Grendel

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A monstrous man-eating creature from the Old English epic Beowulf who terrorizes the great hall Heorot
2. The fearsome descendant of Cain in the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, a giant that raids a mead hall at night
3. In the Old English epic Beowulf, a huge, savage monster that attacks the Danish king's hall until the hero slays it

Etymology: Grendel is the name of the monster in the Old English poem "Beowulf," a creature who raids the hall of the Danish king Hrothgar and is eventually killed by the hero. The name was borrowed into modern English from that Old English form, so the word today usually refers to the monster itself rather than to anything else. Within the poem the monster is a terrifying outsider, a descendant of Cain who haunts the marshes and devours the warriors who sleep in the great hall. Because "Beowulf" survives in a single manuscript, the name appears in the text as the poem's own, not as a word with a wider meaning in ordinary speech. Its appeal to later readers lies in the figure it names rather than in any figurative sense the word developed.