The fear of what is inside you, your desire for revenge, your lack of control over your impulses, and your dark side, is the greatest fear presented in the story Beowulf, a book by Robert Nye. Grendels mother, Cains wife, a female without a name, represents what is dark inside ourselves. She is filled with cruelty, hate, and revenge; a wicked evil. She is more huge and powerful than her son, more terrible than Grendel, her actions motivated by revenge. She is shaped like a snake and possesses terrifying features. She moves in a twisty way and attacks with her long scaly tentacles, as strong as armor. When Grendel returns to the Fen, wounded, with one of his arms ripped from its shoulder, the mother decides to seek revenge instead of living her life in grief. She cannot retain this evil inside her; it is a part of who she is. She is powerless against the darkness that consumes her and has no control over her actions. She attempts to avenge Grendels death, her son, by attackin
g Hall Heorot. She manages to retrieve her son’s claw, and murderously abducts one of the Scyldings, Unferth, from the mead hall. When Beowulf comes after Grendels mother, she has another advantage. She is in her home territory, the Fen, which is where she has lived for a hundred years. As Beowulf dives into the lake, the mother waits patiently and attacks him only when he is close to the bottom. He is virtually helpless as she drags him to the dry, eerily lit cave for the kill. Grendels mother feeds on fear, and once Beowulf stops being afraid, and stops struggling, she begins to lose her power over him. Her magic was slowly going. Beowulf defeats her, the darkness inside of her, with his goodness, his kind heart, and bravery. Grendels mother is powerless against good, which is inside of Beowulf. Feeling fear, he puts this fear to use and plucks new courage from the fear itself. He makes her fall asleep, then strangles her to death, turning her body into a thick dark pool.