The author creates Wealhtheow to embody the role o

The author's views on women may never be fully revealed, but it is clear that he believes in male superiority and that insurgent females ought to be suppressed. Like Wealhtheow, females should only exert minimal power and influence, but they should always keep the drinks coming.

The author reinforces this view of appropriate female roles by presenting 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" (l. 73) 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 mother permanently by killing her, but Wyrd can only be avoided temporarily, not destroyed once and for all. This suggests that the struggle against female authority and uprising is timeless, and the only way to deal with this problem is on an individual basis.

Grendel's mother violates the role of traditional Anglo-Saxon female by being powerful and aggressive, but her craftiness makes her a stronger adversary than her son. The main distinction between Wealhtheow and Grendel's mother is that Wealhtheow's influence is much more subtle and nonviolent than that of Grendel's mother. Grendel's mother is a descendant of Cain and "damned to hide in a dark water-home / cold wildwood stream" (ll.1260-1). Being a monster, Grendel's mother possesses "great warrior-strength" (l. 1282); however, since she is female, her strength is "less than her son's as little as a woman's / is weaker in warfare than a weaponed man's" (ll. 1283-4). Grendel's mother begins her attack on Heorot by killing the warrior who "was dearest to Hrothgar / of all warriors in that wide kingdom" (ll. 1296-7). It is possible that Grendel's mother chooses this particular warrior deliberately to inflict the maximum amount of damage on Hrothgar. The next morning, Beowulf follows her tracks back to her underwater lair. Despite her physical shortcomings, Grendel's mother is actually more difficult for Beowulf to defeat th

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