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Off from the sill there
Bent mead-benches many, as men have informed me,
Adorned with gold-work, where the grim ones did struggle.
The Scylding wise men weened ne'er before
That by might and main-strength a man under heaven
Might break it in pieces, bone-decked, resplendent,
Crush it by cunning, unless clutch of the fire
In smoke should consume it. (12. 62-73)
The physical properties that Hrothgar's men had built into the Hall withstood this battle of good vs. evil. Heorot was intended to be a place of greatness and glory to God which gave it the symbolic ability to make good prevail and evil sink.
After Beowulf's victory over Grendel, Beowulf must travel to Grendel's home to do battle with his monstrous mother. Her den is described by Hrothgar to Beowulf as an evil place shrouded in darkness, yet "there ever at night one an ill-meaning portent / a fire-flood may see" (21.4-5). Even animals know not to drink from the lake's water even if they are on the verge of death. "Firm-antlered he-deer, / Spurred from afar, his spirit he yieldeth, / His life on the shore, ere in he will venture / to cover his head" (21.47-50). Beowulf on his descent into the burning lake encounters other evil...
When he finally finds Grendel's mother, he must do battle with her in another great hall where "brightness a-gleaming / Fire-light he saw, flashing resplendent" (23.40-41). The burning lake of fire is surely intended to remind the audience of descriptions of hell, hence, symbolically, this is a place of extreme evil.
Since Beowulf is clearly the hero of the epic, the audience is in little doubt of his success against the forces of evil. As much as Beowulf has represented good battling evil, those items have also been represented by the respective locations or homes of the participants. The stateliness of Heorot is placed in opposition to the "dark, watery nether-regions" (Niles) of Grendel's home with the intention of setting up a battle of good vs. evil. This battle is purely symbolic and on its own cannot take action. It is the characters who are representatives of those places that play out the timeless battle of good and evil.
Works Cited
The Epic of Beowulf. Trans. Lesslie Hall. 2003. 27 October 2006. http://www.bernijohnson.com/beowulf/beowulf.html
Niles, John D. "Beowulf's Great Hall. History Today 56.10 (Oct. 2006): 40 (5p.).
Ebscohost. 27 October 2006. http://www.web110.epnet.com
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