GRENDEL'S AUNT (an original poem) - Part 10

This metered ode is written by a faery poet named Brighid. She's a character in my novel, The Grim Girl's Gallowglass. In pre-Christian Irish mythology, Brigid (spelled differently) was a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann, a supernatural race. She was the goddess "whom poets adored." Brighid writes this poem, "Grendel's Aunt," over the course of the novel.

"Grendel's Aunt" follows a hero named Hymm who transacts a business deal with Dwenndis, aunt of the monster Grendel, from Beowulf.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

And below are the next four stanzas:

Completely forgetting his heart had been rent,
toward the scene of his farce Hymm did charge.
The people of Mundt he could hear from a distance.
Assailed, how they wailed and cried out for assistance.
He flew ever faster, arriving on stage
with his sword drawn, Penelope glistening.

He galloped through town, to their groaning still listening
when Grendel he spied on a hill.
There the monster had slaughtered a family of sheep
and the family of people encharged with their keep.
Now all four of his claw-tines en-necklaced the throat
of the lacey young lady Hymm loved.

He caught Cindy's eye and saw dread in its dart,
but in his, she saw naught but his heart.
He wondered why Grendel attacked the fair maiden
and why their agreement no longer was weighed in
but realized too late that he shouldn't be shocked
that the evil don't honor their contracts.

Now he spotted the way he could slay Grendel's heart
was just under the sleeve of Sweet Cindy.
In a flurry he surged and then, trusting his aim,
pushed Penelope's harm through the crook in that arm,
but he missed Grendel's heart as his blade drew black blood,
though young Cindy was freed to escape.

"Grendel's Aunt" is protected under a Creative Commons license stipulating no derivatives and full attribution.