Beowulf is an Anglo Saxon epic poem about a warrior who defeats a monster called Grendel, then Grendel’s vengeful mother, and then in later life a Dragon. It’s a great story and the poetry is full of rich imagery. I’ve read a couple of amazing translations by Tolkien and Seamus Heaney. And I used to work at Sutton Hoo, the Anglo Saxon burial ground that resonates powerfully with the imagery of Beowulf. So I thought that it would be another opportunity to practice some illustrations.

All of this, depressingly, emerges from my attempts to build my confidence to embrace the Domestika course Introduction to Children’s Illustration that I signed up for two years ago!

Anyway, I thought I’d give this project its own distinct flavour by using charcoal for my illustrations to try and capture some of the darkness. I’m not good enough to create well-drawn figures of warriors and monsters, but I thought the roughness of my Hauntings pictures could work quite well in this context, so that’s what I aimed for, although I ended up adding way more detail.

Grendel is described as a Shadow Stalker or Shadow Walker or Night Goer, and this first illustration is intended to depict the creature approaching the hall of Heorot to wreak his grisly havoc.