Afternoon of Alterity - Nazareth College

to wander in the darkness and the cold, would be a fate worse thandeath. Exacerbating the problem further, “the life of a Christian…was a life of conflict with unseen, malevolent spirits” (Kieckhefer817). Thus, to battle Grendel was to live a Christian life and purifyone’s soul. Conversely, to fall into darkness like Grendel was a lossof one’s faith, and a condemnation to Hell.Life in medieval Denmark would have entailed a struggle forsurvival not just as a Christian against pagan worship, but alsoagainst many other factions: weather, availability of food, andwarring bands of other thanes. To complicate matters further,Grendel strikes the fear of being devoured while alive into thehearts of the Danish people. His cannibalistic tendencies andthirst for human flesh make his monstrosity all the more ghastlyand appalling. This is a very real fear for the Danes, who haveseen loved ones and noble men torn limb from limb and eaten “ingobbets” (Beowulf 743).Bildhauer and Mills argue that, “stories of cannibalismare related to medieval preoccupations with bodily integrity”(Bildhauer and Mills 11). The inherent fear of cannibalism alsolies in the incorporation of one body into another for sustenance(Cohen, “Ruins of Identity” 2), wherein one becomes part ofthe other without being distinguishable from the outside of thebody. This image is quite the opposite of the fear of the birthingprocess, wherein a whole body is extracted from another wholebody, but the principle remains the same. Two bodies existingsimultaneously within one another via ingestion or impregnationare fearful prospects.The actual process of being devoured is also made horrifyinglyreal, and preys upon the very concrete human fear of being injuredor fatally wounded. The fear of still being alive while being ingested isone which is disconcerting to contemplate, but it is a very real threat.Ironically, Grendel experiences this fear of prolonged death afterdeanna briscoe 97