Beowulf’s Hair-Pull: A Tangled History

Editions and translations of Beowulf differ as to whether the hero, fighting for his life, grabs Grendel’s mother by her hair or by her shoulder. The present article reconsiders the legacy of this textual crux and contends that metrical, narrative, and folkloric considerations support the emendation of the manuscript reading eaxle (‘shoulder’) to feaxe (‘hair’). The article argues that the immediate context of the passage supports an interpretation in which Beowulf, in a state of desperation, temporarily deviated from his professed aim to fight in an honourable manner and resorted to the transgressive manoeuvre of hair-pulling. Passages concerning hair-pulling in Old English, Old Norse, and Middle High German are adduced to corroborate this interpretation and elucidate the implications of the scene in Beowulf.