Grendel arrives at the hall (720) and we see that the hall was not left entirely unlocked, but that someone had tried to lock the door. Grendel is stronger, and with a flick of his wrist, he swings the door wide open. The creature from the black mere now steps onto the paved floor of civilization.
The camera shows us the hall through Grendel’s eyes, as “he saw in the hall many a soldier” (728). These are the same men we had just left, chatting and stretching, pulling their bolsters under their heads, but through Grendel’s eyes they look different. To Grendel, this is like a smorgasbord, and he intends to fill several plates with the juicy fresh meat he sees under the heat-lamps. If this were a Looney Tunes show, we might see the sleeping Geats turn into roast turkeys for a moment.
A reader who sees this poem as a primitive, random affair must appreciate fully the dramatic care in the scene. Both sides are represented now, and we know the thoughts of each. Grendel’s thoughts are plain, and we can see him, standing near a cooling fire pit, looking from side to side to choose where to start. No one has yet moved, but the narrator reminds us of a pair of open eyes in the hall. Beowulf is watching Grendel’s every move (736-8), while not moving a hair himself. He intends to measure Grendel’s movements and see how best to come at him. Two are awake in the hall, but only one is aware of both. It only remains for the narrator to bring them together in full awareness and contact.
The contact is sudden and violent. Perhaps Beowulf intended to wait until Grendel had turned his back, but Grendel makes a lightning strike before Beowulf is ready. In one move, Grendel has killed and eaten one of the Geats. Like a film slow motion shot, we see in gory detail as he slits, drinks, bites and swallows the last pieces. Grendel, as a large creature, must take very big bites indeed. Beowulf has not even had time to react. Perhaps he saw instantly that it was too late to save his friend, and that he could only make use of the short time, while the monster was distracted, to make his own plans. In any event, Grendel hardly pauses for breath, and his next victim is a large, meaty-looking fellow who appears to be asleep: Beowulf himself.
The fight is over almost as soon as it has begun. Grendel’s sense of shock, at meeting someone as strong as himself, ends any real struggle for mastery. Grendel’s reeling semi-intelligence can only think of escape from a situation he had considered impossible, unthinkable. Beowulf is immediately master of the hall, and the only question is whether Grendel will be able to pull away, or not. As we know, he finds he cannot.
Beowulf, with the grip of thirty men, is able to hold to him as he thrashes about. Grendel probably picks up anything he can find, to try to smash on Beowulf and loosen his grip. Beowulf, on his side, recalls his boasts and focuses everything he has for the task of not letting go, although his fingers feel like they are breaking (760). We have a brief picture of the flight-pursuit dance, as Grendel moves back, and Beowulf steps forward, Grendel steps outward, Beowulf turns inward (761). The town around Heorot is woken up by the noise, and we can imagine the Geats pressed back into the corners of the hall, trying to avoid the flying benches.
The narrator leaves off giving comic-book style detail of every blow, but wants us to understand that the struggle was so violent that any other hall would have collapsed from the shock. Perhaps the inner pillars have collapsed, splintered from Grendel’s weight suddenly thrown back, to catch Beowulf off balance. Heorot, fortunately, was built with iron reinforcements, vulnerable only to fire. The circle of reaction to the fight spreads until, we learn, the entire neighborhood of the Danes has been wakened by the horrible screams of Grendel. Beowulf is trying to crush the life out of Grendel, and has pinned him fast. The struggle clearly lasted longer than anyone imagined that it would.
The Geats, who knew that Beowulf intended to fight alone, finally begin to draw their swords and take shots at Grendel as they may. Although they are not able to make any dent in Grendel, due to Grendel’s magic curse against weapons, it is important to realize that Beowulf’s intentions are not enough for his men to stand by and see him hurt. He may have vowed to fight Grendel alone, but they have vowed to back him up in any fight. They would not be fulfilling their vows, to let him manage his alone. This is important to remember when later, in a third fight, Beowulf will need back-up help from his thanes, in spite of a vow to fight alone.
The end comes suddenly, as their very souls are matched against each other, hate for hate, life for life, and it seems that it cannot go on any longer. In a desperate move, Grendel pulls away, and leaves his arm behind. Perhaps he has been slowly crushed and wounded; he probably bears internal injuries and several broken bones. His shoulder may be dislocated earlier in the struggle. In any case, in one last screaming tear, his shoulder comes apart. Either Beowulf was only holding his arm at that point, or the sudden severing throws Beowulf off balance. Grendel runs free, howling into the night, to his wilderness home.