Put simply, the monster Grendel, who is "hell's captive", is in the powerful death-grip of Beowulf. His throat is "taut", that is to say stretched out as Beowulf slowly strangles him. Beowulf has no intention of letting go; he's determined to hold on to the monster until he dies. ("[T]ill its life leaped out.")
We learn a lot about Beowulf from this brief extract. He's strong and powerful, someone strong enough to protect other men as well as taking on and defeating the most powerful of monsters. Indeed, Beowulf, this mighty Geatish warrior, isn't just strong; he's the strongest man in the whole world. He's just the right man, then, for killing Grendel. For he, and he alone, is capable of ridding the Danes once and for all of this savage monster that has terrorized them for so many years.
Paraphrasing the phrases from Beowulf’s battle with the beast Grendel simply put them into an easier to understand format. The scene describes Grendel being defeated by strangulation from Beowulf. A good paraphrase is as follows:
Choking, the demon beast is trapped in the strong arms of the strongest of all mighty men on Earth. The strong warrior who protects others holds the beast until his life is done, knowing the monster is unable to escape his grasp.
This paraphrase shows the chokehold in which Beowulf holds Grendel. He holds him tight until the monster chokes to death, because he knows that he is stronger and has Grendel in a hold from which he can not escape, thus saving Hrothgar and the villagers.
These lines describe Beowulf's battle with Grendel. Though Grendel is a powerful foe, Beowulf is stronger. Beowulf is also favored by heaven in comparison to Grendel, who is not only evil but damned, as suggested by the author's calling him "hell's captive." Such a descriptor suggests Grendel's plans are doomed to failure and he himself is doomed to ultimate defeat by the forces of good.
In contrast, Beowulf is described as a strong protector of the weak. His victory over Grendel is assured too, when we see it proclaimed that Beowulf is "meant" to crush Grendel to death and save the lives of the innocent as a result.
Altogether, this passage highlights the battle between good and evil in the poem, particularly the inevitable triumph of good in the struggle (even if the last third of the poem muddies the waters a little with Beowulf's Pyrrhic victory over the dragon and his people's fears of annihilation without him there to protect them anymore).
Paraphrased, these lines might look something like this: "Grendel, hell's captive, was caught in the grip of Beowulf, the world's strongest man. Beowulf, the mighty protector of men, was destined to hold Grendel until he crushed him to death."
This quote begins at line 788, in the midst of Beowulf's fight with Grendel. One of the difficulties in summarizing lines, rather than sentences or sections, of Beowulf or poetry of its lineage is the fact that many lines repeat or reflect upon information in the previous ones, so that they appear as sentence fragments or redundancies when viewed out of context (such as "taut throat").
"Hell's captive" refers to Grendel, in the sense that he is a damned creature and, considering the poem's strong Christian moralism, implying that he is disfavored and cursed.
The following lines simply describe and reiterate Beowulf's strength and role as a protector. Finally, they detail his intentions; to literally wrestle Grendel to death, or, more likely, to crush the life out of him.
So, these lines might be paraphrased as follows:
"Grendel, that hellish creature, was caught in Beowulf's grasp. Because of his great strength and protective instinct, Beowulf had no intention of letting Grendel go until he had crushed the monster to death."
http://www.heorot.dk/beowulf-rede-text.html
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