Muse

Character Role Analysis

Wealtheow

The Shaper can't have it all his own way; there has to be someone else who moves Grendel. And there is: from the moment Miss Wealtheow steps foot into the Scylding's meadhall, Grendel is thrown into a spasm of angst from which he never recovers. She torments him horribly: how can something so good and bright and beautiful belong to those nasty humans? How can one human bear to give up someone like Wealtheow to another who is so clearly inferior?

Wealtheow brings awakens feelings that our poor monster would be better off without. Yes, we're talking about love and sex here, but it's something even more than that. Wealtheow represents everything that might be good and beautiful in life—everything that Grendel is not, and everything that Grendel can't have.

She does, however, give Grendel evidence against the cynicism of the dragon (at least for a little while), so we have to give her props for that.