Afternoon of Alterity - Nazareth College

Magic could not resurrect Grendel to haunt the Danes further,but he still employed magic while alive to defend him from the effectsof weaponry. In Beowulf, the narrator explains that:…no sword,Not the best iron anywhere in the world,Could even touch that evil sinner,For he had worked a curse on weapons,Every sort of blade. (Beowulf 801-805)Grendel uses magic, a sorcery that is not found in Christian theologyor practice, in order to protect him from the onslaught of man-madeweaponry. He twists the rules of fair combat to his own advantage,allowing his enemy to attack him while knowing full well that theweaponry will do him no harm.This magical resistance would have frightened the Danesincredibly, for what use would they be against a monster that couldnot be struck down with the best weapons they had, wielded bythe strongest and most capable warriors? Kieckhefer writes thatmagic is “a cluster of countercultural rituals worked privately forthe magicians’ personal ends” (Kieckhefer 815). While Grendel isnot a conventional “magician,” he is using the elements of magicfor his own benefit and denying the Danes access to a fair fight, asdemanded by their culture.In the context of Grendel using his magic for the powers ofdarkness and ill will, Kieckhefer elaborates that, “In a medievalcontext…demonic magic is itself essentially religious (or perhapsirreligious but at least not nonreligious), while natural magic could beeasily combined with devotional practice” (Kieckhefer 821). Grendelis clearly not implementing “natural magic,” for his maliciousintentions do not coincide with proper, peaceful devotion. Instead,he is employing “demonic magic,” which threatens the concept ofdeanna briscoe 99