Wealtheow Timeline and Summary

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• Wealtheow appears in the second year of Grendel's raiding at Hrothgar's meadhall, bartered by her brother, Hygmod, to keep the peace between the two kingdoms.
• Wealtheow is beautiful and young. Hrothgar can't refuse her, but her people can't stand letting her go—there is much weeping and gnashing of teeth as she leaves them.
• Wealtheow settles down and takes up her job as queen and mead bowl-bearer. She stops the drunken brawls between thanes and generally keeps the peace. Her new peeps love her.
• Even the Shaper is changed by Wealtheow's presence. He begins to make songs about beauty and comfort.
• Wealtheow intervenes between Unferth and the spiteful tongues of his companions, who tease him about killing his own brothers. With a word, she puts an end to the tension and absolves Unferth.
• Grendel hates this and feels jealousy rising in him.
• Grendel watches Wealtheow and realizes that she is not blessed with secret reserves of happiness. She, too, suffers, but she wears her queenly mask really well. Inside, she's homesick.
• Wealtheow gets one visit from her brother Hygmod that first winter. They laugh and talk, and she acts like herself for the first time since her arrival.
• Wealtheow's brother sings for her, and she is moved by the sorrowful tale.
• Grendel is so enraged by the whole situation—the queen's sorrow, the stupidity of the men—that he decides to kill Wealtheow... because logic. He storms the meadhall and grabs the queen by her legs.
• Grendel swears he will kill Wealtheow in a horrible way, but just as quickly, he changes his mind.
• Grendel lets the queen go, but he's been cured of his idolizing (apparently, he's seen more of the female anatomy than he bargained for).
• Some time later, Wealtheow welcomes her orphaned nephew-in-law, Hrothulf, to the meadhall. (Grendel scripts this as a play.)
• It's clear that Wealtheow's eager to please Hrothulf and encourage brotherly affection toward her babies so that Hrothulf won't want to get them out of the way.
• When the Stranger arrives at the meadhall, Queen Wealtheow works in her official capacity as peace-weaver and offers the hero some drink.
• Wealtheow praises the Stranger and thanks the gods that she's finally found a real hero to help them out.
• But Wealtheow's relief quickly turns to alarm when she overhears her half-drunk husband say that the Stranger is like a son to him. Like he doesn't already have three too many.