The author creates Wealhtheow to embody the role of a traditional Anglo Saxon woman. She serves as a peacekeeper in the ever-tumultuous Heorot meadhall. When the author first introduces Wealhtheow she immediately falls into her role as peaceful greeter and cocktail waitress. Upon Wealhtheow’s entrance into the meadhall she “ . . . speaks her peace words. . . steps to the gift throne and fetch[es] to her king the first ale cup” (IX). Wealhtheow then proceeds through the meadhall “offering hall joy to old and to young with rich treasure cups” (IX). W

king. When the queen is not serving drinks or greeting guests, she may usually be found obediently following Hrothgar throughout the meadhall waiting for hope news.

hen Wealhtheow first approaches Beowulf and the Geats, she “ [bears] him a cup . . . with gold gleaming hands [holding] it before him graciously [greeting] the Geats’ war leader” (IX). The author then reinforces that she is a member of the weaker gender by directing Wealththeow to her proper position behind the

between the two monsters is the fact that Beowulf finds Grendel's dead body in his mother's underwater lair. When the author last tells of Grendel, he is fleeing from Heorot with a mortal wound. This leads to two possibilities, either of which proves the existence of a loving mother-son relationship. One possibility is that Grendel uses his final ounce of strength to return to see his mother one last time before dying; alternatively, Grendel's mother may have found his dead body and brought it back to her lair for mourning or to give it a proper burial.

A view of appropriate female roles is also obvious in this story with the presentation of two separate and opposing supernatural forces that strongly influence the plot of Beowulf: a masculine God and a feminine Wyrd, suggesting that feminine forces require suppression. Wyrd is a mysterious force that acts as a kind of fate, bringing the heroes of Beowulf ever closer to misery and death; in contrast, God protects Beowulf and helps him in the battle of "light against darkness" to restore peace and order. Wyrd works to bring disorder and doom to Beowulf and the warriors of Heorot, just as Grendel's mother wages her war of destruction and death on Hrothgar and his kingdom. Beowulf subdues Grendel's mo

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