Beowulf | Chapter XVIII - Page 2
“Then, ready and eager for vengeance, Grendel's mother set woefully forth. Her son was dead by the war-hate of the Geats; now this monstrous women slew a foe in her fury to avenge her offspring. Life departed from old Æschere, the loyal counselor. When morning broke, those Danish people could do nothing for him; they could not consume the lifeless man with flame and set the man they mourned upon the funeral pyre, for she had carried the corpse in her cruel claws beneath the mountain stream. Of all the griefs that had long beset the lord of his folk, this was the most bitter for Hrothgar. The leader, sad in his soul, then beseeched me—by your leave—to hazard life in the rush of waters, thereby testing valor and gaining renown. He pledged me compensation. It is widely known that I then found that savage guardian of the lake bottom in the waters. There we wrestled in hand-to-hand combat for a while; the waves welled with blood, and in that briny hall I hewed the head from Grendel's mother with a stout blade—thereby gaining my life, though not without danger. My doom had not yet come. Then that haven for heroes, Healfdene's son, gave me plentiful and valuable gifts as a reward.
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