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How does Beowulf kill Grendel's mother?
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Beowulf
Beowulf preparing to cut off the head of the monster Grendel, illustration from Hero-Myths & Legends of the British Race, 1910.
In the Old English poem Beowulf, the hero tracks Grendel's mother to her lair at the bottom of a mere (lake) after she attacks Heorot to avenge her son. During their struggle in her dry cave, Beowulf kills her using a sword. Upon his return to the mead hall, he presents King Hrothgar with the jeweled hilt of that sword, along with the decapitated head of Grendel, whom he also discovers in the cave.12