Beowulf, the Wrath of God and the Fall of the Angels

ABSTRACT Beowulf’s anger has typically been viewed either negatively, as a sign of his monstrosity, or positively, as a form of furor heroicus (heroic anger). This article argues that the hero’s battle-fury is a manifestation of the wrath of God. Through comparison with Genesis A and other Old English biblical poems, it identifies the Fall of the Angels as an important new context for Beowulf’s first two monster-fights. Countering arguments that Beowulf is a flawed or even failed hero, it proposes that when read in the light of Old English biblical poetry, Beowulf emerges not as frenzied berserker but as a righteous avenger whose anger is controlled and directed against evil.


Introduction: The Sin of Anger
In Prudentius' Psychomachia (c.400), "swelling Wrath (Ira), showing her teeth with rage and foaming at the mouth" (tumens, spumanti fervida rictu, l. 113) kills herself in frustration on discovering that her weapons cannot harm Patience (Patientia) (ll.109-77). 1 Prudentius' understanding of uncontrolled rage as a self-destructive vice has its roots in classical antiquity, when anger was considered a form of mental illness. 2 The Psychomachia proved immensely popular throughout early medieval Europe, not least in England where its influence can be seen in Aldhelm's description of the war between the eight vices and virtues in his verse De virginitate (c.700). 3Around the turn of the eleventh century, AElfric similarly describes anger as the fourth of the eight vices: Se feorða leahter is ira, þaet is on Englisc weamodnyss; se deð þaet se mann nah his modes geweald and macað manslyhtas and mycele yfelu.
CONTACT Francis Leneghan francis.leneghan@ell.ox.ac.ukSupplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/0013838X.2024.2333641.1 Prudentius, ed. and trans.Thomson, I, 286-91.I would like to thank Niamh Kehoe, Rafael J. Pascual and the anonymous readers for this journal for their very helpful comments.
2 For warnings against anger in the Bible, see, for example, Eph. 6: 4; Gal 5: 20; 1 Tim.2: 8; Jas 1: 19-20.All biblical quotations are from the Vulgate and the Douay-Rheims translation.For an overview of the subject, see Harris, From Sickness to Sin: Early Christianity and Anger; and Kelhoffer, "Suppressing Anger in Early Christianity".
[The fourth vice is ira, which is anger in English; it causes a person not to have control over his mind and results in manslaughters and many evils.] 4 The Beowulf-poet was clearly familiar with the Christian conception of anger as sinful and destructive. 5Hence throughout the poem anger (OE yrre; torn; aēbylg), hatred (hete), hostility (nīð), malice (inwit) and ferocity (adj.rēþe), 6 are associated with dynastic conflict brought about by fratricide-the ecg-hete ("sword-hatred", l. 84a) that will soon destroy Heorot-and monstrosity.In particular, the demonic figure of Grendel is often described as angry (grim, ll.102a, 121a) and fierce (graēdig, l. 121a), as well as hostile (lāðan, l. 132a) and hateful (hetelic, ll.152b, 1267a).
As has often been noted, the narrator uses similar terms to describe the battle-fury of the hero.Indeed, as Andy Orchard notes, the "spirit of anger" characterises Beowulf's monsterslaying. 7For example, while Grendel enters Heorot rēoc ond rēþe ("savage and furious", l. 122a) and moves across the floor yrre-mōd ("angry-minded", l. 726a), so too Beowulf is described as an yrre ōretta ("angry warrior", l. 1532a) and a rēþe cempa ("furious champion", l. 1585a) as he enters the underwater hall.Most strikingly, in the fight in Heorot, Beowulf and Grendel momentarily merge in their rage: Yrre waeron begen/ rēþe renweardas ("they were both angry, furious hall-guardians", ll.769b-70a).In the view of S. L. Dragland, the steady accumulation of anger-terms in the description of Grendel's advance to Heorot makes his impending meeting with Beowulf "sound like the encounter of two berserkers." 8Critical attention has mainly focused on the term (ge)bolgen, literally "swelling with rage", that describes the emotional states of Beowulf, Grendel and the dragon both before and during combat. 9As Manish Sharma notes, the simplex (ge)bolgen and related compounds such as bolgen-mōd ("swelling/enraged in mind") appear most frequently in Old English in reference to "demons or demonic figures" such as Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel, l. 209), Eleusius (Juliana, ll.58, 90, 502), the Mermedonian cannibals who attack saints Matthew and Andrew (Andreas, ll.128, 1221) and the demons who try to tempt St Guthlac in the fens (Guthlac A, ll.287, 303, 557), as well as the wicked king Heremod in Beowulf (l.1713a). 10On this basis, it has been suggested that Beowulf's anger marks him out as sinful, monstrous or at least morally ambiguous. 11owever, whereas Grendel seems to be in a permanent state of anger on account of his Cainite ancestry, 12 Evidently, Beowulf's anger only arises during his combats against 4 Clayton, ed., Two AElfric Texts, 144-45.5   All references to Beowulf are taken from Klaeber's Beowulf, ed.Fulk, Bjork and Niles; I have hyphenated compound words and capitalised proper nouns referring to the Christian God.All translations are my own unless otherwise indicated.
6 Old English has a very wide range of lexical items denoting anger/wrath/fury, only a sample of which relevant to heroic poetry are cited here: for the full range of terms, see the Old English Thesaurus 08.01.03.05.02: "Anger".For a comprehensive lexical survey, see Izdebska, "The Semantic Field of Anger in Old English".See also Izdebska, "The Curious case of TORN".7 Orchard, Critical Companion, 199.8   Dragland, "Monster-Man in Beowulf", 609. 9 Beowulf: ll.709a (fight with Grendel); 1539b (fight with Grendel's mother) and 2400b, 2550b (dragon-fight); Grendel: l. 723; dragon: ll.2270b-81a; 2669.Grendel's mother is motivated by sorrow (l.1278) at her son's death, rather than anger.For discussion of the "hydraulic model" of emotion and references to swelling with anger in Beowulf and other Old English literature, as well as Old Norse sources, see Baccianti, "Swelling in Anger: Somatic Descriptors in Old English and Old Norse Literature"; and Lockett, Anglo-Saxon Psychologies.For a lexical study of distribution of the verb belgan and its linguistic background, see Izdebska, "The Semantic Field of Anger in Old English", 115-45. 10Sharma, "Metalepsis and Monstrosity", 251. 11See, for example, Orchard, Pride and Prodigies; Sharma, "Metalepsis and Monstrosity"; Bandy, "Cain, Grendel, and the Giants of Beowulf". 12Grendel is said to be in "perpetual conflict" (singāle saece, l. 154a) with the Danes, continually "persecuting […] conspiring against and deceiving" (ehtende […] seomade ond syrede, l. 159b) the inhabitants of Heorot.On Grendel's demonic foes. 13By contrast with the monster-fights, there are no references to anger in Beowulf's fights against human foes (e.g., Onela, ll.2391-96; Daeghrefn, ll.2499-2508)  and in the closing lines the Geats praise him as manna mildust ond monðwaērust ("the mildest of men and the gentlest", l. 3181), a collocation which is used elsewhere in Old English to refer to Christ. 14Beowulf's controlled anger is therefore clearly of a different nature to that of the monsters whom he fights.Scholars such as P. L. Henry and Martin Puhvel have therefore identified Beowulf's temporary battle-rage as a form of furor heroicus (heroic anger), comparing it with the warp-spasms which the Irish hero Cú Chulainn undergoes when entering combat. 15In his 2015 study of anger in Old English literature, Rolf H. Bremmer Jr comments that it is this heroic anger, combined with resolution, which gives Beowulf "the edge he needs to encounter his opponent". 16Viewed as furor heroicus, Beowulf's anger can be seen as a positive quality that sets him apart from other mere mortals.
Another positive form of anger that might provide a meaningful context for Beowulf's battle-rage is righteous indignation, in particular the wrath of God. 17 God's anger towards sinners features prominently in the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms. 18n the New Testament, St Paul warns that the wrath and indignation of the Lord towards the ungodly and unjust will be made manifest on Judgement Day, the "day of wrath" (die irae), 19 while the elect will be spared His anger. 20While Socrates, Plato and the Stoics had rejected the idea that a supreme deity could be angry, the early fourth-century Christian apologist Lactantius defended the doctrine of God's anger: just as God is moved to favour when He encounters just things, so He becomes angry tormented mental state, see Andrew, "Grendel in Hell".On Grendel and Cain, see Melinkoff, "Cain's monstrous progeny in Beowulf: part I, Noachic tradition" and "Cain's monstrous progeny in Beowulf: part II, post-diluvian survival". 13Neidorf, Art and Thought, 61-112, emphasises that Beowulf is invariably courteous, polite and respectful to those deserving of his respect.For another recent positive assessment of the hero's character, see Leneghan,Dynastic Drama, Cf.Blickling Homily VI (Palm Sunday): Heora cining cynseþ milde and monþwaere ("their king cometh, meek and humble") (Blickling Homilies, ed. Moris, I, 70-71), translating Mt. 21: 5: ecce rex tuus venit tibi mansuetus.15 Henry, "Furor Heroicus"; Puhvel, "Beowulf and Irish Battle Rage".See also Pettitt, "Beowulf: The Mark of the Beast and the Balance of Frenzy"; and Wymer and Labbie, "Civilized Rage in Beowulf".16 Bremmer, "Looking Back at Anger", 444-46.Bremmer identifies the same quality in the Maldon poet's description of the Ealdorman Byrhtnoth as yrre and anraed ("angry and resolute", Battle of Maldon, l. 44) (445).17 The term wraeþu is rare in Old English and is confined to prose.For example, it is used to translate Latin ira in the midtenth century Lindisfarne Gospels: erit enim pressura magna supra terram et ira populo huic/ "Bið forðon ofer-suiðnisso micelo on-ufa eorðo & wraeððo folce ðissum" (Luke 21: 23).Similarly, the opening of the Leofric Missal (1050-72) states that this book belongs to Bishop Leofric and if any man should steal it haebbe he godes curs and wraeð ealra halgena ("may he have God's curse and the wrath of all the angels").On the treatment of the wrath of God, as well as sinful anger, in the Old English Solomon and Saturn poems, see the article by Rachel A. Burns in this special edition.18 For example, Pss 2: 5, 2: 13, 7: 2, 9: 25, 17: 8, 17: 9, 17: 16, 20: 10, 29: 6, 54: 22, 57: 10, 58: 14, 59: 3, 68: 25, 77: 17, 77: 21,  77: 31, 77: 38, 77: 40, 77: 49, 78: 5, 78: 6, 82: 16, 84: 4, 84: 6, 89: 12, 102: 9, 105: 7, 105: 23, 105: 40, 109: 5. Psalms are numbered according to the Vulgate numbering.On the importance of the Psalms in Anglo-Saxon England, see Toswell, Anglo-Saxon Psalter; and essays in Atkin and Leneghan, eds, The Psalms and Medieval English Literature.The psalms also frequently describe God's anger towards the psalmist and his people (e.g.Pss 6: 2, 26: 9, 37: 2, 37: 4, 59: 3, 73: 1, 75: 8,  79: 5, 84: 6, 87: 8, 87: 17, 88: 39, 89: 7, 89: 9) as well as the anger of the psalmist's enemies and the enemies of God (e.g.Pss 54.4, 111.10) and the psalmist's anger both towards his own enemies and towards God (e.g. Ps 30.10, 94.11, 98).See further Hansen, The Wrath of the Lamb.19 For example, Romans 1: 18, 2: 5-8; 1 Thessalonians 2: 16. 20 For example, 1 Thessalonians 2: 10; 1 Thessalonians 5: 9. On the wrath of God in the New Testament, see when He perceives unjust things (De ira Dei, XV).21 Following Lactantius, early medieval English authors promulgated the doctrine of the wrath of God: conversion was interpreted as a means of sparing a people from God's wrath;22 request for protection from God's wrath were included in communal prayers in litanies;23 historical catastrophes that befell Christian nations were interpreted as God's just punishment;24 and astrological phenomena and natural disasters were believed to signify the vengeful anger of the Lord.25 Although the wrath of God is given extensive treatment in Old English biblical poetry, yet this motif is rarely mentioned in studies of anger in Beowulf.26 In the first section of this article, I draw on Genesis A and other biblical poems in arguing that Grendel is the recipient of God's wrath.27 I then go on to explore how the poet casts Beowulf in the role of the righteous avenger, focusing on the battle in the underwater hall and the description of the giants' sword-hilt.While the poet's imaginative engagement with the earliest parts of the biblical narrative (Genesis-Fall-Cain-Flood) has been intensively studied, 28 the possibility that the author also drew on the apocryphal tradition of the Fall of the Angels has yet to gain acceptance.29 The main source for this tradition in the early Middle Ages is the pseudepigraphal Book of Enoch (I Enoch).The Enochian account of the expulsion of Lucifer and his Rebel Angels from heaven exerted a powerful influence on early medieval English literature and art. 30Robert E. Kaske has noted a series of connections between the Book of Enoch and Beowulf: for example, Grendel's "mysterious" name, his cannibalism (ll.739-45a), giganticism and demonic nature are all closely paralleled in I Enoch's description of the Fallen Angels or "Watchers" and the race of giants and evil spirits who are descended from them.31 Despite these connections, the potential significance of the Enochian Fall of the Angels tradition to Beowulf remains relatively unexplored.Underpinning the argument of this article is the proposal that the apocryphal Fall of the Angels tradition informed the Beowulf-poet's conception of a wrathful God at war with rebellious demonic foes.

Godes yrre baer
The only explicit reference to the doctrine of the wrath of God in Beowulf appears in the celebrated account of Grendel's advance on Heorot:  (Beowulf, ll.702b-27)   [The gliding shadow-goer came on dark nights.The bowmen slept, those who should have guarded that horn-decorated hall, all but one-that was known to men that the shining attacker could not drag them into the shadows if the Measurer did not wish it-but he (i.e., Beowulf) waking, in enmity to foes, waited enraged in mind for the outcome of the battle.Then Grendel came, advancing from the moor under misty slopes, he bore God's anger; the evil attacker intended to ensnare a certain one of mankind in that lofty hall.He went forward under the clouds to where he readily knew that wine hall to be, the gold-hall of men, decorated with treasures.That was not the first occasion that he sought out Hrothgar's home; never did he find in the days of his life, before or since, a fiercer welcome among hallthanes.The warrior came then to the hall, deprived of joys.The doors suddenly burst open, fixed fast with fire-forged bands, as soon as he touched them with his fingers; he ripped open the mouth of the hall, when he was swollen with rage.Quickly after that the enemy walked across the decorated floor, he went angry-minded; from his eyes shone an ugly light most alike to flame.] In this carefully constructed passage, Grendel, Beowulf and God are linked by the emotion of anger.32However, while Beowulf's fury towards Grendel is aligned with God's righteous wrath, Grendel's anger at the sleeping Danes is determined by his evil nature (se mān-scaða, "the evil attacker", l. 712a).David F. Johnson has suggested that the half-line Godes yrre baer (l.711b) could be taken to mean that Grendel "is simultaneously the recipient and carrier of God's wrath". 33In support of the latter reading, the statement that Grendel was not permitted to drag away the Danes into the shadows þā metod nolde ("when the Measurer did not wish it", l. 706b) might imply that the Danes had incurred God's wrath in the form of Grendel, perhaps on account of some unspecified sin.The most obvious candidate is fratricide: Unferth royal hall is condemned to hell by Beowulf for killing his own kin (ll.587-89), and the narrator makes several allusions to familial conflict that lies in store for the Scyldings (ll.82b-85, 1017b-18, 1163b-64a). 34As a descendant of Cain, Grendel might therefore be said to bearing God's wrath to the Danes because of their propensity for kin-slaying. 35owever, comparison with Old English biblical poetry suggests that the primary sense of Godes yrre baer is that Grendel himself is the recipient of God's wrath.Hence, in both The Phoenix and Genesis B similar wording is used to describe God's anger with Adam and Eve: God's anger towards Grendel-and the entire misbegotten race of Cain-is underscored in this passage by four aurally linked verbs of banishment (forscrifen, forwraec) and vengeance (gewraec, forgeald).The righteous punishment which God metes out to Cain's progeny is that they must remain far from mankind (feor, mancynne fram).By leaving his place of banishment in the mere and entering Heorot, Grendel might therefore have further angered God.In the Vulgate Bible, God's anger with the giants and mankind before the Flood is implied but never stated: He is touched inwardly with sorrow of heart (dolore cordis), repenting for having made mankind (paenitet enim me fecisse eos) (Genesis 6: 4-7). 39Similarly, in the Old Latin Bible God is said to be angry with Himself for having created mankind (quia iratus sum quoniam feci eos, "for I am angry that I have made them") but again His wrath towards mankind is not mentioned. 40A much closer parallel for the Beowulf-poet's account of Cain's killing of Abel is presented by Genesis A: Hē þā unraeden folmum gefremede, freo-maeg ofsloh, broðor sinne and his blod ageat, Cain Abeles.
(Genesis A, ll.982b-90a) [He (i.e., Cain) performed an ill-counselled deed with his hands, killed his close kinsman, his own brother, and Cain spilled Abel's blood.This middle-earth swallowed up the gore of the killing, a man's blood, after the deathblow woe was raised up, a progeny of injuries.From that shoot, afterward, grew-the longer the more vigorous, malignant and cruel fruit.](Emphases added).
Both poets describe how Cain struck and killed (ofsloh/cwealm) Abel, with the result that a monstrous race (Beo: untȳdras; Gen A: tuddor) sprung up after (Beo: Þanon; Gen A: aefter, siððan) that event.[until the sons of God began to seek out brides from among Cain's race, from the accursed people, and the sons of men chose for themselves wives there without the Measurer's blessing from that sinful people, beautiful and fair.Then the Ruler of the Skies spoke, angry with mankind, and said these words: "The descendants of Cain did not go from my mind free born, but that race has sorely enraged me.Now the sons of Seth renew anger in me.
[…]" He intended to avenge the generations of men, to seize the human race angrily and sorely, with powerful might.](Emphases added).
The identification of the "sons of God" ( filii dei) of Genesis 6: 1-2 with the Fallen Angels in I Enoch 6-7 was accepted by many Church Fathers, including Cyprian and Ambrose. 41Although Genesis A does not make this link with the Fallen Angels explicit, the poem's account of the Cain-Flood narrative is presented within a pattern of conflict between a wrathful God and sin that has its origins in Lucifer's revolt.Indeed, the poem begins not with Creation but with an elaborate treatment of the Fall of Angels (ll.1-102).
In this opening section, God is introduced as a mighty ruler, maegena sped ("abundant in powers", l. 3b), soð-faest and swið-feorm ("righteous and potent", l. 9a), dwelling in heaven with the angels in glēam and drēam ("rejoicing and happiness", l. 11b) and beorhte blisse ("bright bliss", l. 14a), before Lucifer arrogantly (for ofer-hygde, l. 22b) presumes to possess his own throne in heaven. 42In response to Lucifer's revolt, God's initial sorrow (sar, l. 28b) soon turns to wrath: Despite the prominence given to this motif in Genesis A, God's wrath towards Lucifer and the Rebel Angels is not emphasised in the major scriptural and apocryphal accounts of the Fall of the Angels, 44 or in influential patristic interpretations of this event, such as Gregory's Homilia in Evangelia 34 (on Luke 15: 1-10) and Isidore's Sententiae 1.10. 45Nor is the wrath of God a major theme in AElfric's various treatments of the Fall of the Angels, save for the first of his Catholic Homilies Series 1 (De initio creaturae), a text which, as Michael Fox notes, may well be influenced by Genesis A. 46 However, as we have seen, the Beowulfpoet shares with the author of Genesis A this conception of a vengeful and wrathful God, particularly in his treatment of Grendel and the race of Cain.
The identification of Grendel with the devil or devils is continually emphasised by the narrator's use of a range of demonic epithets including fēond mancynnes / mancynnes fēond ("the enemy of mankind", ll.164b, 1276a), fēond on helle ("enemy in hell", l. 101b), helle haefta ("hell's captive", l. 788a), helle gāst ("hellish spirit", l. 1274a) and fyrena hyrde ("protector of crimes", l. 750b). 47Just as the Rebel Angels in Genesis A are motivated in their revolt by envy and pride of God (aefst ond oferhygd, l. 29a), so Grendel, enraged by the sounds of rejoicing in Heorot (ll.88-89a), is in conflict not only with the Danes but with righteousness itself (wið rihte wan, l. 144b) description of Creation in Genesis A ll. 97b-168.On the Beowulf-poet's deliberate merging of the biblical and secular narratives here, see Godden,"Biblical Literature", Grendel is referred to by the narrator as a syn-scaðan ("sinful attacker", l. 801b) during the battle in Heorot.44 Cf. Isiah 14: 12-15; Luke 10: 18; Matthew 25: 41; 2 Peter 2: 4; Jude 1: 6; Revelation 12: 7-9.Lucifer's envious fury towards humankind after Creation is briefly mentioned in Avitus' Spiritual History, a fifth-century poetic paraphrase of the Genesis widely studied in early medieval England: Vidit ut itse novos homines in sede quieta/ ducere felicem nullo discrimine vitam,/ lege sub accepta famulo dominarier orbi/ subiectisque frui placida inter gaudia rebus,/ commovit subitum zeli scintilla vaporem/ excrevitque calens in saeva incendia livor (I, ll.77-82) ("But when he [Lucifer] saw the new humankind spending a happy life in a peaceful abode, free from all peril with authorization to lord it over the world their servant and to enjoy with untroubled pleasure subservient nature, a spark of jealousy roused instantaneous heat, and the warmth of his envy grew into a savage conflagration" (Roberts, 34-7).However, Avitus does not emphasise God's wrath in his account of the Fall of the Angels.45 See Hönncher, "Über die quellen der angelsächsischen Genesis", 42. Höncher (42) also connects the list of angels' names in the opening section of Genesis A to Gregory's Morals on the Book of Job XXXII.23.For further discussion of the background to this passage, see the commentary in Doane, Genesis A, 290.For connections between Gregorian demonology and Beowulf, see Johnson, "Gregorian Grendel"; and Leneghan, "Haunting of Heorot".46 Fox, "AElfric and the Creation and Fall of the Angels", 197.Cf.AElfric, Catholic Homilies: The First Series, ed.Clemoes (I.1.36-7):Ðaða hi ealle haefdon þysne raed betwux him gefaestnod, þa becom Godes grama ofer hi ealle, and hi ealle wurdon awende of þam faegeran hiwe, þe hi on gesceapene waeron, to laðlicum deoflum ("When they all had confirmed this counsel among themselves, then God's wrath came over them all, and they were all turned from the fair form in which they were created to loathly devils").Fox concludes: "The presentation of God's anger contains no verbal parallels [with Genesis A], but is again, in the context of the fall of the angels, a detail for which I have been able to find no other source" (198).47 Cf.Tolkien, "Monsters and the Critics"; Klaeber's Beowulf, p. lxxvii; Leneghan, "Beowulf and the Hunt"; and Leneghan, "Haunting of Heorot".Hrothgar appears to share the narrator's view that Grendel is a demonic spirit of possession, describing him as eald-gewinna ingenga mīn ("ancient enemy, my invader", l. 1776).
and God (he fāg wið God, l. 811b).Grendel's rage as he approaches Heorot (rēoc ond rēþe, "savage and furious", l. 122a) is mirrored by the anger of the Rebel Angels towards God in Genesis A (reðe mode, "furious minded", l. 47b). 48Finally, the epithet Godes andsaca[n] ("God's adversary"), twice applied to Grendel (ll.786b, 1682b), is also used frequently in Old English biblical poetry to describe the revolt of Lucifer and the Rebel Angels before Creation. 49In the next section, I will demonstrate how God's vengeful wrath towards Grendel is made manifest through the presentation of the hero as a righteous avenger.

Beowulf the Righteous Avenger
In both the Old and New Testaments, God repeatedly avenges those who incur his wrath. 50St Paul describes the figure of the righteous avenger of God who is appointed to uphold the law: 51 Dei enim minister est tibi in bonum si autem male feceris time non enim sine causa gladium portat Dei enim minister est vindex in iram ei qui malum agit.
(For he is God's minister to thee, for good.But if thou do that which is evil, fear: for he beareth not the sword in vain.For he is God's minister: an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil.)(Romans 13: 4) Although Beowulf is not an appointed authority of the law, he nonetheless enforces the societal rules governing hospitality and vengeance that Grendel and Grendel's mother openly flaunt. 52Indeed, just as Beowulf is repeatedly referred to as se gōda ("the good one", e.g., ll.205a, 675a, 758a, 1190b, 1518a), so Grendel is consistently presented as both a perpetrator and protector of crimes (e.g., ll.100b-01, 136-37, 164-66a, 274-77a, 750b, 811a), as well as an unrighteous lawbreaker (wið rihte wan, "he contended against right", l. 144b) whose Cainite ancestors fought against God for a long time (wið Gode wunnon / lange þrāge, ll.133b-34a). 53Instead of settling his longstanding feud with the Danes through the established practice of wergild, Grendel commits himself to continual violence (ll.152b-58).While violence and vengeance were permitted under certain circumstances in early medieval English law, both Grendel and Grendel's mother conduct their attacks under cover of darkness in breach of accepted legal 48 The fury of Lucifer and the Rebel Angels is given more extensive treatment in Genesis B. 49 For example, Christ and Satan ll.191a, 268b, 279b, 717b.The same term is used to describe the demon sent by Lucifer to tempt Eve in Genesis B (l. 442a) and those condemned on Judgement Day in Christ III (l.1593a). 50For example, Ps. 93: 1: Deus ultionum Dominus; Deus ultionum libere egit ("The Lord is the God to whom revenge belongeth: the God of revenge hath acted freely"); Romans 12: 19: non vosmet ipsos defendentes carissimi sed date locum irae scriptum est enim mihi vindictam ego retribuam dicit Dominus ("Revenge not yourselves, my dearly beloved; but give place unto wrath, for it is written: Revenge is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord"). 51For references to the concept of the avenger of blood who is charged with executing murderers under Mosaic Law, see for example, Genesis 9: 5-6; Numbers 35: 19, 26-27; Deuteronomy 19: 11-12.Examples include Gideon (Judges 8: 18-21) and Joab (2 Samuel 3: 27-30), both of whom legitimately avenge their murdered brothers. 52See Michelet, "Hospitality, Hostility, and Peacemaking in Beowulf".On Grendel's eating of Hondscioh (ll.739-45a) as "an evil travesty of hall custom and ritual", see Magennis, Anglo-Saxon Appetites, 24-5.On Beowulf as "God's agent of revenge", see Gwara,Heroic Identity,48. 53 Grendel's refusal to abide by legal and societal norms might also account for the narrator's statement that he was not allowed to approach the gif-stōl in Heorot (ll.168-69).See Chaney, "Grendel and the Gifstol"; and Leneghan, Dynastic Drama, 162-76.On Grendel's cannibalism as an act of blasphemy, see Orchard, Pride and Prodigies, 63; and Carlson, "Grendel's Eucharist: An Outlaw's Last Supper".
practice. 54Beowulf, by contrast, uses violence against these two lawbreakers in a manner which is both legitimate and righteous. 55he main weapon which Beowulf uses to avenge the unrighteous monsters is his famous God-given mund-gripe ("hand-grip", ll.380b, 753a, 965a, 1534a).In the account of the Fall of the Angels in Genesis A, God's wrath is similarly given expression in the might of His hands: 56 and his torn gewraec on gesacum swīðe selfes mīhtum strēngum stīepe haefde styrne mod gegremed grymme, grap on wraðe faum folmum and him on faeðm gebraec 57 yrre on mode (Genesis A, ll.58b-63a) [and He vehemently avenged his injury on his enemies through his own powers with a forceful unseating.He had a stern mind, angrily enraged, he gripped in wrath with hostile hands and crushed them in his grasp, angry in mind.](Emphases added).
These parallels with Old English biblical poetry lend support to an interpretation of Beowulf's mighty hand-grip not as a sign of his monstrosity but as a manifestation of the wrath of God.Indeed, the narrator repeatedly emphasises that Beowulf's physical strength is in alignment with the might of God.For example, after years of Grendel's attacks, the Danes expect another night of terror before God brings about a change in their fortunes in the figure of the mighty Beowulf: Ac him dryhten forgeaf wig-spēda gewiofu, Wedera lēodum, frōfor ond fultum, þaet hīe fēond heora ðurh ānes craeft ealle ofercōmon, selfes mihtum.
Sōð is gecȳþed þaet mihtig God manna cynnes wēold wide-ferhð (Beowulf, ll.696b-702a)   [But the Lord had given them (i.e., the Danes) the fortune of war-victory, to the people of the Weders, consolation and comfort, so that they completely overcame their enemy through one man's skill, through his own might.The truth is made known that Mighty God has ruled mankind with a broad spirit.](Emphases added).
54 See Lockett, "The Role of Grendel's Arm in Feud, Law, and the Narrative Strategy of Beowulf".On sanctioned violence, see Niles, "The Myth of the Feud in Anglo-Saxon England".;"Choosing the Avenger: Some Aspects of the Bloodfeud in Medieval Iceland and England"; and O'Brien O'Keeffe, "Body and Law in Late Anglo-Saxon England". 55For the argument that Beowulf's first fight, with Grendel, is legal but that his second violates the mund ("protection") of Grendel's mother because he attacks her in her own hall, see Day, "Hands across the Hall: The Legalities of Beowulf's Fight with Grendel".However, the evidence presented above would suggest that the poet went to lengths to assure his audience that Beowulf is acting in accordance with righteousness in his fight with Grendel's mother.For a discussion of how saints' actions and emotions are in synergy with God in the Old English translation of Gregory's Dialogi, see the contribution by Alice Jorgensen to this special edition. 56Klaeber ("Die ältere Genesis und der Beowulf", 324) and Orchard (Critical Companion, 167) note a further verbal parallel between the formulaic praise of Beowulf's strength (se waes mon-cynnes maegenes strengest / on þaem daege þysses lifes, ll.196-97; se þe manna waes maegene strengest / on þaem daege þysses līfes, "he (who) was the strongest in might of man (kind) in those days of this life", ll.789-90 and the description of the giant Nimrod in Genesis A: þaet hē mon-cynnes maeste haefde/ on þām mael-dagum maegen and strengo ("that he had the greatest might and strength of mankind in those days", ll.1631-32). 57Cf.Beowulf's killing of the Frankish warrior, Daeghrefn with his bare hands: ac him hilde-grãp heortan wylmas/ ban-hūs gebraec ("but my battle-grip broke the surging of his heart, broke his bone-house", ll.2507-08a).
(Beowulf, ll.1269-74a) [There the awesome one grappled with him; yet he remembered his mighty strength, the generous gift that God had given him, and trusted in the mercy of the Single-Ruler, consolation and comfort; then he overcame the enemy, laid low the hellish spirit.](Emphases added).
On learning of Beowulf's arrival among the Danes, Hrothgar expresses his wish that the Geat has been sent by holy God out of mercy (ll.381b-82a: hālig God/ for ār-stafum) to combat Grendel's terror.After the defeat of Grendel, Hrothgar announces that Beowulf's victory was achieved þurh drihtnes miht ("through the Lord's might", l. 940a). 58The poet thereby makes it clear that Beowulf is as an agent of righteousness sent by God to combat a demonic foe with his mighty handgrip. 59eowulf also shares with Genesis A and other Old English biblical poems the conception of a wrathful God who pays back those who oppose him with fierce blows.For example, while in Genesis A God angrily rewards the Rebel Angels for their presumption (him þaes grim lean becom, "an angry reward befell them for that", l. 46b), so in Beowulf God pays back the Cainite race of giants who contested against Him (hē him ðaes lean forgeald, "He paid them back for that", l. 114b).The punishment which Beowulf metes out to Grendel in the underwater hall is in turn aligned with God's vengeful requital of the giants (ac hē hraðe wolde / Grendle forgyldan, "but he quickly wished to pay back Grendel", ll.1576b-77a; Hē him þaes lean forgeald, l. 1584b).Significantly, it is in the fight with Grendel's mother-a scenario in which the hero's actions might appear most ambivalent-that Beowulf's role as a righteous avenger of God is made most clear.
After Unferth's loaned sword breaks, Beowulf is forced to place his trust solely in his strength.As in the fight with Grendel, the hero's anger is again to the fore (yrre, l. 1532a; gebolgen, l. 1539b).Just as all seems lost, God miraculously intervenes by granting Beowulf sight of a marvellous sword among the treasures piled up in the cave: sige-ēadig bil, eald-sweord eotenisc ecgum þȳhtig wigena weorðmynd; þaet waes waepna cyst (Beowulf, ll.1557b-59) [a victory-blessed blade, ancient giant's sword mighty in edges, honoured among warriors; that was the best of weapons.] Beowulf's elect status is demonstrated by the fact that he alone among all men has the strength to grasp this mighty blade.As in the fight with Grendel, Beowulf's anger is foregrounded as hrēoh ond heoro-grim ("fierce and sword-angry", l. 1564a) he yrringa slōh ("he angrily struck", l. 1565b) at Grendel's mother's neck. 60Having decapitated her with the sword, Beowulf proceeds yrre and an-raed […] rēþe cempa ("angry and resolute […] furious warrior", ll.1575, 1585a) to reward the prostrate and mortally wounded Grendel in the same manner with a heorosweng heardne ("fierce battle-blow", l. 1590a).These verbal echoes of God's wrathful punishment of the giants confirm Beowulf's role in the underwater hall as a righteous avenger.
The Giants' Sword-Hilt and the Fall of the Angels According to the Fall of the Angels tradition, the first inhabitants of hell were Lucifer and his Fallen Angels.In Beowulf, just as the Grendelkin are consistently connected with demons, so their underwater habitation is associated with hell and its inhabitants: hence, for example, Grendel flees from Heorot mortally wounded secan dēofla gedraeg ("to seek the tumult of devils", l. 756a), wynlēas wīc ("joyless abode", l. 821a) þaer him hel onfēng ("where hell received him", l. 852b).Links between the two descriptions of the haunted mere (ll.1355b-65, 1408-17) and the Visio Pauli's account of the entrance to hell are well-documented, and scholars have detected echoes of the Harrowing of Hell and baptism in the hero's victorious descent into and return from the mere. 61The Grendelkin's demonic nature is emphasised in the narrator's account of Beowulf presenting the hilt of the giants' sword to Hrothgar: 62  (Beowulf, ll.1677-83)   [Then the golden hilt was given into the hands of the old warrior, the grey battle-leader, ancient work of giants; it came into the possession of the lord of the Danes after the fall of devils, work of wondrous smiths, and he departed from this world, hostile-minded man, God's adversary, guilty of murder, and his mother too.](Emphases added).
In referring to their deaths as dēofla hryre (l.1680b), the poet appears to allude to the Fall of the Angels. 63Indeed, AElfric uses identical wording to describe the fall of Lucifer and the Rebel Angels in De creatore et creatura: <aefter> ðaera deofla hryre þe heora Drihten forleton/ and of heofenum <afeollon into> hellewite ("after the fall of the devils who abandoned their lord and plunged from heaven into hell-torture"). 64Moreover, as we have 60 Compare the account in Exodus of how God/Moses struck (slōh) the Egyptians in Red Sea (ll.485-86). 61See, for example, Anlezark, Water and Fire, 317-33; Cabbanis, "Beowulf and the Liturgy". 62On plunder and the destruction of weapons and corpses in the poem, see Leneghan, "Dishonouring the Dead". 63Köberl, "The Magic Sword in Beowulf", 124; Stanley, "Wonder-Smiths and Others", 293. 64Text and translation from Kleist and Upchurch, II, 722-23, ll.108-09.The editors note that this passage is an expansion of AElfric's Hexameron which reads afeoll se deofol of ðaere healican heofonan mid his gegadum for his uppafednysse into hellewite ("the devil fell from high heaven with his companions for his presumption into the punishment of hell") (Kleist and Upchurch, II, 740-41).See further Fox, "AElfric on the Creation and Fall of the Angels".AElfric uses similar wording to refer to the same event elsewhere, e.g., Catholic Homilies I, "On the Nativity of Our Lord": swa micel swa on heofenum belaf haligra engla aefter þaes deofles hryre ("So great a number [of mankind comes] to the hosts of angels as remained there [in heaven] of holy angels in heaven after the devil's fall"); "On the Annunciation of Mary": Ac him ne ofhreow na seen, the epithet Godes andsaca ("God's adversary", l. 1682b) applied here to Grendel appears in biblical poetry to refer to Lucifer and the Rebel Angels.
The Fall of the Angels may also form part of the mysterious artistic design of the hilt itself which depicts the origins of the conflict between God and the giants:  (Beowulf, ll.1687-98a)   [On that [hilt] was written the origin of the ancient struggle; afterwards 65 the Flood, the rushing of water, struck the kin of giants, they suffered terribly; that was a people hostile to the Eternal Lord; the Ruler gave them a final reward through the welling of water.Also on that (hilt) was inscribed in shining gold in runic letters, righteously marked, set down and said, for whom that sword, the best of irons, was first made, the decorated hilt and serpentine patterns.](Emphases added).
Confirming Beowulf's status as a righteous avenger, the furious blows which he struck (slōh, l. 1565b) against Grendel and Grendel's mother are now aligned with the blow which God struck (ofslōh) against the giants with Great Flood.The inscription on the hilt depicting ōr […] fyrn-gewinnes ("the origin of the ancient struggle", ll.1688b-89a) is usually thought to depict the same Flood. 66However, Klaeber suggested that the subject of the inscription was the monstrous acts of the giants before the Flood, while Dennis Cronan has more recently made the case for Cain's murder of Abel, a biblical episode with the which the poet was evidently much concerned. 67Given the preceding reference to deofla hryre ("the fall of devils", l. 1680b) and Godes andsaca ("God's adversary", l. 1682b), as well as the possible influence of Enochian demonology on the characterisation of Grendel identified above, the poet may also have had in mind the Fall of the Angels.Indeed, the belief that the Fall of the Angels-rather than the Fall of Man, Cain's murder of Abel, or the Flood-was the ultimate origin of evil was widespread in early medieval England.As we have seen, Genesis A is structured around a sequence of conflicts between God and sinners that begins with Lucifer's revolt (ll.1-81).The copy of Genesis A in MS Junius 11 is accompanied by no less than three illustrations of the ðaes deofles hryre ("But He had no pity for the devil's fall").Cf.DOE s.v.hryre: 2.c."referring to Satan and his followers, Adam and Eve, sinners, etc.: a fall from an exalted position, from grace, heaven, etc., a descent into hell (on? and acc.)." 65 For the adverbial use of syðþan in the sense of "afterwards, then", compare, for example, Beowulf l. 470: Siððan þā fae  hðe fēo þingode, "Afterwards, I (i.e., Hrothgar) settled that feud with money". 66See, for example, Gwara, Heroic Identity, 181-238; Anlezark, Water and Fire, 293, 329-30.On the question as to whether Hrothgar understands the inscription, see Cronan, "Hroðgar and the gylden hilt in Beowulf". 67Klaeber, Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, 189; Cronan, "The Origin of Ancient Strife in Beowulf".Cain's murder of Abel is described twice in the poem, at lines 106-14 and 1264-66a.Melinkoff comments that Peter Clemoes, in a personal communication, also believed that Cain's murder of Abel was the most likely subject of the inscription, on that grounds that Genesis A (ll. 987-95a) attributes the origin of misery to this same act ("Cain's monstrous progeny in Beowulf, part I, Noachic tradition", 148 n. 5).
Fall of the Angels, including a full-page image. 68The final item in Junius 11 is the homiletic poem Christ and Satan, in which the Fall of the Angels serves a recurring motif linking temporally disparate moments of salvation history from Creation, Christ's Temptation in the Desert and the Harrowing of Hell to Judgement Day. 69The sequence of illustrations in the eleventh-century Old English Illustrated Hexateuch opens with the Fall of the Angels (fol. 2 r ) rather than Creation, 70 while David F. Johnson has found evidence for the belief that sin originated with the Fall of the Angels prior to Creation in late Anglo-Saxon charters. 71urther evidence for the widespread belief that the Fall of the Angels was considered the true origin of evil in this period is provided by Old English poetry and prose.For example, in Andreas the saint declares that the devil's fall from heaven was the origin of evil: þaēr waes yfles ōr ("there was the origin of evil", l. 1382b). 72In Elene, Judas refers to Lucifer in his fallen state as ealre synne fruma ("the origin of all sin", l. 771a), while in Solomon and Saturn II Solomon's elaborate description of the Fall of the Angels (ll.272-97) is prompted by the pagan Saturn's inquiry as to why fate (wyrd, l. 265b), eallra fyrena fruma ("the beginning of all torments", l. 266a), accuses mankind. 73Finally, in the Old English Pastoral Care (III.41)the devil's pride (ofermedu) is described as fruma ures forlores ("the cause of our fall"). 74Combined with the evidence from visual culture discussed above, these literary examples demonstrate the extent to which the Fall of the Angels was regarded as the ultimate origin of the struggle between God and sin in early medieval England. 75he possibility that the Fall of Angels was part of the biblical imagery on the hilt increases when we consider that Hrothgar, having examined (sceawode, l. 1687b) it, goes on to deliver his "sermon" in which he warns Beowulf to avoid the sin of pride (ofer-hygd, ll.1740b, 1760b) and the arrows of the "slayer" (bona, l. 1743b). 76In the Exeter Book poem Vainglory, the devil's arrows (ll.27, 34b-35a, 37b-38a) and the flourishing of pride (ofer-hygd) in men's souls (ll.52-53) are linked with the Fall of the Angels (ll.57-66).As we have seen, the Genesis A-poet uses the term ofer-hygd to describe the pride of Lucifer and his rebel Angels (ll.22b, 29a, 66a).Similarly, in Genesis B, the cause of the Fall of the Angels is described as result of engles ofer-hȳgd ("the angel's pride", l. 328a), while Blickling Homily XVI (Holy Thursday) refers to Augustine's doctrine of replacement, in which humankind will occupy Ða setl ðe deofol for his oforhygdum of aworpen waes ("the throne from which the devil, because of his pride, had been cast down"). 77The Fall of the Angels thus provides a compelling new context for the fight in the mere, linking the inscription on the sword-hilt with Hrothgar's subsequent "sermon" on the dangers of pride and reinforcing the impression that Beowulf is a righteous avenger who visits God's wrath upon demons.

Conclusion
This article has argued that Beowulf's anger is not simply furor heroicus or a sign of his monstrous or sinful nature but also a manifestation of the wrath of God.Like the authors of the Old English biblical epics, the Beowulf-poet appears to have been influenced by the Enochian tradition in which the origin of the antediluvian giants and evil spirits was traced back to the Fall of the Angels.Grendel incurs God's wrath in the form of Beowulf because he is a member of this cursed race of giants.In fashioning the hero, the poet transformed the folktale figure of an angry monster-slayer into a righteous vanquisher of demons.As well as informing the characterisation of Grendel as a demonic inhabitant of hell and enemy of God, the Fall of the Angels may also have formed part of the artistic design of the giants' sword-hilt which inspires Hrothgar's "sermon".
In analysing connections between Beowulf's anger and the wrath of God, this article has focused on the hero's first two monster fights as it is here that biblical themes are most pronounced.The fights with Grendel and Grendel's mother are indebted to a folktale tradition in which a hero fights male and female trolls, usually in a hall and an underwater setting, whereas the dragon-fight seems to be modelled at least in part on legends such as the tale of Sigemund recited by the Danish court poet (ll.874-97).Only in Beowulf do we find a hero's fights with a pair of troll-like adversaries combined with a dragon-fight.In their geographical and temporal settings, the Grendel fights stand apart from the dragon-fight, which lacks any of the direct references to biblical story that characterise the preceding combats.The Fall of the Angels may provide a missing link between these two episodes.In Christian tradition, the war between God and the devil which had begun with Lucifer's revolt will culminate in the Book of Revelation 12: 7-9, when St Michael and his angels will defeat the great dragon Satan, together with his Rebel Angels. 78Christine Rauer has highlighted how Beowulf's final battle has more in common with the dragon-slaying exploits of early medieval saints, in particular 77 Blickling Homilies, ed.Morris, I, 120-21.Cf.I Tim.3.6: Non neophytum: ne in superbiam elatus, in judicium incidat diaboli ("Not a neophyte: lest, being puffed up with pride, he fall into the judgment of the devil"). 78For a recent discussion of the association of the devil with dragons in this period, see Di Sciacca, "Feeding the Dragon".
The Old English homily In laudem Sancti Michaelis in Cambridge Corpus Christ MS 41 (early eleventh century) makes the link between Michael's defeat of the dragon (OE draca) Satan on Judgement Day and the Fall of the Angels explicit: Þis is se halga heahengel Sanctus Michael se ðe aer ðisse worulde ende ofslihð þone ealdan feond þaet is se micla draca se ðe aet frymðe middangardes gesceapen waes to ðam beorhtestan engle ("This is the holy archangel St Michael who before the end of the world will slay the ancient enemy that is the great serpent who at the creation of the earth was created brightest of the angels").Text and translation from Three Homilies from Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 41, ed.Grant.
St Samson of Dol and St Michael, than with equivalent Germanic or classical legends. 79ut unlike these Christian heroes, Beowulf's defeat of the draca does not bring about the salvation or conversion of his people.With their great lord who had protected them from their enemies for fifty years now dead, the Geats fear a time of invasion and captivity (ll.2911-3027, 3078-79, 3150-55a).This foreboding atmosphere at the poem's close led Tolkien and Ursula Dronke to detect traces of the Norse myth of Ragnarök. 80Beowulf's dragon-fight might therefore be said to hark back to the defeat of the pagan gods while simultaneously anticipating St Michael's victory over the great dragon Satan on Judgement Day.Read in the light of the Fall of the Angels tradition, Beowulf's youthful victories over the race of Cain and his fatal struggle with the dragon can both be viewed as episodes in the fyrn-gewin ("ancient conflict") that originated with Lucifer's rebellious pride and will continue until the final Day of Wrath. 81

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Indeed, the hell-ravager readily knew that they should have God's wrath and hell's torment, necessarily receive the strict enmity, after they had shattered God's commandment.](Emphasesadded).38God'svengeful displeasure with Grendel and all his kin has already been established in the narrator's account of his Cainite ancestry: [They had God's wrath, bitter deadly sorrow].[sinceHe had condemned him in Cain's kin-the Eternal Lord avenged that killing, for when he killed Abel; he (i.e., Cain) had no cause to rejoice in that feud, but He banished him afar, the Measurer, for that crime, away from mankind.Thence were born all the cursed races, ogres and elves and orcs, such giants who contended against God for a long time; He gave them requital for that.](Emphases added).
The Genesis A-poet further embellishes the biblical source by placing extra emphasis on God's anger with the race of giants: Then God became angry and wrathful towards that army[…].Then he became enraged, struck down the sinful-attackers from victory and power, from glory and prosperity, and deprived his enemy of joy].