ABSTRACT
Feasting is a social event that serves as a locus for the confirmation of a society's relationships and shared values, and this is as true for outlaw societies as it is for the mainstream. Likewise, the value of feasting in general, as a means of confirming social cohesion, sacralizes the event in ways that may reflect the ultimate sacred feast contained in the Christian Eucharist. Beowulf is a text that functions as a treatise on positive social values, and thus it is ironic that there is a little description of feasting therein, given the importance of feasting as a part of the heroic economy. Instead, eating and feasting are reserved for Grendel, one of the most evil and vicious outlaw figures in medieval English literature. Grendel's “feasting” ties together the secular and clerical implications of his marauding, lawless behavior—when the poet notes specifically that Grendel eats the body and drinks the blood of Hondscioh, we are reminded of the Eucharist that underscores the positive value of feasting in general.
