"Grimm
connects
[Grendel] with the Anglo-Saxon grindel (_a
bolt_ or _bar_).
Beowulf
: _gan_ espye (Chaucer, _Knightes
Tale_, l. 254, ed. Morris).
l. 101. B. and H.-So. read, fēond on healle; cf. l. 142.--_Beit._ xii.
ll. 101-151.
"Grimm
connects
[Grendel] with the Anglo-Saxon grindel (_a
bolt_ or _bar_).
... It carries with it the notion of the bolts and bars of
hell, and hence _a fiend._ ... Ettmüller was the first ... to connect the
name with grindan, _to grind, to crush to pieces, to utterly destroy._
Grendel is then _the tearer, the destroyer_."--Br., p. 83.
