Unferth Timeline and Summary

•  Back
• More 

• Grendel encounters Unferth and his annoying ideas about heroism during his first raid at Hart. 
• Unferth challenges Grendel. He's totally grandstanding, and it's mostly talk. 
• It doesn't take long before Unferth realizes he can understand Grendel's speech. 
• Grendel decides to take Unferth down a peg or two by pelting him with conveniently located apples. 
• Unferth follows Grendel back to the monster's underwater lair. He figures that after his humiliation in the apple fight at the meadhall, he'd better at least lose a limb in a "heroic fight." 
• It occurs to Grendel that this ridiculous thane is trying to commit suicide. 
• Unferth isn't going to go quietly. He goes on and on about what it means to be heroic. 
• Grendel decides he's not going to eat Unferth, after all. He's going to humiliate him further by returning him to Hrothgar unharmed—without a chance to become a hero. 
• From that point on, Unferth is poisoned by the bitterness of this disappointment. 
• Grendel observes this change in attitude when he sees Unferth at Hrothgar's side in the exchange of Wealtheow. His bitterness is "like darkness made visible" (97). 
• But things begin to look up with the coming of Wealtheow. 
• When his fellow thanes begin to taunt him about the fact that he killed his brother, Wealtheow intervenes and tells the boys to knock it off. The tension lifts, for a time. 
• Unferth gets one last chance at heroism—when Grendel comes for the Queen—but he's slapped aside like a pup. 
• Still, Grendel considers Unferth as one of the strong, one of those who ignore religion. 
• When Beowulf arrives, Unferth sees it as a great opportunity to turn the tables and taunt somebody else about the stupid things done in youth.  
• Unferth teases Beowulf about his swimming match with Breca. He tells Beowulf that Grendel will eat him up in one gulp. This doesn't go over well. 
• Beowulf more than convinces the crowd of his greatness—and then reopens the wound of Unferth's evil deeds. 
• Unferth is basically slapped back in his place, and he never really recovers. He leaves the meadhall in tears.