Grendel’s Mother in the context of the myth of the Woman in the Water

Master's thesis by Charlotte Elizabeth Ball, courtesy of Medievalists.net. "This thesis proposes that the character of Grendel’s mother in Beowulf is a manifestation of a mythic type, derived from studies of European goddess figures and named here as the Woman in the Water. This myth takes the form of an inherent association between femininity and water, and connotes the binary oppositions of birth and death, creativity and destruction, and the overarching themes of chaos and transience." The full thesis, submitted to the University of Birmingham, may be read here.