more like another vow. Beowulf sets aside his chain-shirt. When the poet tells us that the “pillow took the cheek” (688) of the mighty warrior, he is pointing out that Beowulf wears no protective helmet even though the Geat champion is sure that Grendel will come.
And come he does. In a passage that almost everyone agrees is one of the finest in Anglo-Saxon poetry (710–727), Grendel ascends from the fen. The poetry here is best appreciated if read aloud in Old English with a literal understanding of each word. (Chickering's “Glosses to Select Passages” (p. 397–98) include translations.) In set stages, Grendel approaches the “house of … joy to men” (715–16). Angry, defiant, and cursed, Grendel resents, above all, the hope and happiness of mankind. The poet effectively contrasts the light of Heorot with the darkness of the fen and Grendel’s soul. One metaphor for killing warriors is to drag them into the “shadows” (707), which even the ogre cannot accomplish if it is not God’s will. Grendel comes “up from the marsh, under misty cliffs” (710), a demon ascending from a dark hell. The night is noticeably dark as he approaches the “shining wine-hall” (715) where the Geats wait. The only brightness coming from Grendel is “an ugly light [that] shone out [from his eyes] like fire” (727).
The door to Heorot bursts open at the ogre’s touch, implying Grendel’s great strength. His heart laughs, an effective metaphor, at the sight of the sleeping Geats. Grendel’s entrance into Heorot anticipates his brutality. He doesn’t just knock down the door; he “rip[s] open / the mouth of the hall” (723–24). In a device often used by the poet, this image anticipates the next major action: Grendel’s ripping apart of the Geat warrior, Hondscio (740 ff.). Grendel quickly guts the man while the warrior still sleeps. Blood swills from veins ripped open by the ogre’s mouth, and the warrior is quickly devoured. With an appreciation for gruesome detail, the poet reveals that Grendel even gulps down “fet ond folma” (745), the feet and hands of the Geat.
