creature. Grendel flees but dies in his marsh den. There, Beowulf later engages in a fierce battle with Grendel's mother, over whom he triumphs even if only thanks to a sword found on-site. Following her death, Beowulf finds Grendel's corpse and removes his head, which he keeps as a trophy. Beowulf then returns to the surface and to his men at the "ninth hour" (l. 1600, "nōn", about 3 pm). He returns to Heorot, where a grateful Hrothgar showers him with gifts. Scholarship Tolkien In 1936, J. R. R. Tolkien's Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics discussed Grendel and the dragon in Beowulf. Tolkien argues that "the evil spirits took visible shape" in the characters of Grendel and the dragon; however, the author's concern is focused on Beowulf. Tolkien points out that while Grendel has Christian origins as the descendant of Cain, he "cannot be dissociated from the creatures of northern myth." Tolkien also argues for the importance of Grendel's role in the poem as an "eminently suitable beginning" that sets the stage for Beowulf's fight with the dragon: "Triumph over the lesser and more nearly human is cancelled by defeat before the older and more elemental." Tolkien's essay was the first work of scholarship in which Anglo-Saxon literature was seriously examined on its literary merits – not just for scholarship about the origins of the English language, or what historical information could be gleaned from the text, as was common in the 19th century. Tolkien also wrote his own translation of Beowulf, entitled Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary together with Sellic Spell, between 1920 and 1926. Physical description During the decades following Tolkien's essay, the exact description of Grendel was debated by scholars. Indeed, because his exact appearance is never directly described in Old English by the original Beowulf poet, part of the debate revolves around what is known, namely his descent from the biblical Cain (the first murderer in the Bible). Grendel is called a sceadugenga – "shadow walker", in other words "night goer" – given that the monster was repeatedly described to be in the shroud of darkness. A visual interpretation is the depiction of Grendel in Robert Zemeckis's 2007 film Beowulf. Interpretations Some scholars have linked Grendel's descent from Cain to the monsters and giants of the Cain tradition. Seamus Heaney, in his translation of Beowulf, writes in lines 1351–1355 that Grendel is vaguely human in