This list of artistic depictions of Grendel's mother (Old English: Grendles modor) refers to the figure of Grendel's mother. She is one of three antagonists (along with Grendel and the dragon) in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf (c. 700-1000 CE); she is never given a name in the text.
Grendel's mother has been adapted in a number of different media, including: film, music, television, literature, graphic novels, and comic books.
Cinema
Layla Roberts portrayed Grendel's mother in Beowulf (1999), a fantasy/science fiction retelling directed by Graham Baker. While some of the film remains true to the original poem, other plot elements deviate from the original poem. She is depicted as a beautiful woman able to turn into a multi-limbed devil-like creature. Her true nature is never revealed, but according to herself, she is an ancient being who had originally lived on the castle's lands. She mates with king Hrothgar to produce Grendel, and later tries to seduce Beowulf as well.
A "mother of the Wendol" appeared in The 13th Warrior (1999), directed by John McTiernan. The film is adapted from Eaters of the Dead, a 1976 novel by Michael Crichton. The novel and film are both reworkings of Beowulf which turn Grendel into cannibalistic hominids called "Wendol" (implied though not said definitively to be Neanderthals in the novel). Here Grendel's mother is the matriarch of the Wendol community, and they make effigies of her which are similar to the Venus of Willendorf.
Elva Ósk Ólafsdóttir portrayed Grendel's mother (referred to and billed as the "Sea Hag") in Beowulf & Grendel (2005), directed by Sturla Gunnarsson. Although some of the film remains true to the original poem, other plot elements deviate from it, including a father and a son for Grendel. In the film, while all the males in Grendel's bloodline look relatively human-like, being possibly Neanderthals as in the McTiernan film, his mother is distinctively less human in appearance.
Angelina Jolie portrayed Grendel's mother in Beowulf (2007), directed by Robert Zemeckis. Her portrayal in this cinematic adaptation deviates from the original poem. As with Layla Robert's portrayal eight years prior, Jolie's character is a shapeshifting "seductress". Her true form, which resembles a golden-scaled amphibian-like creature, is only vaguely glimpsed in the film (but a figure sculpt released shows it in full). She seduces Beowulf by appearing to him in the form of a beautiful naked woman, offering to make him the greatest king who ever lived if he will agree to give her a son to replace Grendel. During the exchange, she demonstrates supernatural powers, first magically avoiding a sword strike by Beowulf and later melting his weapon with her fingers. She later gives birth to a dragon who attacks Beowulf's kingdom, and gives Beowulf a final kiss before his ship sinks into the sea. The film ends ambiguously with the implication that she may attempt to seduce Wiglaf.
Literature
Grendel's mother has appeared in a few works of contemporary literature. Perhaps the most well known appearance is in the 1971 John Gardner novel, Grendel. In this retelling of the Beowulf from Grendel's point of view, Grendel describes his mother as "my pale, slightly glowing, fat mother [...] life-bloated, baffled, long-suffering hag. Guilty, she imagines, of some unremembered, perhaps ancestral crime." He further states later in the text, "she gets up on all fours, brushing dry bits of bone from her path, and with a look of terror, rising as if by unnatural power, she hurls herself across the void and buries me in her bristly fur [...] she smells of wild pig and fish."
Grendel's mother appears in Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton, as the "mother of the Wendol", hominids attacking and eating Hrothgar's people. She is described as resembling a Venus figurine.
Both Grendel and his mother appear in Neil Gaiman's novella The Monarch of the Glen.
Grendel and "Grendel's ma" or "Grendel's mum" are also characters in Suniti Namjoshi's 1993 postmodern collection of feminist fairytales, St Suniti and the Dragon. Consisting of non-sequential poetry and prose, St Suniti and the Dragon focuses on the adventures of St. Suniti, a female saint-in-training. During these adventures, St. Suniti has a number of encounters with Grendel and Grendel's ma.