Beowulf: Grendel's Mother's Revenge

Beowulf (from which these pieces are taken) is an attempt to retell the famous Anglo-Saxon story of brutal heroism as a series of visual poems. My famous source material requires a radical re-imagining if its strange story and stranger monsters are to return to fierce life for the reader in 2026; there is a risk that the elements of its narrative will be perceived as museum pieces, quaint oddities deserving no more than an indulgent shudder. Visual poetry, using a combination of traditional, physical materials and new technologies, has given me an opportunity at radical resurrection.

The pieces excerpted here are two diptychs, depicting part of Beowulf’s climactic battle with the dragon, towards the end of the poem. The dragon is associated with capital (its hoard) and fiery destruction of a rural environment, so it wasn’t a big leap to see is as a symbol of industrialisation. Ageing Beowulf, adept at roaming empty landscapes, killing ancient entities made of flesh and blood, is finally bested by the harsh modern word. In my version of the tale, the dragon is collaged from public domain photographs of the machinery of World War I, principally tanks, armoured cars and artillery. It was important to me that no single panel would contain the entire dragon: its immensity is terrifying. Beowulf’s legendary sword fails him in combat; here, the sword is made of words: words fail the old hero, as traditional discourse is swept away by the violent advances of progress.