(1279-1287) “She came to Heorot…Her onslaught was less only by as much as an Amazon warriors strength is less than an armed man’s…its hammered edge and gleaming blade slathered in blood, razes the sturdy boar-ridge off a helmet.”
Beowulf’s 2nd battle is supposed to be more difficult then his first (grendel). However it turns out that Grendel’s mother is weaker then Grendel. Even so, in this passage, the narrator is reminding us just how vicious and still unbelievabley strong she is. In the passage she is compared to an Amazon, which relates to female warriors (in greek mythology). So there is an idea here that it was harder to fight Grendel because he was like fighting a male warrior whereas fighting Grendel’s mom was obviously like fighting a female warrior. Even though she is a girl, I don’t think her gender plays a part in her slaughtering at the end of this passage.
She is extracting the "wergild" and taking back her son's arm. She's enraged. The only part that plays into the "female" vs "male" here is that in this culture women were not suppose to extract "wergild" - this, in part, makes her a monster. Only an exile can act out of their assumed role.
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