UNIFORM WITH BEOWULF
Done into English in the Original Measure by CHARLES SCOTT MONCRIEFF
With an Introduction by G. K. CHESTERTON and a Note on Technique by GEORGE SAINTSBURY.
(Second Impression).
SOME CRITICAL OPINIONS.
Mr. Frederic Harrison, in The Fortnightly Review : " I take a lively interest in the new translation of the grand mediaeval Epic — Chanson de Roland. ... It is a bold and successful venture. ... I advise all who care for mediaeval history and for primitive epics to study the original side by side with Captain Scott Mon- crieff's translation."
Mr. Edmund Gosse, C.B., in The Sunday Times : " There have in the past been made efforts to render the Song of Roland into English, but they have not hitherto been very successful. . . . Captain Scott Moncrieffhas approached this rough epic in exactly the right spirit ; having read his version carefully, and having accustomed my ear to his treatment of the assonance, I feel that his success is very considerable indeed."
Mr. G. K. Chesterton (" At the Sign of the World's End ") in The New Witness : " The horn of Roland, unlike the horns of elfland, really does roll from soul to soul, and grow for ever and for ever. The enthusiasm of a rising and very critical critic like Mr. Scott Moncrieff is a type of its renewal. There is something of immortal moment about that image of the king and his court riding home in triumph, and hearing from the dark pass behind them the dreadful note of doom. Indeed, it is very like our present position ; when our rulers are supposed to have triumphed and made peace, and through the chorus of praise come wild un accountable voices from Poland and Italy, and the intolerable irony of Ireland. However it be explained or applied, there re mains arrested for ever the pageant of that halted march."
Mr. James Douglas, in The Star and in The Nottingham Journal : " The war has bred many poets, and now it has bestowed upon us a noble translation of a noble poem, a translation which is itself a fresh grace and glory of our English tongue. . . Know ing nothing of the Song, as I read this translation I felt like Keats
as he read Chapman's " Homer." It was like a door opening and letting out great music. . . . Not being a great scholar like Pro fessor Saintsbury, I can bestow on this translation only the praise of instinctive delight in a masterpiece of English — a thing com parable with FitzGerald's " Omar " or Urquhart's " Rabelais." It has the savour of genius in its marvellous resurrection of a lost time and a forgotten faith. ... If a poetry be a means of escape from the petty dust of one's environment, surely this thing is a libera tion and enlargement. Our day will pass, and men will see the heroic element in it to which we are blind. I can imagine a scholar a hundred years hence citing this translation as a proof that our soldiers were heroical."
Professor Robert Nichols, in The Observer : "So adequate is Captain Scott Moncrieff 's translation that it can but take its place with the classics in this sort — with Florio's " Montaigne," Fitz gerald's " Omar," Watts-cum-Pusey's " St. Augustine," Urqu hart's " Rabelais," and Burton's " Arabian Nights." The work has that considerable accuracy with the maximum of the original flavour which amounts to a recreation, and which alone makes a translation worthy of the text translated. Such a recreation is in all cases an uncommon feat ; in this case it amounts to a triumph."
B.S., in The Manchester Guardian : " There are other trans lations of the " Chanson de Roland," of course, but we doubt if they have been widely read. The virtue of Captain Moncrieff's version is that it popularises for us one of those great works literature which contain and summarise an epoch. No one who once fairly begins to read his " Song of Roland " will want to put the book down till he has finished it. This is perhaps the most remarkable aspect of a very remarkable achievement."
H.O., in The Athenaeum : " Our author revels in the battle- pieces, the vigour of which has surely never been surpassed ; can be tender at the right moment ; nor does he ever miss the spirit of pure religious faith and the fervent note of patriotism that inform the whole."
The Tablet : "We feel that the translation will prove most useful to those who may be teaching English literature or history in our Catholic schools. . . . The Catholic atmosphere of the poem, its Catholic setting, and its religious feeling can be grasped only by one who still professes the same faith."
The Christian Science Monitor : " ' The Song of Roland ' is one of the greatest pagan epics, if not the greatest, in the world's literature. It is full of every splendid nobleness to which humanity is heir, except that particular nobleness which was taught and practised by the Founder of Christianity
' There can be little but praise for the way in which Captain Scott Moncrieff has carried out the superlatively difficult task of rendering the great epic into English. The combination of rugged dignity and breathless speed which is characteristic of the original has been reproduced with astonishing success."
The Saturday Westminster Gazette : " We cannot commend the experiment. . . . The book is the most literal translation that we know. It is not poetry."
The Pall Mall Gazette : " The experiment, we think, is a real success. It is only a true craftsman who can handle such a thing and be judged not to have dimmed its brightness."
The Liverpool Post : " The reviewer's first feeling was one of vain regret — ' How useful this might have been to me once ! ' And one still feels . . . that the work will prove mainly useful for educational purposes, or, if one prefers to put it so, as an undergraduate's crib."
The Times Literary Supplement : " ' The Chanson de Roland ' is ' abrupt and barbarous ' ; if its effect as a poem is to be felt in English the translation, while keeping faithfully to the meaning, must reproduce the abruptness and barbarity of the French laisses. That is what Mr. Moncrieff, unlike the other translators of this poem, has done. . . .
" The enthusiasm, the flash of one poet catching almost in tuitively the emotion of another long dead, the thrill of reading an intelligent transcript of a great poem — these are the valuable things in this book."
The Morning Post : " We took up this volume with a certain sense of disappointment. It seemed to us that Captain Scott Moncrieff might have given us a more modern epic . . . not of Roland, but of Tommy Atkins. But our ingratitude was short lived. . . .
" This Song not only sings of triumph, but is in itself a wonder ful triumph for our mother tongue."
The Glasgow Herald : " The blessing of Mr. Saintsbury . . . should suffice the most scholarly. For ourselves, we can imagine no finer gift for the right kind of boy. Every noble element of romance leaps into life in the tale of the fight and the horn-blow ing, and no braver teaching will be found in mortal story than in the last meeting of Roland and Oliver."
" Peter Bell," in Land and Water : " To have translated this work is to have performed a service to English readers ; and to have translated it in the original measure with so much success as here is to have achieved a notable feat of dexterity."
Country Life : " Captain Scott Moncrieff writes from the very heart and centre of his theme. . . .' A version done divinely well ' we may surely call this, in the words that Tennyson applied to Fitzgerald's' Omar.' '
The Nation : " Captain Moncrieff met the ' Chanson de Roland ' by accident, but it was really a pre- determined con junction of affinities, a translator's Roland for the original's Oliver, so wonderfully do these twin literary spirits match each other. That explains the translator's ' word for word ' ; he had no other alternative, but we can imagine what a hash of it an equally gifted man of letters — who was not Captain Moncrieff
— would have made of it. As it is, we have the singular and indeed unique pleasure of reading this grand old epic not so very differ ently as its contemporaries heard it sung to them by the jongleurs.
" It is indeed good work, rough as an uncut diamond, but full of pathos and fierce power."
The Cambridge Magazine (largest circulation of any University Weekly in Great Britain) : " Warriors have, as a rule, expressed such a horror of war poems ! "
John O'London's Weekly : " Fame is a queer thing."
The London Mercury (in a review of four pages) : " Epics need so many particular and favourable circumstances for their pro duction that they are scarce and highly individual, and every literature ought to have a sufficient rendering of each of them. Mr. Scott Moncrieff . . . has produced a fine original English poem, and one can safely assert that he has also reproduced the spirit of the original, because the poem's characteristics which he derives from the original, the social system implied, the psych ology and general treatment harmonise excellently with the characteristics which are due to himself, namely, the spirit and dress of the verse which he has employed.
" Mr. Moncrieff proposes, by using M. Leon Gautier's final edition of the ' Song of Roland,' to increase the poem by some four hundred lines. We regret this, though we admire his courage and his loyalty to his original.
The Count Rollanz has never loved cowards, Nor arrogant, nor men of evil heart, Nor chevalier that was not good vassal. Surely he would love Mr. Moncrieff."
The Outlook : "In his translation of ' The Song of Roland/ Captain Scott Moncrieff has given us many good gifts above and beyond the superb quality of the translation itself. One of these, and we confess to finding it singularly touching, is the quiet description of how the work came to be done. . . . Another good gift is G. K. Chesterton's introduction, which will always remain one of the small perfect essays in the language. . . . Then we have George Saintsbury's Note on Technique.
" Captain Scott Moncrieff . . . can write on an individual note if ever a writer could ; but we owe an eternal debt of grati tude to him that he has been entirely concerned with the ' Song of Roland ' and not at all with the song of Captain Scott Moncrieff."
" Mr. Belloc, lecturing on ' The Song of Roland,' in Glasgow, paid a high compliment to the recent translation by Captain Scott Moncrieff, who, he said, followed the literary meaning and diction, type of assonance and metre of the original . " ( The Glasgow Herald, March i, 1920).
Mr. Masefield, lecturing on " The Song of Roland "in London said he did not think it was possible to translate " The Song of Roland."
The Scotsman, December 8, 1919 : " There is no more to say."
Widsith
BEOWULF
Finnaburgh » Waldcrc » Deor
Widsith
BEOWULF
Finnsburgh * Waldere * Deor
Done into common English after the old manner
by CHARLES SCOTT MONCRIEFF
With an Introduction by VISCOUNT NORTHCLIFFE
a
LONDON :
CHAPMAN & HALL, LTD. MCMXXI
THE WESTMINSTER PRESS
HARROW ROAD
LONDON
IS
Contents
Page
Introduction X11
Translator's Preface
Dedication XXU
Arguments of the Poems X1X
Widsith
Beowulf
Finnsburgh IO5
Waldere IO7
Deor I09
Notes ll1
Introduction
IT is characteristic of the modesty of the English people that our oldest epic, or, rather, the one Old English epic that has survived, should contain not a word about England. Indeed, the greater part of its story takes place in the country of the Danes, who had been England's most cruel and destructive enemies for some two centuries before the existing manuscript of Beowulf was written. So, too, in a later age, when our drama came to be written, pride of place was given to, and has since been held by, the Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. But the preservation of Beo wulf as an English epic is justified by the embodi ment in its hero of many traits of character which we are still proud to recognise among our fellow- countrymen. Higher criticism may reduce Grendel and his mother to the symbolical dimensions of epidemics, due to an over-populated settlement on the marshy and misty shore of a tideless sea ; but the courage of the young captain and his small company, facing unknown perils in a foreign country, and the renewed courage of the veteran, after more than a generation of peaceful govern ment, arming himself to fight and die alone in the defence of his people, are facts with which, hap pily, we are still familiar.
How many thousand Beowulfs have we not sent out in the last seven years from these islands to face subtleties of horror as incredible as Grendel, fire as scathing as the Worm's, sea-monsters against which no armament was proof ? Some have come back in triumph ; others, like Hond- scio and Aeschere, have fallen, mangled and murdered, whose fame is preserved only in memory for so long as their friends survive them.
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Some, like Beowulf in his youth, had no good said of them, were accounted of little worth by the captains of warriors, who " shrewdly reckoned that slack they were." Yet to them, as to Beowulf, " atonement came for all their troubles."
Perhaps it would be better to sing the troubles and triumphs of even one of these, our contem poraries, than to revive a momentary interest in an old and harshly worded poem from a forgotten dialect. But I welcome this version of Beowulf because I find in its hero what I lament in count less men who have fallen in the field, simple cour age, untiring endurance, stainless honour.
NORTHCLIFFE.
Translator's Preface
IT is as difficult to find an excuse for adding to what Mr. Wyatt, in his admirable Anglo- Saxon Reader* describes as " a whole library of books dealing with Beowulf" as it is rash for a young adventurer to challenge so powerful a competitor (to name no others) as William Morris. But this translation follows logically after that of the Chanson de Roland, which I have already published, and was inspired by the suggestion that I should attempt to do for the English epic what I had done for the French .f
So many slighting references have been made to Beowulf and its admirers lately, in the press of this country, that I am obliged to conclude that a considerable interest, one way and the other, is felt in the poem, even by some of the many critics who have never read it. As I said in my former volume, this " is not a work of scholarship, nor yet of imagination " ; but I hope that it may prove useful to a few of the hundreds of students who have to acquire some knowledge of the original in order to graduate in English Literature in our various Universities, and that, at the same time, it may interest others who are compelled and content to remain in ignorance of the austere beauties of the Old English language.
The history of the poem is fairly well known ; it seems to have been composed, in the Anglian dialect, about the year 700, nearly a century be fore, in Beorhtric's day, as the Chronicle tells us,J " came the first three ships, and the reeve
* Cambridge University Press, 1919.
f For, as is well-known,
Ne sont que trois matieres a nul home attendant, De France et de Bretaigne et de Rome la grant.
£ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, year 787.
ix
rode thereto, and would drive them to that King's town because he knew not what they were ; and one slew him. Those were the first ships of Danish men that sought the land of the Angle-kin." About the end of the tenth century, when the Danish men were again harrying England, two nameless scribes copied for us, in the dialect of Wessex, the one manuscript of Beowulf which has sur vived. From that time it must have remained in its monastic library, unread and increasingly unintelligible, until, after the Dissolution, it passed into the collection of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, now absorbed in the library of the British Museum. Here it was discovered in 1700 by Humfrey Wanley, who describes it in his cata logue as " Tractatus nobilissimus poetice scrip- tus," in which there seemed to be, for he could not have translated it, " descripta bella quae Beowulfus, quidam Danus ex regio Scyldingorum •stirpe ortus, gessit contra Sueciae Regulos." In 1731 a great part of the Cottonian library was destroyed by a fire at Ashburnham House in Westminster, in which the Government had recently placed it for safety. The volume, Vitellius A 15, in which Beowulf is bound, escaped with serious injury. In 1786 Thorkelin of Copenhagen transcribed the manuscript, for the second time, perhaps, since his Danish ancestors came to England exactly a thousand years earlier ; by a belated act of retaliation the materials for his edition were destroyed by an English fleet, in the bombardment of Copenhagen, and Beowulf did not appear in print until 1815. Finally, in 1882, an autotype facsimile was prepared for the Early English Text Society, with a literal transcription, by Professor Zupitza, while a more accessible text is that edited by Messrs. A. J. Wyatt and R. W. Chambers, and published by the Cambridge University Press in 1914.
In the manuscript the poem is written
continuously, as it were prose, but in forty-three divisions, forty of which are headed with num bers. The opening lines bear no number ; then come twenty-eight divisions of about seventy lines each, numbered I to XXVIII. The next gap, after line 2038, and in the middle of a sent ence, has no number ; then come XXXI to XXXVIII, one more unnumbered, and XL to XLIII. These divisions do not at all correspond to the natural breaks in the poem.
The story opens as though it were intended to be in praise of another Beowulf, the son of Shield of the Sheaf, and an ancestral King of the Danes or Shieldings. To Shield is ascribed the mythical origin, as a child sent forth alone in a boat from an unknown haven, which later Chroniclers gave to a certain Sheaf, who, by another story, was born in the Ark, the son of Noah. But at the hundredth line the tone of the poem changes ; the Danish Beowulf has flourished and died. Hrothgar,his grandson, having at length succeeded, orders a hall to be built him, the mightiest on earth, and calls its name Heorot, or Hart. While he is feasting with his court, Grendel, a monster from the fens and moors, descended from the exiled offspring of Cain, invades Heorot, and snatches from it thirty of Hrothgar's thegns ; the court is scattered in terror, and for twelve years the hall remains deserted.
It will be seen that the Danes, whose prowess is so extravagantly lauded in the opening lines, have already ceased to be the heroes of the story. In line 194 we first hear of " Higelac's thegn," in line 262 he tells us that he is the son of Ecgtheow, and in line 343 he names himself to the Danes as Beowulf ; henceforward the story is of him. Beo wulf, like Roland and a hundred other heroes of epic and romance, was the son of his sovereign's sister ; and Beowulf's uncle, like Roland's, has a place in history, for the Higelac who invaded
the Frisian land, who there " swallowed the sword- drink," whose life lay in the Franks' keeping, can be identified with the Chocilaicus mentioned in the Gesta Regum Francorum of Gregory of Tours, who was killed by the Frankish Prince Theodebert, son of Theodoricthe son of Clovis, in the second decade of the sixth century. So also Hrothgar is the Roe, son of Haldanus, who figures in Saxo Grammaticus as a King of Denmark and the founder of Roskilde.
II
With Beowulf I have included two short poems and two epic fragments, everything of the kind which has survived in our language. Widsith may serve as an introduction to the rest, but a volume stouter than this would be required for the proper annotation of Widsith alone. The curious reader may turn to the fascinating work of Mr. Cham bers,* and will find there a wealth of information on the history and mythology of the tribes and heroes mentioned in the poem. Widsith, like Deory is found in the Exeter Book, a collection of Old English poetry made about the same time as the manuscript of Beowulf, and presented to the Cathedral of Exeter by its first Bishop, Leofric, who removed his See there from Crediton in 1050. Its own date is less easily determined, as the hero claims to have visited historical Kings whose reigns extended over more than two centuries, while references to Syrians and Israelites, Assyr ians and Hebrews point to interpolation by a later, probably monastic, scribe ; but the bulk of the poem must have been composed not much earlier, and probably not much later, than the year 600. It might well be called the Lay of the First Minstrel,
* Widsith, a Study in Old English Heroic Legend, by R. W. Chambers, Cambridge University Press, 1912.
XII
as it is our oldest record of that noble tradition of which Scott celebrated the decline.*
If Widsith is an extremely condensed " narrative poem," Deor is in every sense a lyric. Mr. Wyatt compares it aptly to a ballade by Villon. Its con struction in stanzas is deliberate, and is marked by the regular refrain. It is a plaintive, but philo sophical statement of a poet's misfortunes, who is consoled by the reflection that greater than he have suffered also.
The short fragments of Finnsburgh and Waldere are long enough to shew what we have lost by the destruction of an epic literature, of which Beowulf alone survives. The forty-eight lines of Finns- burgh were found on a leaf of parchment in the library of Lambeth Palace, by Dr. George Hickes, the Non-Juror Dean of Worcester, for whom Humfrey Wanley made his catalogue. Later, this leaf disappeared, when the volume whose wrapper it had become was sent to a binder, and the sole extant authority for the fragment is the text printed by Hickes in 1705 in his Linguarum Veter- um Septentrionalium Thesaurus. Apart from its evident merit as a battle-song, the fragment is of great interest as corroborating the longest of the lays in Beowulf y the song of Finn and Hildeburh sung by Hrothgar's bard on the mead-bench after the discomfiture of Grendel.f
The two fragments called Waldere were dis covered in 1860 by the Royal Librarian at Copen hagen, among the papers left by Thorkelin, the first editor of Beowulf. They are part of an epic, the story of which is preserved in the Latin Wai- tharius Manufortis of Ekkehard of St. Gall, and has been well summarised by Mr. Wyatt in his
f " Within the memory of man, an old person used to perambulate the streets of Edinburgh, singing, in a monotonous cadence, the tale of Rosewal and Lilian."
Scott, Sir Tristrem (1804).
* Beowulf, lines 1068 to 1159.
xin
Anglo-Saxon Reader, from which I quote : " Walter of Aquitaine, Hildegund of the Burgundians, his betrothed, and Hagen of the Franks were taken as hostages by Attila and nobly reared at his court. But in course of time Hagen escaped. So, later, did the lovers, taking with them much treasure, When they reached the Vosges, they were attacked by the Prankish King Gunther and twelve warriors, including Hagen, Walter's frater juratus eleven warriors were slain by Walter in the rocky pass, which was worth an army to him ; then Gunther and Hagen withdrew and hid them selves. Their ruse succeeded ; next day the lovers continued their journey, and were overtaken in the plain by their two foes. Walter's appeal to friendship is in vain, for Hagen has now a sister's son to avenge. After hours of fighting, one against two, the hero is still unconquered ; he has lost his right hand, Hagen an eye, and Gunther a leg, and in this condition they make peace, and jest while Hildegund serves them with wine." In Old English Walter becomes Waldere, Hildegund Hildegyth, Gunther Guthhere (the same who gave a gladsome jewel to Widsith), and Hagen Hagena.
Ill
With my versification, prosodists are at liberty to find what fault they will. Old English poetry was composed not for the librarian but for the harpist, and if these versions of mine can be shouted aloud to the harp or its equivalent, so much the better. Apart from that, I have attempted to make the sort of lines that an Englishman of the Heptarchy would recognise as metrical, though he might feel obliged to improve them in a hundred ways. The first difficulty in translating Old English is presented by its curiously primi tive syntax ; if this be retained, the effect is tedious
xiv
and unreadable ; if it be too much amended the original form is destroyed. Another difficulty is the loss from our speech of many excellent words in which the old poets found synonyms for the things they most commonly described, such as war, battle, army, soldier, sword, and, above all, the sea. A third comes from our having dropped the inflections from our words, so that what in the original was a trochee, with its proper rhyth mical force, becomes a dull and unwieldy mono syllable. Yet another is the apparent loss of alliter ative value in words whose initials have changed. I have escaped this by sometimes alliterating g with y where the latter (as in ye, youth, etc.) repre sents an Old English g, and by alliterating /, n, r and w with h and with each other when the Old English initial is aspirated, hi, hn, hr, or hw. A more difficult thing is the alliteration of com pound and prefixed words, in which it has been impossible to follow consistently the rules observed in the surviving corpus — some thirty thousand lines — of pre-Conquest verse. Scholars, I repeat, are at liberty to condemn both my metre and my alliteration, provided that they shew me how both may be improved. The general reader must be content with my assurance that what follows is a fair imitation of Old English Poetry, the chief rules of which are as follows :
The line consists of two metrically equivalent halves, separated in this volume by an oblique stroke (/). In each half there are normally two* accented syllables, and at least one accented syllable in the first half-line is alliterated with one in the second. All four syllables may be alliterated, or any three ; or there may be double alliterations —
* Lines with three accented syllables in each half are rare in Beowulf. Examples are 1162-8, 1705-7, and there is elsewhere a tendency to associate a third word with the two most strongly accented in each half-line. Typical examples of the lengthened line will be found in Judith.
xv
ab/ ab, orab / ba. For alliteration, all initial vowels are reckoned the same, as are all aspirated vowels and consonants — ha, he, hi, hi, hn, ho, hr, hu, and hw*
To illustrate this I print the opening lines of Beowulf in their original form, substituting th for the old compound letter, and printing the accented initials in italics :
Hwaet ! we Gar-Dena / in ^ear-^agum Z/zeod-cyninga / Z/zrym ge/runon, hu tha # tfthelmgas / tfllen /remedon . Oft Scyld Peering / sceathena zAreatum, jwonegum waegthum / wzeodo-setla ofreah. .Egsode eorl, / syththan arrest Dearth /ea-sceaft /unden ; / he thaes /rofre geiad, «;eox under wolcnum, / weorth-myndum oth thaet /nm aeghwylc / thara jymb-sittendra ofer hron-rade / hyran rcolde, ^omban ^yldan ; / thaet waes £od
IV
I have to acknowledge the kindness and the candour of several critics who have allowed them selves to be burdened with parts of this book in manuscript ; Professor Blyth Webster, to whom I owe any knowledge I may have acquired of Old English ; Professor Ker, whose warning I ought to have taken ; Mr. J. C. Squire, who allowed me to reprint the Dedication from his London Mer cury ; Mr. J. E. Gurdon, who seemed to think the poem worth reading ; Mr. Arthur Waugh, who has thought it worth publishing ; and, above all and beyond all, Lord NorthclifTe.
London, CHARLES SCOTT MONCRIEFF.
March, 1921.
f Of the words in Beowulf beginning with aspirated con sonants the commonest are hladan to load, hlaew a law or burial-mound, hlajord a lord, hleahtor laughter, hlud loud, hnah niggard, hrefn raven, hreoh rough, hring ring, hrof roof, hron whale, hrycg ridge, hwa hzcaet who what, hwaer where, and such words as now begin wh, except wiht a whit.
xvi
Dedication
TO
RICHARD REYNOLDS BALL,
WHO, LIKE BEOWULF,
TRAVELLED FEARLESSLY IN
A FAR COUNTRY, RISKING
HIS LIFE TO HELP THE
VICTIMS OF WAR AND
OPPRESSION, UNTIL HE DIED
IN POLAND
IN DECEMBER, 1919.
AND TO TWO OTHERS,
HIS FRIENDS AND MINE,
WHO HAVE FOLLOWED FROM MY WORLD TO HIS :
JOHN SCOTT MONCRIEFF GLADYS DALYELL
What ! My loved companion, / in coldness liest thou, Finished with life, / in a land afar ? From friends divided, / to death forsaken, Farest thou alone / on Fate's errand, The way of the world when / by the Will of God Goeth to Him again / the gift He hath given, His loan of life. / No less I mourn thee Than did I those / whom Death went thieving, Willing youths / in the years of war, Our friends and our fellows, / though fain was I of them
xvii
When keenly I bewailed / my battle-comrades, Finding them murdered / upon many fields. When a little knave I was / knew I thee first Since before me thou / wast born among men, An elder friend / to those following after. For thou wast living / thirty years long, Summers and winters, / ere war us sundered, Friend from friend, / and four years following Busily kept me / among killing banes. Then thou wast with foreign races, /
Russ-men and Frenchmen, Serbs and Poles, / in the passing seasons, Six winter-tides, / while the tale of war Pressed to an end ; / peace came after, Prosperity promised / to the peoples on earth, Welfare after warfare. / Would they then readily Wind away, / the warriors mostly, A straggling few / of the fierce strugglers Who out of the battle / had borne them alive. But thou wast for returning / whither trouble waited , Famine and fever / among friendless folk. Nor was it any time then till / must taste thou also The dreary cup / that Christ erst drank, Sad in soul, / the Sinners' Shepherd, The Holy Lord, / whose Heart ever loveth us, The Son of God / in the Garden of Sorrows, On the eve of Death. / Even so didst thou also, By fever fated. / Freely everywhere wentest thou, Shooting not at enemies, / armed with no shield Against threats / of evil-thinkers, But smiling at terrors, / true and simple, Diedst thou as thou hadst lived, / dutifully. Nor have I heard of a man / having mo re of happiness, Stronger and kinder / to kinsmen and strangers, A warden of the wretched. / Will they easily Bear in mind, / who may hereafter be born, The English friend / of their fathers of old,
XVI 11
Who helped them in need, / and held back nothing,
Gave his life / for the love of God.
They will say that of men / in mind and soul
He excelled others / among all peoples,
In mood the mildest, / in mercy and pity
Best beloved, / most beautiful to remember
In the days / of this our life.
June, 1920. C. K. S. M.
XIX
Arguments of the Poems
Widsith
Widsith, a wandering poet of the Myrging tribe, speaks. He tells of the lands he has seen and the Kings who ruled in them, and especially of Eormanric, who gave him treas ure, and of Eadgils, his own King, who gave him his father's heritage. Such is the fortune of the minstrel ; wherever he may wander, north or south, he may find a benefactor, sing his praise, and be rewarded.
Beowulf
The poet recalls the power and prowess of the Danes ; Shield of the Sheaf, their first King, who as a child came to their shores, alone, in a ship, and, after his death, was sent from their shores, alone, across the unknown ocean ; his successors, Beowulf, Halfdane and Hrothgar. Hrothgar orders his people to build him a great hall, which he calls Heorot, in which, for a short time, they dwell in happiness. Suddenly Grendel, a fiend from hell, of the accursed race of Cain, invades the hall and snatches in their sleep thirty of Hrothgar 's thegns. The next night, he returns, and so, for twelve years, the hall is deserted and the people plagued
II Then Beowulf, a thegn and nephew of Higelac, King of
the Geats, hears in his home of the troubles of the Danes and with fourteen picked companions crosses the sea to their country. They are challenged by the coast-guard, who is convinced of their friendly purpose, and guides them to Heorot, where Beowulf is recognised and welcomed by Hrothgar. At Hrothgar 's bidding the Geats sit down to feast with the Danes.
Unferth, son of Ecglaf, a favourite of Hrothgar, is jealous of Beowulf, and taunts him with his failure in a swimming- match with Breca the Bronding. Beowulf replies, telling
X the true story, and charging Unferth with cowardice in not
having dared to face Grendel. Wealhthoow, Hrothgar 's Queen, takes the cup round the hall, and Hrothgar retires to rest.
xxi
X Beowulf and his men lie down in the hall, and all but he
XI sleep. Then, out of the mists on the moors, comes Grendel; he breaks through the doors and tears to pieces Hondscio, one of Beowulf's men, whom he devours.
But Beowulf has the strength of thirty men in his hand ;
XII unarmed, he wrestles with Grendel, and at length tears off his right arm. Mortally wounded, Grendel slinks home to his lair in the fens.
XIII In the morning, young and old assemble ; they see Grendel's arm hanging by the roof of the hall, and follow the track of his blood to the foul pool in which he has dived and died. They race their horses homewards, and on the way a minstrel sings to them of Sigemund and his war with the dragon, and of Heremod, an evil King, who was betrayed into the hands of his enemies. Not so, he says, is Beowulf.
XIV Hrothgar and his Queen leave their bower and come to the hall, where he gives thanks to God, seeing Grendel's arm exposed there. He hails Beowulf as his son, and promises him ample rewards. Beowulf describes the fight. Ecglaf is shamed into silence.
XV Heorot is adorned for a feast with golden hangings. Hroth gar bestows armour, treasure and horses upon Beowulf,
XVI and other gifts upon each of his companions. The bard then sings the lay of Finn, a Frisian King, who had carried off Hildeburh, the daughter of Hoc, and was attacked by her brothers, Hnaef and Hengest. Hnaef and Finn's son
XVII are killed, and Finn makes a pact with Hengest, who re mains in his burgh through the winter. The bodies of the slain are burned. Hengest plans revenge, but the Frisians attack him, and he is killed. Later, two of his men, Guthlaf and Oslaf, return to Finn's country, kill him and carry Hildeburh back to her home.
Wealhtheow again goes through the hall with the flagon,
XVIII which she gives to Hrothgar. She also gives Beowulf a necklace, the greatest in the world, which, in later years, Higelac is to wear when he invades the Low Countries, and falls in fight with the Franks. The feast ends, and the company separate.
XIX But now another horror comes upon them. Grendel's mother, a monster-wife, greedy to avenge her son, enters upon the hall, seizes and carries off Aeschere, the close
XX companion and trusted counsellor of Hrothgar. Sending for Beowulf, Hrothgar tells him the news, and describes the enchanted mere in which the monsters lurk. If Beo wulf will venture there he shall have farther rewards.
XXI Beowulf accepts the challenge, and, with Hrothgar and his men, sets out for the mere. He arms himself, and Unferth ,
xxii
now cured of his boasting, lends him his own sword, Hrunt-
XXII ing, which had never failed any man in battle. Beowulf commends his followers to Hrothgar's care, and bequeaths his own sword to Unferth ; he then dives into the mere, and for a whole day sinks towards the bottom, attacked as he falls, by all manner of monsters. At last Grendel's mother, conscious of his approach, comes from her den, and seizing Beowulf carries him down to a cave where no water comes. There they fight by fire-light, but the sword will not wound the creature, and Beowulf, flinging it down, catches her by the shoulder and throws her to the floor. She pulls him down after her, and draws her knife ; but God protects him.
XXIII On the wall of the cave he sees an old sword, of giants' forging. He draws it, and cuts off her head. Then he sees Grendel on the ground, dead or dying, and cuts off his head also, and with it and the old sword dives upwards through the blood-stained water. But in the poisonous blood the old sword melts like an icicle in spring, and only the hilt of it remains. Hrothgar and his Danes have gone home, and Beowulf's men are left sorrowing on the shore, watch ing the eddies of blood in the water, when their Captain emerges. They disarm him, take up Grendel's head, and return to Heorot, where the Danes are at table with their King and Queen.
XXIV Beowulf tells Hrothgar of the battle, and gives him the hilt of the old sword. Hrothgar exalts him above all men, and again contrasts him with the wicked King Heremod. All
XXV men are mortal, and earthly pride avails little, unless a man chooses the Way of God. For the last time, the Geats feast in Heorot, and then the weary Beowulf is led to rest. In the morning he restores Hrunting to Ecglaf, and announces
XXVI that he must return to his own country, and to Higelac, his
XXVII King. He and Hrothgar kiss one another and part, and the Geats go down to their ship and put out to sea.
Higelac was a proud King, his house high and beautiful, his Queen, Hygd, very young, but wise ; unlike Thrytho, the Queen of Offa, who caused the death of her husband's courtiers, though some say that she, after her marriage, grew wise also.
XXVIII The Geats land and make their way to Higelac 's hall, where they are welcomed by him ; Hygd, his Queen, gives them to drink, and Beowulf tells his adventures. He speaks of Hrothgar's daughter, Freawaru, whom he saw in Heorot ; she is betrothed to Ingeld, son of Froda, a Heathobeard Prince, which may make for peace now between Danes
[XXX] and Heathobeards but may also lead to quarrels later. He
xxiii
then relates his fights with Grendel and in the mere. He then brings in Hrothgar's gifts and offers them to his own lord, who gives him in return the sword of his father Hrethel, seven thousands of money, and a home. So Beowulf, who had been despised in his youth, and accounted slack, lives in prosperity with Higelac.
Years pass. Higelac is killed, and Heardred his son ; Beo wulf succeeds to the kingdom, and reigns for fifty years. Then a dragon which for centuries has lived in a burial mound, guarding a hoard of treasure, awakes and, finding the treasure disturbed, flies out over Beowulf's country. (Here the manuscript is much damaged by fire). A man un named, a slave fleeing from punishment, has taken refuge in the mound, and has seen there all the treasures of some ancient and forgotten race, which the last survivor, mourn ing his friends and despairing of his own life, had hidden there, so that they might never again be enjoyed by man. The dragon, who had found the place open, had lain there for three hundred years, and slept. Then this man takes a cup from the hoard and offers it to his master. The dragon, in fury, comes out flaming, and burns the homes of the people and Beowulf's hall. Beowulf orders a shield of iron to be made him, and vows that he will go out alone against the monster. The earlier battles are recalled, by which he won his kingdom.
Eleven men follow him to the mound ; he bids them fare well, and recounts the story of his own youth, of Hrethel and his sons ; one of them, Haethcyn, had killed his elder brother with an arrow. Powerless to do justice, Hrethel pined and died. The Swedes then invaded the country, and Haethcyn was killed.
Beowulf advances to the mouth of the mound, and chal lenges the dragon, which comes hurtling out in smoke and flame to meet him. Of his men, all seek safety in a wood save one, Wiglaf, son of Weohstan, who draws his father's sword, rebukes his companions, and wades through the flames to Beowulf's side. Beowulf's sword breaks, and the dragon rushes upon him a third time, and catches him by the neck. Wiglaf wounds the dragon, whose fire begins to slacken ; then Beowulf kills it, but himself faints with his wounds. He bids Wiglaf fetch out the treasure from the mound, that he may see it before he dies. Wiglaf enters the mound, and finds there great treasures, which he rifles and brings to Beowulf. Beowulf thanks God for them, and bids Wiglaf have a barrow made for him upon the Whale's
xxiv
Headland, looking over the sea. He gives him his own armour and dies.
The dragon lies dead beside him, Wiglaf watching over both, when the ten companions come shamefully from the wood. Wiglaf rebukes them bitterly, and sends the news of Beowulf's death to the rest of his people. The messenger warns them that the Frisians and Franks, who had killed Higelac, would now invade them ; the Swedes also would avenge the Battle in Ravenswood, where Higelac punished them for the killing of Haethcyn. Beowulf's body must now be burned, and the jewels with it. They go to the mound, and seven of them, with Wiglaf, enter the enchanted treas ure-house. Wiglaf orders wood to be brought from near and far for the burning. The dragon's body is flung over the cliff.
A great pile is built up for Beowulf, and decked with ar mour. His body is laid there, and burned. His wife (?) laments him, and foretells coming disasters. Then, for ten days, his men build a mound over the ashes, and bury with him the treasures from the hoard. Round the mound ride twelve champions, lamenting his deat h and proclaiming his worth.
Finnsburgh
(A fragment of the story summarised in Beowulf, lines 1068-1159, beginning here with the last three words of a question.)
Hengest and his men are surprised in their hall by the Frisians. — " Surely the gables are not burning ? " asks one, and Hengest (?) answers : " This is not the light of dawn, nor a fiery dragon, nor are the gables burning. But they are coming against us, in clashing armour. Awake and prepare to fight." They go to the doors, Sigeferth and Eaha to one end. Ordlaf (? the Oslaf of Beowidf 1148), Guthlaf and Hengest to the other. Sigeferth challenges the attackers, and they fight for five days, slaying many Frisians, but without loss to themselves, avenging the memory of Hnaef. One of them, wounded, makes his way to his King, with news of the battle. (It appears from Beowulf, 1142-4, that Hengest was killed by an otherwise unknown Hunlafing).
XXV
Waldere
Hildegyth encourages Waldere before the fight, reminding him that his sword, the Mimming, Weland's masterpiece, has never yet failed any man powerful enough to wield it. Now is the hour of death or victory. Never in the past has she seen him draw back from battle. He has offered tribute to Guthhere, who has refused it. Therefore must Guthhere pay the penalty in battle. . . .
xx: ii
(Guthhere praises Waldere 's) sword, the Mimming, which Theodoric had owned, and had been minded to give, with other treasures, to Weland's son Widia. Waldere replies boasting that he has not been defeated by Hagena, and that he now defies the assault of Guthhere, trusting to God for protection
nc ~
Deor
Deor, a minstrel, recounts the sorrows of Weland, who
£X3 was imprisoned and mutilated by King Nithhad. But he
escaped. Beadohild, Nithhad 's daughter, had cause for sorrow, for Weland had outraged her, and killed her brothers. (By him she became the mother of Widia). But her sorrows
£X] passed. The Geatish King (? Nithhad) was maddened by
love, which robbed him of sleep. But that passed. Theo doric was for thirty years an exile. But that passed. Eor- manric, the cruel King, held many a man in captivity, who longed for the fall of his kingdom. That also passed.
Q£] Those who sit in sorrow and misfortune must remember
that God often makes the wretched happy and brings down the haughty. The poet himself, Deor, bard of the Heodenings, was
£X] cherished by his lord until Heorrenda robbed him of his
inheritance. Yet this trouble also may pass.
XXVI
Widsith BEOWULF
Finnsburgh * Waldere * Deor
Widsith
Widsith made utterance, / his word-hoard
unlocked,
He who most of men / among meinies on the earth And folks had wandered ; / oft on the floor he took Lovely treasure. / From the loins of the Myrgings' Offspring he arose. / He with Ealhhild Faithful Peace-Weaver, / on his first journey The Hreth-King's / home did seek From the East, out of Angel, / Eormanrice's The fierce and faithless. / Began he then in fulness
to speak :
" Of many men have I heard, / masters of peoples;
Must every king / by custom live,
One earl after another / his own home govern,
He who his throne-stool / to thrive wishes.
Of these was Hwala / awhile the best,
And Alexander / of all the richest
Of man's kindred, / and he most thrived
Of them whose fame / afar I have heard.
Attila ruled the Huns, / Eormanric the Goths,
Becca the Bainings, / the Burgunds Gifica.
Caesar ruled the Greeks / and Gaelic the Finns,
Hagena the Holm-Rugians / and Heoden the
Glommas.
Witta ruled the Swaefs, / Wada the Haelsings, Meaca the Myrgings, / Marchalf the Hundings. Theodric ruled the Franks, / Thyle the Rondings, Breca the Brondings, / Billing the Wernas. Oswine ruled the Eowas / and the lutes Gefwulf , Fin Folcwalding / the Frisian kindred. Sigehere longest / the Sea-Danes ruled, Hnaef the Hoccings, / Helm the Wulfings, Wald the Woings, / Wod the Thyrings,
Saeferth the Sycgs, / the Swedes Ongentheow,
Sceafthere the Ymbras, / Sheaf the Longbeards,
Hun the Hetwaras / and Holen the Wrosnas.
Hringweald was hight / the Herefaras' King.
Offa ruled Angel, / Alewih the Danes ;
He was of those men / highest-minded of all ;
Yet never did he over Offa / in earlship excel ;
But Offa fashioned / first among men,
When a young knave was he, / of kingdoms the
greatest ;
40 No one of an age with him / earlship mightier Wrought in the onslaught / with one sword : The march he measured / with the Myrgings By Fifeldor ; / thenceforth they held it, Angle and Swaef / as Offa drew it. Hrothwulf and Hrothgar / held the longest Union together, / uncle and nephew, After they had cast out / the kin of the Vikings And Ingelde's / army had humbled, Hewn down at Heorot / the Heathobeards' host. 50 So I fared through many / foreign lands Over the wide earth ; / of good and evil There I made trial ; / from my tribe divided, From my kinsmen far, / I followed men widely. Wherefore I may sing / and say my story, Mention before the multitude / in the mead-hall How kingly-good men / kindness shewed me. I was with Huns / and with Hreth-Goths With Swedes and with Geats / and with
South-Danes. With Vandals I was and with Vaerns / and with
Vikings. 60 With Gifthas I was and with Wends / and with
Gefflegs. With Angles I was and with Swaefs / and with
Aenenas. With Saxons I was and with Sycgs / and with
Swordsmen. With Whales I was and with Deans / and with
Heatho-Reams.
With Thyrings I was / and with Throwends And I was with Burgunds, / there a bracelet I had ; There Guthhere gave me / a gladsome jewel For my song in payment ; / 'twas no sluggard
King. With Franks I was and with Frisians / and with
Frumtings. With Rugians I was and with Glommas / and
with Rome-Welsh. Also I was in Italy / with Aelfwine ; Who had of mankind, / in my hearing, The lightest hand / for laudable works, The heart least niggard / when rings were
dealing,
Brightest bracelets, / that bairn of Eadwine. With Saracens I was / and with Syrians. With Creeks I was and with Finns / and with
Caesar,
With him who the joy-burghs / by justice ruled, Wealth and good-will / and the Welsh kingdom. With Scots I was and with Picts / and with
Skating-Finns. With Lidwicings I was and with Leons / and with
Longbeards, With Heathens and with Haereths / and with
Hundings.
With Israelites I was / and with Assyrians, With Ebrews and with Indians / and with
Egyptians. With Medes I was and with Persians / and with
Myrgings
And Mofdings / and Counter-Myrgings And with Amothings. / With East-Thyrings I was And with Eols and with Iste / and Idumings. And I was with Eormanric / all the time, There the Gothic King / was good to me ; A bracelet he gave me, / the burghers' lord, Wherein were six hundred / of smelted gold Coins reckoned, / counted in shillings ; This I to Eadgils' / ownership gave,
To my lord and helper, / when to my home I
came, To my friend as a fee / for that he furnished land
to me,
My father's heritage, / the Head of the Myrgings. And then also Ealhhild / another gave me, Ducal-Queen of the doughty, / daughter of
Eadwine.
Her laud was prolonged / through lands many, joo When I in song / was set to say
Where I under the sky / had seen the best Gold-decked Queen / giving treasures. When Shilling and I / with sheer voices Before our royal Lord / upraised the song, When loud to the harp / the lilt made melody, Then many men / whose minds were proud In words did say, / who well had knowledge, That they never a sweeter / song had heard. Thence I roamed over all / the realm of the Goths, no Sought I ever the best / of boon-companions ; That was the indwellers / with Eormanric. Hethca sought I and Beadeca/ and the Herelings, Emerca sought I and Fridla / and East-Gota Old and gallant, / Unwen's father. Secca sought I and Becca, / Seafola and Theodric, Heathoric and Sifeca, / Hlithe and Incgentheow. Eadwine sought I and Elsa, / Aegelmund and
Hungar
And the proud company / of Counter-Myrgings. Wulfhere sought I and Wyrmhere ; / full oft there
war abated not,
120 When the host of the Hreths / with hard swords By the Wistula Wood / must watch and ward Their ancient seat / from Attila's people. Raedhere sought I and Rondhere, / Rumstan and
Gislhere,
Withergyld and Freotheric, / Wudga and Hama ; Nor were they of comrades / the worst to me, Though I must name them / nearest the end. Full oft from that host / whining flew
The howling spear / on a hostile people ; Wanderers, they governed there / by wounden
gold
Husbands and wives, / Wudga and Hama. So I have found it ever, / in all my faring That he is loved the best / by the land-dwellers, To whom God giveth / governance of men To have and to hold / while here he liveth."
So wandering far / by fate are driven
Men's lay-singers / over lands many,
Their thrifts say they, / thankful words speak they,
Ever, south or north, / with some one meet they
Apt in glees, / of gifts unsparing,
Who before the fighters wishes / his fame to exalt,
Earlship to achieve, / until all is scattered,
Light and life together ; / laud he gaineth,
Hath under the heavens / high fame and fast.
BEOWULF
WHAT ! We of Spear-Danes / in spent days, Of the Folk-Kings' / force have heard, How the Athelings / excelled in fight. Oft Shield of the Sheaf / from scathing hordes, From many meinies / their mead-stools tore. Affrighted them the Earl, / since erst he was Found, unwealthy ; / then friendship he awaited, Waxed under the welkin, / in worship throve, Until that each one / of those out-dwelling
10 Over the whale-road, / must hearken to him, Gold must give him. / That was a good King. His offspring was / afterwards known, Young in the yards, / whom God sent The folk to befriend ; / the fierce dearth He knew They had ere then endured, / lacking elders A long while. / To him the Life-Lord, Glory's Wielder, / world -honour gave. Noble was Beowulf / (bloomed wide his name) Shielde's son / in the Scede-lands.
20 So shall a young groom / work his own good, By full fees given / to friends of his father, That with him in his age / they may ever abide, Willing comrades, / whenas war cometh, To serve the people ; / by praised deeds shall One man thrive / among all man-kind. Turned aside then Shield / in the time shaped
for him,
Full-ripe, to fare / in Frea's keeping. Him then out they bare / to the brink of ocean, His sweet companions, / so himself had bidden,
30 While his words had weight, / welcome friend of
Shieldings ; A beloved land-chief, / long had he reigned.
There in the roads / ring-stemmed she stood, Icy, out-faring, / an atheling's craft : Laid they down then / the lovely Prince, Bestower of bracelets, / in the breast of the ship, Their man by the mast. / There was a mass of
wealth,
Fretted gold ferried / from far away. Nor heard I of a keel / more comely-wise garnished With brave weapons / and battle-weeds,
40 With bills and byrnies ; / on his breast lay Many treasures / that must with him In the flood's keeping / fare afar. Nothing less / of gifts they allowed him, Of their possessions / than had those Who at his first faring / forth had sent him Alone over ocean, / an infant indeed. Still more, they stood up for him / a golden
standard
High over head ; / they let the holm bear him, Sent him to the Spear-Man ; / sad was their soul,
50 Mournful their mood. / For men knew not How soothly to say, / men seely in council, Of their hero under heaven / who that lading received.
I
Then in the burghs / was Beowulf Shielding,
Loved Lord of the People, / a long time
Famed mid the folk, / (his father had elsewhither
turned, Being old, from the earth) / until to him after was
born
Haughty Halfdane ; / he held while he lived, Grey-haired, war-greedy, / the glad Shieldings.
To him four bairns / forth in order Awoke to the world, / the warriors' leader Heorogar, and Hrothgar / and Halga the kind ; Heard I that the other / was Owela's Queen, The Battle-Scilfing's / bed-companion.
Then was granted to Hrothgar / good-speed with
the host,
Such worship in war / that his willing kinsmen Hearkened to him gladly / until the youth waxed
great,
A mighty band ; / it was borne on his mind That a Hall-house / he would have Made him by men, / a mightier mead-place Than men's offspring / remembered ever, And there, inside, / he would deal out to all, The young with the old, / as God had endowed
him,
Save the folk-share / and the fates of men. Then widely I heard that / the work was ordered Of many meinies / over this middle-garth, To furnish the folk-stead. / In time it befell him, Early among men, / that it all was ready, Of hall-places mightiest ; / he made its name
Heorot,
He who his word / had widely wielded. His boast he belied not, / bracelets he dealt them, Treasure at table. / Towered that hall High, its horns gaping ; / battle-heat it abode
Of the loathly flame. / Nor was it long thereafter That the sword-hatred / of daughter's husband Against wife's father / should awaken.
Hardly then / that ghost of horror Bore the delay, / he that in darkness abode, While he each day / their happiness heard Loud in the hall ; / there was sound of harping, 90 Shrill song of the shaper. / Said he that knew how Men's origin / from of old to reckon, The Almighty, quoth he, / wrought the earth, Our bright-seeming weald / in water embosomed ; Battle-Happy, He set / the sun and the moon For lights to lighten / the land-indwellers, And adorned all / the ends of the earth With leafy limbs ; / life eke he shaped For each of the kindreds / that quickened do move.
So then the people's men / dwelt in prosperity, ioo Blessed and happy, / until one began
Felony to fashion, / a fiend out of hell : Was that grim guest / Grendel hight, A mighty march-stepper, / who the moors held, Fen and fastness ; / through the fifel-kin's realm The wanchancy wight / long while had wandered, Since him the Shaper / had proscribed. On Caine's kin / He avenged that killing, The Lord Eternal, / for that Abel he slew. No joy found He in that feud, / but far exiled him, no The Maker for the murder, / from out man-kind. Thence abominations / all arose, Etins and elves, / orcneys also, Likewise giants / that with God strove For many days ; / that doom He dealt them.
1C
II
He went then to have knowledge, / when night
was come,
Of the high house, / how in it the Ring-Danes After beer-drinking / were bestowed. He found then inside / the atheling-band Asleep after supper ; / no sorrow they knew, Nor miseries of men. / The monster of unhealing, Grim and greedy, / was speedily yare, Fierce and furious, / and took forth from their beds Thirty thegns. / Thence again he departed, Happy in his haul, / homewards to fare, From amidst that destruction,/ to visit his dwelling. Then in the dawn, / with the day's first light, Grendel's war-craft / was kenned of men ; Then were, after his gorging, / groans upraised, Much sound in the morning. / The mighty Lord, Jewel of athelings, / sate all joyless, Tholed his strong wrong, / thegn-sorrow endured, Whenas they looked / on the loathly traces Of the cursed spirit ; / that strife was too strong, Loathly and lasting. / Nor was it longer in time Than one night after, / again he accomplished More of murders, / and minded not Their feuds nor their force ; / too fast was he fixed
in them.
Then was easily found / he who elsewhere More roomily / his rest would seek, A bed mid the bowers, / for beaconed to them
was,
Soothly spoken, / by a simple token, The hate of that hall-thegn ; / he held himself
thenceforth Farther and faster / who that fiend outwiled.
So ruled he them / and against the right fought One against all, / till that idle it stood,
ii
The holiest of houses. / That was some while ; Twelve winter-tides / the taunt he tholed, The Friend of Shieldings,/ all forms of grief, Swelling sorrows ; / since when it was
50 Openly known / to the offspring of men In gloomy glees, / that Grendel fought Awhile with Hrothgar, / waged hateful war, Force and feud / in the following seasons, Strife unceasing ; / nor in sympathy would From any man / of the Danish meiny Keep afar off that life-bane, / for a fee compound. Nay, none of the wise there / need wish for any Brighter boon / at the hands of the bane. A wanton wretch / was worrying them,
60 A dark death-shadow, / the doughty and young, Snared them and netted them, / nightly he
stalked
The misty moors ; / men know not Whither hell's rune-spellers / hie in their roamings.
So many crimes / man-kinde's foe, That awful alone-goer / often planned, Harsher humblings ; / Heorot he haunted, That bright treasure-hall / in the blackness of
night.
Nor to greet the gift-stool / might he go, Decked for the Creator, / nor have his desire ; 70 That was much shame / for the Friend of
Shieldings,
Breaking of mood. / Often sate many Men rich in rune-lore, / their rede they pondered, What it were best / for the bold-hearted To frame against / their griesly fears.
At whiles they vowed / in the heathen-tents Of idol-worship, / prayed with words
12
That the Slayer of Spirits / succour would send
them Against that plague of the people. / Such was their
practice, The hope of the heathen ; / 'twas hell they
remembered In the thoughts of their minds. / Their Maker
they knew not,
The Dempster of deeds, / nor wist of Divine God, Nor indeed the Helm of Heaven / knew they to
honour,
The Wielder of Glory. / Woe worth him who shall Through slaying spite / his soul shuffle Into the clutches of fire, / and find no comfort, Nor wend thence a whit ; / well worth him who
may
After his death-day / the Divine Lord seek, And in the Arms of the Father / find refreshment.
Ill
So in that time-sorrow / the son of Halfdane Was seethed without ceasing ; / nor might the
sage hero Win a change from his woe ; / was that warfare
too stiff,
Loathly and lasting, / that on the folk landed ; Need pressed them with grim hate, / of
night-banes the greatest. Till heard from his home / Higelac's thegn, So good mid the Geats, / of Grendel's deeds ; He was of man-kind's / meiny the strongest In the days / of this our life, Well-born and waxing. / He bade him a
wave-glider
Good be got ready ; / quoth he, the great King Over the swan-road / he would seek, That mighty Lord, / since men he lacked.
13
For that way-faring / his wise fellows
Blamed him but little, / though loved of them he
was ; His high-mind they whetted, / watched holy
omens.
He had, good man, / from the Geatish people Champions chosen, / of those that keenest Might be found : / with fourteen else The sound-wood he sought ; / a sailor shewed
them,
A lake-crafty man / the land-marks. 210 On time went ; / on the waves was their ship, A boat under bergs. / The boys all ready Stepped on the stem ; the stream was washing The sound on the sand ; / those seamen bare Into the breast of the bark / bright adornments, Wondrous war-armour ; / well out they shoved
her, (Wights willing to journey) / with wooden beams
bounden. Went then over the waves, / as the wind drave
her,
The foamy-necked floater, / to a fowl best likened, Till about the same time / on the second day 220 Her winding stem / had waded so far That the sailors / land could see, Shore-cliffs shining, / mountains sheer, Spreading sea-nesses ; / then was the sound
crossed
At the end of ocean. / Thereon up quickly The folk of the Weders / walked on to the fields, Secured their sea-wood : / their sarks rattled, Weeds of war ; / and God they worshipped, For that the way o'er the waves / so easy was. Then saw from the wall / the Shieldings'
watchman, 230 (He who the holm-cliffs / had to hold,)
Them bear over the bulwarks / their bright
targets,
Arms ready for action ; / amazement brake
On the thoughts of his mind, / what men were
these.
Hied him then to the haven, / on a horse riding, The thegn of Hrothgar ; / in his hand he
brandished Strongly his spear- wood, / and solemn words
spake :
" What are ye / having armour, A band in byrnies, / who thus a tall bark Over the lake-street / leading, are come, Hither over the holms ? / Awhile I on the wall Have been set at the end, / the sea-guard have
held,
That in the land of Danes / no loathly foeman With men in ships / scathe us might. Not more openly hither / have attempted to come Any shield-bearers ; / nor the secret word Of our war-planners / wist ye readily, The consent of our kindred. / Never saw I
comelier
Earl upon earth / than is one of you, A man in his mail-coat ; / that is no hall-minion Made worthy by weapons ; / unless his visage belie
him, An air unmatched. / Now shall I your
Lineage learn, / ere leaving here ye
Lying spies / into the land of Danes
Fare forth farther. / Now ye far-dwellers, Mere-journeyers, / hearken to my Simple thought ; / swiftest is safest To let me ken / whence your coming is."
IV
To him the eldest / made his answer,
The wise man of the war-band / his word-hoard
unlocked :
260 " We are a group / of the Geatish people And Higelace's / hearth-companions. My father was / famed among folks, A noble ancestor, / Ecgtheow namely ; He abode many winters / ere on his way he went So old from the earth ; / have him easily in mind Well-nigh all the wise, / this wide world over. We with loving minds / the Lord of thee, Halfdane's son, / are come to seek, The Helper of the lowly ; / be thou good to us in
thy lore.
270 We have with that mighty one / a mickle errand, With the Lord of Danes. / Nor shall aught of it
doubtful
Remain, as I ween. / Thou wist if it is So, as we soothly / have heard it said, That against the Shieldings / I know not what
scather Deep-hidden, deed-hateful, / in darkest
night-time
Teaches by terror / troubles untold, Havoc and humbling. / To Hrothgar I may In the room of his heart / a rede impart, How he, old and bold, / may that bane overpower, 2 80 If there should ever / end for him
This baleful business, / boons come after,
And the welling cares / wax cooler ;
Or if, ever after, / a time of anguish,
Throes of need he must thole, / while there it
lasteth,
Builded on high, / the best of houses." The watchman spake, / where his horse he sate, An officer unf earing : / " Either way should A sharp shield-warrior / know how to skim Words from works, / one that well thinketh.
16
This I find, / that this band is friendly
To the Lord of Shieldings. / Lead ye forth then
Your weeds and weapons ; / the way I shew you.
Likewise I call / the thegns/my kinsmen
From any foe / your floating bark,
Your ship on the shingle / shining with tar,
To hold with honour / till hereafter she bear
Over the lake-streams / the man beloved,
That wood with winding-prow, / to Weder-mark.
To a man of good-will, / to such is given
The heat of battle / hale to bear."
Forth went they faring ; / the floater abode still,
Stood to her cable / the stout-breasted ship,
Fast at anchor. / The Boar's image shone
Above the cheek-guards / chequered with gold,
Bright, burned to hardness ; / the Boar kept watch.
Battle-minded they snorted, / the men burst
forward,
Trooped down together, / till they the timbered hall Gold-decked and garnished / got in sight : That was the foremost / in fame among folk Of roofs under heaven / where the rich one abode; The light of it lightened / many lands. To them then the battle-hero / that house of bold
hearts
Shewed where it shone, / so that they should Bear towards it straightway : / that bairn of war Wheeling his steed / a word after spake : " 'Tis time I fare hence ; / may the Father
All-Wielding,
With Rod of Mercy / rule you all Safe on your ways ! / I will to the sea Against wrathful warriors / watch to hold."
The street was stone-paven, / steering a path For the men together. / Each mail-coat shone, Hard and hand-linked, / the ring-iron bright Sang in their sarks, / as soon to the hall,
17 r
In their griesly gear / going, they came. They set, sea-weary, / broad-sided shields, Hardened bosses / by that house's wall ; They bent then to the benches ; / their byrnies
rang,
War-mail of men : / in a mass there stood Spears, seamen 's armour, / assembled together, 330 Ash-wood grey-tipped ; / was that iron troop Wealthy in weapons. / Then a warrior brave Of those athletes / their origin asked. ' Whence bring ye / these beaten shields, These grey sarks / and shutten helms, This heap of war-shafts ? / I am Hrothgar 's Usher, arm-bearer. / Ne'er saw I from elsewhere So many men / in mood more bold. I ween that from pride, / not as wretches in
exile,
But sound in heart / Hrothgar ye have sought." 340 The great in daring / gave him answer,
Proud Prince of Weders / a word after spake, Hard under his helm : / " We are Higelac's Boon-companions. / Beowulf is my name. I wish to say / to the son of Halfdane, To the mighty Prince, / this errand of mine, To thy men's Elder, / if he will allow it us That so good a man / we may greet." Wulfgar spake : / (that was a Wendel chief ; The way of his mind / to many was known, 350 His warring and wisdom) : / " That of the
Well-wisher of Danes, Lord of Shieldings, / shall I ask ; Of the Bestower of bracelets / as thou dost beg
me,
Of the mighty King / anent thy coming ; And to thee, such answer / at once make known As that good man / may think to give me." He hied then in haste / where Hrothgar sate, Old and hoary / amid his band of earls. He stepped forth, strong-hearted, / till he stood
by the shoulders
II
Of the Lord of the Danes. / He knew the law of
the doughty.
Wulfgar spake / to his willing Lord : " Here are men faring, / far hence coming O'er the girth of ocean, / Geatish folk ; Their eldest one / the other athletes Name Beowulf. / And they do beg That they, my master, / may with thee Wrestle in words. / Wherefore withhold not Thy consent, / courteous Hrothgar. In their war-gear / worthy seem they Of earls' esteem. / Indeed that elder is doughty, He who the battle-men / has brought hither."
VI
Hrothgar answered, / Helm of Shieldings :
" I knew him / as a little knave ;
Ecgtheow was the name / of his old father,
To whom, to his home, gave / Hrethel the Geat
His only daughter ; / it is his offspring now
Hither hardily come, / a kind friend seeking.
They said then, too, / the sea-farers
Who the free gifts / to the Geats ferried,
Thither for thanks, / that he had thirty
Men's main-strength / in the mighty grip
Of his hand, great-hearted. / Him Holy God
For a signal help / hath sent to us
To the Wester-Danes, / as I could wish,
Against Grendel's grimness. / To this good-man
shall I
For his daring / treasures deal. Be thou hastening, / bid them in To my sight, this troop of friends / assembled
together ;
Say to them eke in words / that they are welcome To the Danish people." / Then to the door of the
hall Wulfgar went, / the word announced from within :
19
' Bids me say to you / my Battle- Sovran, The East-Danes Elder, / that he your origin kens, And ye are to him, / the sea-waves over, Hardy of will, / welcome hither. Now must ye go / in your martial gear, Hidden under helmets, / Hrothgar to see ; Let your war-shields / here await — And your wooden corpse-shafts, / what comes of
this word.
Arose then the rich one, / many men round him, 400 A picked band of thegns ; / some there abiding Watched over the war-gear, / as the hardy one
wished.
Sped they together / where the guide shewed them, Under Heorot's roof. / Strong-hearted he went, Hardy under his helm, / till in the high-place he
stood.
Beowulf spake : / (on him the byrny shone, A steel net sewed / by the skill of a smith) : " Hail to thee, Hrothgar ! / I am Higelac's Cousin and kin-thegn ; / much glory I claim That I gat in my youth. / To me was this
Grendel-matter 410 On my own turf / openly told :
Say the sea-farers / that this hall standeth, Holiest of houses, / to the whole of your men Idle and useless, / soon as evening-light In the house of heaven / is hidden away. Then prevailed on me / mine own people, The best-witted, / the men of wisdom, Hrothgar, Sire, / that I should seek thee ; For the main-strength / of me they knew ; Themselves had seen me / when scatheless I came 420 Blood -foul from my foes, / when five I had
bound, When I ended the etin-kind, / and in the ocean
slew
Nicors by night ; / narrow straits I endured, Avenged the Weders' sorrows, / (woes had they
suffered !)
20
Ground down their grief-wishers. / And now with
Grendel I shall,
With that devil / decide, I only, The thing with the giant. / This now of thee, Prince of Bright-Danes, / will I beg, Safe-Guard of Shieldings, / a single boon ; Do not thou refuse me, / Refuge of Warriors, Dear Friend of thy folk, / now so far I am come ; That I may, I only, / with my band of earls, This handful of hardy ones, / cleanse out Heorot. Have I heard also, / how this horror In his wan-heeding / of weapons recks not : Hence I forswear / (so may Higelac My master to me / be blithe of mood,) A sword to bear, / or shield broad-sided, Yellow-boss to the battle ; / but with bare hands
shall I
Fight with the fiend, / and the forfeit be life Of foe against foe : / have faith he shall In a doom divine / whom death shall take : Ween I that he will, / if he be the winner, In this hall of fighters / the folk of Geats Eat, all unfearing, / as oft he did To the might of the Hrethmen. / Not for me
needst thou
Heap earth on my head, / for he will have me Drearily dripping, / if me death taketh ; When he beareth my bloody corpse, / thinketh to
browse on it,
Eateth as alone he goeth, / all unmournful, Staineth his moorland lair ; / nay, not for me
needest thou
For my body's treatment / take thought longer. But send to Higelac, / if me the struggle slay, This best of battle-shrouds / which my breast
guardeth,
Rarest of harness ; / it was HretheFs leaving, Welande's working. / Goeth aye Wyrd as she
will."
21
VII
Hrothgar answered him, / Helm of Shieldings : 1 To fight in our defence thou, / my friend
Beowulf,
And from kindness / art come to us. Fought thy father / in many feuds,
4*0 Happened he Heatholaf / to slay with his hand Among the Wylfmgs ; / then the Weder-kin For fear of harryings / might not harbour him. Thereafter sought he / the South-Dane folk, Over heaving seas / the Honour- Shieldings ; Whenas first I ruled / the folk of the Danes, And held in my youth / the gem-enriched Hoard-burgh of heroes. / Then was Heorogar
dead,
Mine elder brother / all unliving, Halfdane's boy ; / he was better than I.
470 Since then the feud / with a fee I finished ;
Sent I to the Wylfings / over the water's ridge
Ancient treasures ; / oaths he swore to me.
In my soul a sorrow / it is to say
To any guest / what Grendel hath
Of humblings for Heorot / in his hateful thoughts,
Of sudden fears fashioned ; / the host of my floor,
My war-band waneth ; / whom Wyrd hath swept
off
By greedy Grendel. / God easily can Tiiat dealer in madness / divide from his deeds.
480 Full oft they boasted, / with beer drunken, Over the ale-bowls, / did my athletes, That in the beer-hall / they would abide GrendePs onset / with grim swords. Then was this mead-hall / in morning- tide, Gore-drenched, dear house, / whenas day
lightened,
The benches all / with blood were steaming, The hall with sword-drops ; / had I henchmen the
fewer Dear and doughty, / by those whom death fordid.
22
Sit thee now to thy supper / and unseal thy
thoughts The tale of thy triumphs / as thy tongue may be
whetted."'
Then for the Geat-men / gathered together In the beer-hall / a bench was numbered ; There to sit / stout-hearted went they, Assured in their strength. / A thegn did service, He that bare in his arms / the ale-bowl beautiful, Poured the pure drink. / At whiles the poet sang High through Heorot ; / there was joy among
heroes, No small draft / of Danes and Weders.
VIII
Unferth spake, / Ecglafe's boy,
Who sate at the feet / of the Friend of Shieldings,
Unbound the battle-rune / (Beowulf's voyage was
to him,
Proud-minded mere-farer, / much annoyance, For he allowed not ever / that any other man More of glory / on this middle-garth Should hear, under heaven, / than he himself)]: " Art thou that Beowulf / who with Breca strove On the wide sea, / in swimming wagered, When ye twain, so brave, / of the tide made trial, And for a dolt's wager / in the deep water Offered life up. / Nor any man, Nor friend nor foe / forbid you might That sorrowful sailing, / when on the sound ye
swam ; Then was the water-stream / by your arm-strokes
woven, Ye measured the mere-street / in mighty
handfuls, Sped over the Spear-Man ; / splashed you the
ocean. Waves of winter. / Ye twain in the water's realm
23
Seven nights swinked ; / he in swimming outdid
thee,
He had more might. / Then in morning- tide On to the Heatho-Raems' beach / the holm
upbare him ; 520 Thence he sought / his own sweet soil,
He, loved of his people, / the land of Brondings, The fenced-burgh fair / where he had his folk, His burgh and bracelets. / All his boast with thee The son of Beanstan / in sooth fulfilled. So ween I for thee / a worse outcome, Though in war-onset thou / wert everywhere
winner,
A grimmer duel, / if for Grendel thou darest All night long / and nigh to abide." Beowulf answered, / Ecgtheow's boy : 530 * What ! Full many things, / my friend Unferth, With beer drunken / of Breca hast spoken, Hast said of his swimming. / In sooth I tell thee, That I of mere-strength / more have owned, Endurance of waves, / than any other man. We two quoth, / being little knaves, And we boasted / (we were both of us yet In the spring of youth), / that we over the
Spear-Man
\ Would dare our lives : / and even so did we. ^We held a sword naked, / when we swam on the
sound, 540 Hard in hand ; / against the whale-fishes
We thought to ward us. / No whit from me Afar on the flood-waves / might he float, Hastier on the holm ; / nor from him would I. Thus we two assembled / on the sea went Five nights forth, / until the flood scattered us, Weltering waves ; / and weather coldest, Darkening night / and northern wind Rushed on us, war-grim ; / rough were the waters. Was the mere-fishes' / malice quickened ; 550 Then against beasts / my body-sark Hard, hand-locken, / help afforded ;
24
A battle-rail broidered / on my breast lay, With gold engirdled. / Me to the ground tugged A foe, a fiend-scather, / fast he had me Grimly gripping ; / 'twas granted however That I the wretch / with my point should reach, With my battle-bill ; / the blow bare off A mighty mer-deer / by my hand.
IX
So round me often / the evil-doers
Were thickly thronging. / I thegned it them
With my dear sword, / as was their due ;
Never their fill / with joy found they,
Evil destroyers, / to eat of me,
Nor sate to their supper / the sea-ground near ;
But in the morning, / mangled with blade-wounds
On the banks of ocean / up they lay,
Soothed by the sword, / so that never since
In the high fords / the sea-farers
Might they let in their journeys. / Light from the
East came,
Bright beacon of God ; / the billows were smoothed Till the sea-nesses / I could spy, The windy walls. / Wyrd oft saveth An earl unfated, / who excels in valour. However, it so befell me / that I finished with the
sword
Nicors nine. / Nor by night have I heard Under heaven's roof / of harder fighting, Nor on ocean's race / of a man more wretched ; However, I felt the foe, / and freely escaped, Weary of wandering. / Then the sea washed me, The flow of the flood / to the Finnish land, The weltering waves. / Not one whit of thee Such armed turmoils / have I heard tell, Nor bouts with bills ; / Breca never yet In the play of battle, / nor the pair of you both So daringly / a deed performed
25
With shining sword / (I say it not boasting) Though thou to thy brethren / a bane hast been, To the sons of thy house ; / wherefore in hell thou
shalt Thy forfeit fulfil, / though fine be thy wit.
590 I say to thee in sooth, / son of Ecglaf,
That Grendel never so much / that is gruesome
had wrought,
That cruel creature / upon thy King, Nor humblings in Heorot, / if thy heart were Or thy soul as stern / as thyself thou tellest ; But he hath found / that for the feud he need not, For the cruel sword-press / of your people, Sit sorely troubled / by Triumph- Shieldings : He takes pledges at need, / none he spare th Of the Danish warriors, / but he warreth at pleasure,
600 Slayeth and swalloweth, / seeketh no vengeance From the Spear-Danes. / But speedily will I, How good and gallant / the Geats be now, In a match inform him. / Go he after who may To his mead high-minded , / when the morning's
light
Of an other day / over the offspring of men, The sun swathed in brightness / from the South
shineth."
Then was he joyful, / the Jewel- Giver, Grey-haired, war-haughty ; / In help he trusted, The Head of the Bright-Danes ; / heard from Beowulf
610 The Herd of the folk, / his fixed purpose.
There was laughter of heroes, / loud resounding ; Words were winsome. / Went Wealhtheow forth, The Queen of Hrothgar, / heedful of custom, Gold-decked she greeted / the grooms in hall : And that free-born wife / the flagon handed First to the East-Danes' / Friend and Elder, Bade him be blithe / at that beer-tasting, Him, loved of his landsmen ; / he lustily took The feast and the flagon, / fortunate King.
26
Then went around / that Woman of the Helmings,
To old and young, / gave each his share
Of the treasure-cup, / till the time was come
That she to Beowulf, / braceleted Queen,
Noble-minded, / the mead-bowl bare ;
Greeted she the Geats' Prince ; / God she thanked,
Wise in her words, / that her wish was
accomplished,
That she on any / earl might reckon For comfort against the curse. / The cup he took, A war-fierce warrior, / from Wealhtheow, And then brake into speech, / for battle ready ; Beowulf made utterance, / Ecgtheow's boy : l< I sware this oath / when I sailed on the ocean, In a sea-boat sate / with my soldier-band, That, once for all, / would I your people's Wish have wrought, / or warring have fallen, In the fiend's grip fast. / Fashion I shall Earl-like efforts, / or the end of the days Of me shall await / in this mead-hall. To the wife that word / well-liking seemed, The gest of the Geat ; / gold-decked she went, A free-born Folk-Queen, / by her Friend to sit. Then was, after as erst-while, / inside the hall The proud word spoken ; / the people rejoiced, The conquerors clamoured, / till sudden it came That Halfdane's son / would go to seek His evening rest ; / he knew that the evil one That high hall / did think to harry, Soon as the sun's light / see they might not, Or, now descending / night over all, Shapes of the shadows / slinking came, Wan under the welkin. / The warriors all arose ; Greeted each one / then the other, Hrothgar Beowulf, / and bade him hail, Wield it in the wine-hall, / and this word quoth : " Never have I to any men / ere now entrusted, Since shield on fist / I first might shew, The noble-hall of Danes, / but now to thee. Have thou and hold / this holiest of houses,
Of thy fame be mindful, / thy might make known, 660 Watch for the wrath. / Nor thy wish shalt thou
lack, If all that effort / alive thou endurest."
Bewent him then Hrothgar / with his band of
heroes,
Help of the Shieldings, / out of hall ; He would, the War-Chief, / Wealhtheow seek, A Queen for his couch. / He had, the Kings' Glory, Against Grendel, / (so grooms heard tell) A sentinel set ; / who service did About the Danes' Elder, / offered watch against
etins.
However the Geats' Prince / gladly trusted 670 In his moody might, / in his Maker's Mercy. Then he did off /his iron byrny, His helm from his head, / gave his hiked sword, Choicest of irons, / to his armour-bearer, And bade him hold / the battle-harness. Spake then the brave one / some boasting words, Beowulf the Geat, / ere to bed he went : " Not in the might of hosts / more meagre hold I
me,
In the game of war, / than Grendel's self ; Therefore with the sword to sleep / will I not send
him, 680 Nor of life dis-use him, / though all that I may.
Knows he not the good ways / gainst me to strike,
My round-shield to hew, / though rough he be
In works of violence ; / but we two by night shall
Set aside the sword, / if seek he dare
War without weapons, / and then let Wise God,
The Holy Lord, / on either hand
The merit deem, / as meet He thinketh."
Laid him down then the Champion, / a
cheek-bolster took
28
The face of the earl, / and all around many
A seely seaman / sank to rest.
Not one of them thought / that therefrom he
should
His own loved earth / ever after see, The folk or the free-burgh / where he was fostered: For they had found / that far too many before In that wine-hall / death had wasted Of the Danish people. / But to them the Divine
One gave
Webs of war-speed, / to the Weder-people Solace and succour, / that their foe they should Through the craft of one / all overcome, By the might of himself ; / in sooth it is known That Mighty God / all mannes-kind Through wide-time wieldeth. / Came in the wan
night Stalking, the shadow-goer. / The shooters
slumbered,
They who the hall-house / should be holding, All but one. / This by each was known That them he must not, / If their Maker willed it
not,
The ceaseless scather, / under the shadows snatch ; But he, waking, / in the wrath's defiance, Abode, boiling with rage, / the battle's outcome.
XI
Then came from the moor / under misty slopes
Grendel gliding, / God's ire he bare ;
Was minded, that murderer, / of mannes-kind
Some to ensnare / in that solemn hall.
Waded he under the welkin / till he the wine-house,
Gold-hall of grooms / might get well in sight,
With filigrees fretted ; / nor was it the first time
That he Hrothgar's / home had sought.
Nor ever in his days did he, / ere nor after,
Hardier hero / nor hall-thegns find.
29
720 Came then to the house / that creature hieing,
From delights divided ; / the door soon opened, Though with fired-bands fastened, / when his
fingers touched it ; Burst he in then balefully-minded, / and boiling
he was,
The mouth of the room. / Rapidly after On its fashioned floor / the fiend was treading, On went he ireful, / in his eyes there shone, To leaping-flame likest, / a light unlovely, Saw he in the hall / heroes many, A cousin-band sleeping / couched together,
730 A heap of friendly warriors. / Then his heart
laughed out ;
He was minded to divide, / ere the day came, That ugly devil, / in each and all The life from the limbs ; / then lust to him came Of feasting his fill. / Nor was it fated again That more he might / of mannes-kind Stomach after that night. / A strong wrong beheld Higelac's man, / how the mortal scather With his fearsome grip / would be faring. Nor that did the devil / think to delay,
740 But he seized swiftly / in his first swoop A sleeping man, / unawares he slit him, Bit his bones '-cover, / his blood-streams drank, Swift mouthfuls swallowed ; / soon he had The unliving man / all polished clean, From his feet to his fingers. / Forth, nearer, stepped
he,
Took then with his hands / that highest-minded Hero at rest ; / reached out against him The fiend with his hand ; / he quickly held him With thoughts of envy, / and sate on his arm.
750 Soon did he find, / that shepherd of felonies, That he had not met, / in Middle-Garth, In the ends of the earth, / from any other man A hand-grip harder ; / he in his heart Felt sore afraid ; / nor the sooner there-from might he.
3°
In his mind was he fain / into the mirk to flee, The tribe of devils to seek ; / nor was his treatment
there
Such as in earlier days / he had ever met. Was minded then the gallant / mate of Higelac Of his evening-speech. / Upright he stood, And fast him held ; / his fingers wrere bursting : Etin was outward ; / Earl farther stepped. Meant he, so mighty, / whereso he might To wind aside, / and on his way thence Flee to the fen-lands ; / he knew that his fingers
were held
In a jealous grip. / 'Twas a joyless journey That the harmful-scather / to Heorot made. Dinned then the master-hall ; / and to the Danes
all seemed it,
To the chester-dwellers, / to each of the keenest, To the earls, an ale-drought. / Ireful were both Those cruel wardens. / The walls were crashing ; It was a great wonder / that the wine -hall Withstood the grim-fighters, / that to the ground
it fell not,
The fair field-dwelling ; / but so fast it was Inside and outside / with iron bindings, By sage thought smithied. / Then from the sills
fell
Mead-benches many / (my story tells) With gold finished, / where the foes grappled ; Nor weened ere then / the wisest Shieldings That any among men / could manage it ever Beautiful, bone-decked, / to break asunder, Or find out to unlock it, / unless the flame's
embrace
Should swallow it in smoke. / A sound ascended New enough ; / on the North-Danes fell An awful terror / on each and all, Who from the wall / to his weeping hearkened, To God's enemy greeting / a griesly lay, No song of triumph, / his sores bewailing,
Hell's bondman. / For held him fast He that of men was / in might the strongest 790 In the days / of this our life.
XII
Would not the earls '-buckler / for any thing
Let that quelling quester / quick escape him ;
Nor his time on the earth / to any tribe
Deemed he useful. / Drew then each
Of Beowulf's earls / his ancient heirloom,
And would his lordes / life defend,
The marvellous Prince, / if so they might.
For this they wist not, / when they waged against
him, The hardy-minded / men of battle,
800 And on every half / they thought to hew him,
To search out his soul ; / that the ceaseless scather
Not one upon earth / of the choicest irons,
Of war-bills none / would there come near,
For winning weapons / he had bewitched,
And every sword-edge. / Must the end of his time
In the days / of this our life
Be sorrow-full, / and the foreign phantom
Into the fiends' realm / far must travel.
Then this he found, / who freely erstwhile
810 In mirthful mood / against man-kind
Had fashioned felonies, / he, foes with God,
That his live body / might last no longer,
For him the haughty / mate of Higelac
Had by the arm ; / so each to the other
While he lived was baneful. / Grief of body he
bore,
The wicked wretch ; / a wound in his shoulder, A swelling sore shewed ; / the sinews sprang out, The bones '-cover burst. / To Beowulf was The glory given ; / must Grendel thence
820 Sick of life flee / under fenland slopes,
Seek a joyless dwelling ; / judged he surely
32
That his evil life / to an end was come, The tale of his days. / For the Danes all was After that fatal fight / fulfilment of wishes. Had he then cleansed, / he that came from afar, Wise-head and stout-heart, / the hall of Hrothgar, From jeopardy saved it ; / he rejoiced in that night's
work,
In his excellent strength. / To the East-Danes had The Geat-men's Prince / his proud boast
performed,
So that their miseries / all were mended, The sorrow of enmity / they had erstwhile
endured,
When in throes of need / they had to thole Taunts not a little. / 'Twas a token clear, When that battle-hero / the hand laid down, The arm and the oxter / (it was all there together, GrendePs grip !) / under the groined roof.
XIII
Then were in the morning / (my story tells) Around the mead-hall / many a bold man ; Fared the folk-leaders / from far and near Over wide ways, / a wonder to witness, The foot-prints of their foe. / That his life was
finished Seemed no matter for sorrow / to any of those
men
Who his un -triumphant / track regarded, How, weary at heart / on his way from thence, In fight overcome, / to the fen of the nicors, Fordoomed and fleeing, / he had footed life's road. There was his blood / to the brink up-welling, Awful waves, eddying / all bemingled With boiling gore, / with blade-drops surged ; Death-fated he dyed them, / when divided from
joys
In his fenland lair / he laid down life,
33 E
His heathenish soul ; / there hell him seized. Came back there-after / the elder comrades And youngsters many, / a jovial journey, From the mere, so happy, / on horses mounted Boys upon bays. / There was Beowulf's Might proclaimed ; / many and oft quothey That south nor north, / two seas between, Over the endless earth, / never another
860 Under the bowl of heaven / was there better, A round-shield warrior / more worthy to rule. Nor did they in their Friend and Lord / the least
fault find,
In glad Hrothgar, / for that was a good King. At whiles, great in battle, / they let gallop, Matched in a race, / their fallow mares, Where the field-ways / fairest were reckoned, Kenned and chosen. / At whiles the King's thegn, A man boast-laden, / of ballads mindful, Who almost all / of the olden sayings
870 Could well remember, / fresh words would find, With truth entwined. / He took up his tale Of the coming of Beowulf, / cleverly weaving it, And spake with good speed / his skilful stories, Wrestled in words ; / well-nigh all he quoth That of Sigemund he / had heard them say, His mighty efforts, / unknown things many, The wars of the Waelsing, / his wide journeys, Whereof the sons of men / were scarcely aware, Of feuds and of felonies, / save Fitela by his side,
880 When something of such matters / would he say, An uncle to his nephew, / for so ever they were In fighting times / faithful comrades : They had almost all / of the etin-kindred Sunk with their swords. / Unto Sigemund sprang After the day of his death / a deal of glory, Since, hardy in war, / the Worm he quelled, That herd of the hoard ; / under a hoary stone, An atheling's son, / alone he ventured A fearless deed ; / nor was Fitela with him :
34
However it was sent him / that his sword went
through
That wondrous Worm, / till in the wall it stood, A doughty iron, / and the dragon swooned in death. He had, that gallant, / so wholly gained, That the jewel-hoard / he might enjoy As himself listed ; / a sea-boat he loaded, Bare into the breast of the ship / bright adornments, Did Waelses son. / The Worm its heat melted. He was of wanderers / well the most famous In the houses of men, / a helper of warriors By his daring deeds : / so in days of old throve he. Whenas Heremodes / hardihood waned, His power and his prowess, / amid the Eotens he
passed
Into bondage of his foes / forth betrayed, Sent away swiftly. / Surging of sorrows Lamed him too long. / Throughout life he was A care to his own, / to his kinsmen all. So that often bewailed / in olden times The stout-hearted one's sailing / sage carls many Who on him, as a bulwark / against bale, had
believed, When, son of their Kings, / he should come to
manhood,
Take his father's rulership, / reign over the folk, The hoard and the refuge, / a realm of heroes, Homestead of Shieldings. / He was by all — Higelac's mate — / of mannes-kind, By his friends more favoured. / But in felony the
other was steeped.
At whiles in races / the yellow roads
The mares' feet measured. / Then was morning's
light
Thrust suddenly forth. / Fared soldiers many, Haughty-hearted, / to that high hall, To see a strange wonder ; / so himself too, the
King, Out of the bride-bower,/ the bracelet-store's warden,
35
Trod forth triumphant, / with a troop beyond
number, He, kenned and chosen, / and his Queen beside
him The mead-walk measured / with her maiden-band.
XIV
Hrothgar spake ; / he to the hall going
Stood on the steps of it, / saw the steep-pitched
roof
With gold made lovely, / and Grendel's hand : " For this ensign / to the Almighty thanks At once be offered. / Many evils have I borne, 930 Gins set by Grendel ; / ever may God work Wonder upon wonder, / Warden of Glory. 'Tis not any time / since I from none Of my woes did ween / that in the wide world
ever
I should reach a remedy, / when, reeking of blood, This dearest of houses / sword-dreary stood ; Woe scattered wide / my wise men all Who weened not that they / in the wide world
ever
Might the folk's cloister / close to their foes, To demons and devils. / Now a doughty one hath 940 By Grace Divine / a deed accomplished, Where all of us / might not ever Succeed, for our subtilty. / What ! Now may she
say,
Whosoever the woman be / who this warrior bore, The latest of his line, / if she yet liveth, That God of old / was gracious to her At her child-bearing. / Now, Beowulf, thee, Sagest of men, / as mine own son Will I love throughout life ; / good-luck attend
thee With thy new kindred ; / be thou never in need
36
95° Of thy wish in the world, / while I am wielding
power.
Full oft and for less, / fees have I lavished, From my hoard have honoured / men less hardy, Feebler in fight. / Thy fame thou hast Made so great by thy deeds / that thy glory liveth For ever and all time. / May the Almighty with
thee
Deal ever kindly / as He did this day ! " Beowulf answered, / Ecgtheow's boy : ' We this mighty work / with great good will Fought and finished ; / fiercely dared we
960 The rage of the unknown ; / rather would I That thou himself / mightest have seen, The fiend in his war-gear, / wearily falling. Hastily I, / as hard I clasped him, On his death-bed / thought to bind him, So that, gripped by my / muscles, he should Lie, for life gasping ; / lest his body leap from me. But him I might not, / for the Maker willed it not, Keep from his going ; / I did not cling fast enough To that fatal foe ; / too forceful he was,
970 The fiend on his feet. / However his fingers he
left,
His life to save, / and to leave us a sign of him, His arm and his oxter. / Nor yet did he any Happiness purchase, / a helpless wight. No longer he liveth / in loathly doings, Burdened with sins ; / but sore pain hath him In a grip of necessity / narrowly prisoned, In baleful bonds ; / there shall he abide, A monster foul with malice, / the mighty doom Which the Shining Maker / as sentence shall mete him."
980 Then a silent man / was the son of Ecglaf In boasting words / of his battle-works, Since that the athelings / by that earl's strength Over the high roof / a hand could see, A fiendes fingers / before them all. Was the stem of each nail / to steel best likened,
37
Heathenish hand-spurs, / the battle-hardy one's
Talon unholy ; / then each of them told
That there was naught so hard / that hold him
might,
Nor old-tried iron / which from that ogre 990 The bloody battle-fist / might break away.
XV
Then it was hastily / ordered that Heorot
withinwards Be made fair by men's fingers ; / not a few were
there
Of wights and of women / who that wine-house, The guest-hall garnished. / Gold-broidered shone Webs on the walls, / wonder-sights many For every soul / that on such things stare th. Was that bright building / broken sorely Though inwards all / with iron-bands fastened, Its hinges sundered ; / the roof only still jooo Was whole and sound, / when the wanton one Foul with felonies / in flight bewent, Of life unhopeful. / Not easy is it To escape away, / make the effort who will, But each soul-bearer / shall be borne, By necessity bound, / of the bairns of men, Of the peoples on ground, / to the place prepared Where his dear body, / in its bed-lair fast, Sleeps after life's supper. / Then was season and
reason
That to the hall should go / Halfdane's son ; 1010 The King himself / would partake of the supper. Nor have I heard that a muster / of men so many About their booty-giver / bare themselves better. Bent they then to the benches, / abundant in wealth, With joy they feasted ; / and fairly tasted Many a cup-ful / the kinsmen of all there, Hardy of heart / in that hall so high, Hrothgar and Hrothulf . / Heorot within was
38
Filled with friends ; / no fashion of treason The Shielding-People / shaped that while. Gave then to Beowulf / the bairn of Halfdane An ensign of gold / to grace his triumph, Broidered shaft-standard, / byrny and helmet ; A mighty treasure -sword / many saw there Borne before that brave. / Beowulf took The flagon on the floor, / nor of that fee-gift Among the shooters / shamed need he be ; Nor have I heard that more friendliwise / four
treasures
Any gold-girdled / groups of men At the ale-benches each / upon other bestowed. About the roof of that helmet / his head's safety, With wires ywounden, / a wreath guarded
without, That the file-sharp blades, / boldly aimed, might
not, Shower- tempered, scathe him, / when the
shield-warrior
Should be going / against his foes. Bade then the Earls '-Buckler / eight horses With fashioned facings / upon the floor be led In under the barriers ; / on one of them stood A saddle, tricked out, / with treasures shining ; That was the captain-seat / of the High King, When in the play of swords / the son of Halfdane Was fain to flourish ; / never failed in the
forefront
His famous skill / when the slain were falling. And then to Beowulf / of both these riches The Prince of Ing's Friends / possession gave, Animals and weapons ; / bade him well to use
them.
So manliwise / the Mighty Lord, •
Hoard- Warden of heroes, /battle-horrors
rewarded With mares and with metal, / so that never man
may blame him, Who wishes to say / the sooth as is right.
39
XVI
1050 Then also on each / the Lord of Earls,
Of those who with Beowulf / the brimming-sea
travelled,
At that mead-bench / bestowed treasures, Ancient heirlooms ; / and for that one he bade That gold be given, / whom Grendel lately With malice had quelled, / as more of them he
would,
Had not Wise God / their wyrd withstood, And the might of their man. / The Maker ruled
over all
The nations of men, / as now even He doth ; Wherefore is understanding / everywhere best, 1060 Forethought of mind. / Much shall he find Of lovely and loathly, / he who long here In these war-days / the world brooketh. There was singing and sounding / assembled
together
Before Halfdane's / battle-headsman, The laughter-wood was touched, / the lay oft told, When of hall-pleasure / Hrothgar's bard Along the mead-benches / made announcement.
' By Finnes offspring, / when fear gat hold of them, The hero of Half-Danes, / Hnaef of the Shieldings
1070 In Frisian fight / to fall was fated.
No wise did Hildeburh / need to honour The troth of the Eotens ; / unsinning, she was Lorn of her loved ones / at that linden-play, Of her boys and her brothers ; / they bowed to
their fate, Wounded with spears ; / that was a sorrowful
woman.
Nor without due reason / did Hocces daughter The Maker's Doom mourn / when morning came, When under the sunshine / she might see Her men lie murdered / where most she had held
1080 Of joys in the world. / War took off all
40
Of Finnes thegns, / except a few only,
So that he might not / in the meeting-place
Fight one whit / in war with Hengest,
Nor his sorry few / by fighting save
From the Prince's thegn. / But they offered in
payment That another place for him / they would have all
ready,
A hall and a high-seat ; / that half of the lordship They might own and share / with the sons of the
Eotens ;
And that at fee-givings / Folcwalda's son Every day / the Danes should endow, Hengest 's host / with rings should honour, With even so much / of massed treasures, Of fashioned gold, / as he the Frisian kin In the beer-hall / would embolden. Then they trysted / on the two sides. A fast peace -compact ; / Finn to Hengest In strength, unstriving, / with oaths did swear That he the woeful few, / by his wise men's decree, Would nourish with honour, / so that no man
there
By words or by works / should wreck the treaty, Nor by evil cunning / ever undo it, Though they their sovran's / slayer should follow Master-less, / as needs they must ; But if any of the Frisians, / fool-hardy in speech Of that murderous hatred / mindful were, Then the sword's edge / should avenge it. The pact was plighted, / and precious gold Borne up from the hoard. / The Army-Shieldings' Best man-of-battle / on his bier lay ready ; On that pyre was / plainly seen A blood-stained sark, / a Swine all-golden, Iron-hard Boar, / and athelings many Struck down by their wounds ; / some in the strife
had fallen.
Bade she then, Hildeburh, / that on Hnaefes pyre Her own self's sons / to the flames be sent,
41
Their bodies for burning / on the bier to don ; Her hand on his shoulder / sorrowed that lady, With lays lamented. / The lord arose ; Curled up to the clouds / of corpse-fires the
greatest,
1 1 20 Roared before the mound ; / their heads melted, Wound-gates burst open ; / then blood sprang out From bodies foe-bitten. / The flame all swallowed, Most gluttonous ghost, / those whom the war had
gotten, Of both the folks ; / their bloom was scattered.
XVII
»
Departed those valiants / to visit their dwellings, Forlorn of their friends, / Friesland to see, Their homes and high burgh. / Hengest all through That death-stained winter / dwelt with Finn In strength unstriving ; / his homestead he remembered,
1130 Although he might never / over the mere drive
His ringed-stem ; / with storms the holm weltered, Warred with the wind. / Winter locked the waves Ice-ybounden, / till that there came another Year in the garths, / even as yet doth (What, surely, aye / observes the season) Glory-bright weather. / Then was winter scattered, Fair was the field's bosom, / forth went the exile, The guest from the garths ; / he of grief's avenging Sooner thought / than of sea-faring,
1 140 If he a bitter meeting / might bring about, That the men of the Eotens / therein be
remembered.
So he did not refuse / the world's ruling When Hunlafing / the light of battle, The best of blades / in his bosom thrust ; Whose edges were / to the Eotens known. So to fearless-hearted / Finn befell Sword-death savage / to himself at home,
42
When the grim grappling / Guthlaf and Oslaf
After sea-sailing / in sorrow lamented,
Charged him with a share of their woes ; / nor
might he the wavering life
Hold in his breast. / Then the hall was bestrewn With bodies of foemen ; / Finn likewise was slain, A King mid his courtiers / and the Queen taken. The shooters of the Shieldings / to their ships
carried
All the inward furnishings / of that earthly King, Which in Finnes home / they might be finding, Sun-jewels, subtle -gems. / Then on the sea-way His courtly dame / to the Danes they carried, Led her to her people."
The lay was sung,
The gleeman's gest. / Joy after arose, Bright grew the bench-sound ; / Bearers gave out Wine from wondrous vessels. / Then came
Wealhtheow forth Going beneath a golden crown, / even where the
goodly twain Sate, the uncle and the nephew ; / still were they
each at peace together, Each of them was true to the other. / So there
Unferth, too, the spokesman, Sate by the feet of the Shieldings' Father ; / all of
them in his feeling trusted, That he had a cruel courage, / though he was not
to his kinsmen Loyal, with the sword -edge playing. / Spake then
the Lady of the Shieldings : 1 Take thou this flagon, / free-lord of mine, Heaper of treasure, / happy be thou, Gold -friend of men, / and to the Geats speak In mild words, / as a man should do. Be glad with the Geats, / of gifts be mindful ; Near and far, / thou now peace findest. Men have said to me / that thou for thy son wouldst Have this hero. / Heorot is cleansed, Bright hall of jewels ; / enjoy while thou mayest
43
Comforts many, / and to thy kindred leave Folk and kingdom / when forth thou must,
1 1 80 To meet thy Maker. / I know mine own
Gracious Hrothulf, / that our youth he will Hold in honour, / if thou sooner than he, Lover of Shieldings, / leavest the world : Ween I that he good things / will yield again To our own offspring, / if all he remembers That we two for his wish / and his worship of old When he was a child / in his honour planned." Turned she then by the bench / where her boys
were, Hrethric and Hrothmund, / and the heroes' bairns,
1190 The youths together ; / there the good one sate,
Beowulf of the Geats, / by those brethren twain.
XVIII
To him was the flagon borne, / and friendly
bidding
Given in words, / and wounden gold Gladly offered, / arm-girdles twain, Rings and a garment, / the greatest of necklets Whereof I on this earth / was ever told. Nor under the sky have I / heard of any seemlier Treasure hoard of heroes, / since Hama bore off To that bright burgh / the Brosings' collar, 1200 The crown and the casket ; / from the cunning he
fled
Of Eormanric, / chose the Eternal Rule. That ring had also / Higelac the Geat, Grandson of Swerting, / on his last sailing, When he under his banner / the booty guarded, Fenced the spoils of the slain ; / him fate sped
hence,
When in wanton pride / woes he suffered, A feud with the Frisians. / He that finery wore, Costly stones, / on the cup of the waters, Richest of princes ; / under his shield he perished.
44
Lay then in the Franks' keeping / the life of that
King,
His body's clothing / and the collar therewith ; Evil prowlers / his corpse plundered By the fortune of war ; / the folk of the Geats Held that field of slaughter.
The hall filled with sound. Wealhtheow began then, / before the warriors
spake :
' This bended-work use, / Beowulf, beloved Youth, with good luck, / and this garment wear, The people's treasures, / and prosper well. Shew thyself in thy strength, / and to these
striplings give
Kindly rede ; / thy reward I will remember. So hast thou fared, / that far and near All their lives long / shall men esteem thee, Even so far abroad / as the sea is bowed about Windy earth-walls. / Be while thou livest A wealthy atheling ; / I wish thee much Store of treasures. / Be to these sons of mine Helpful in thy deeds. / Uphold them in happiness. Here is every earl / by the others trusted, Mild of mood, / to the Master loyal, The thegns are kindly, / the commons all in
readiness.
Drinking, the nobles / do as I bid them." Went she then to her seat. / There was of suppers
the choicest,
Drank wine those wights ; / Wyrd they knew not, The forecast grim / that was falling upon Many an earl. / Soon as evening came, And Hrothgar bewent him / to his own home A rich man to his rest, / guarded that roof Earls unnumbered, / as often of old they had done. The bench-tree they bared ; / it was over-borne With beds and with bolsters. / Of the beer-sharers
one
Fey and fated / to his floor- rest bent. Set they by their heads / their shields of war,
45
Board-wood bright ; / on the bench there was Over each atheling / easily seen A battle-steep helmet, / a ringed byrny, A mighty spear- wood. / Their manner it was That they ever were / for war all ready Or at home or in the host, / or howso it might be Even at such times / as to their sovran lord 1250 The need might come ; / that was a kindly race.
XIX
They sank then to sleep. / One sorely paid for His evening-rest, / as full oft it befell them What time the golden hall / Grendel haunted, And wrought unrightly / until his end came, Slaughter after his sins. / Then seemingly was it Known widely of men / that a wreaker of
vengeance still
Lived after that loathly one, / long time enough After the griefs and murders ; / Grendel's mother, A woman, a monster-wife, / her woes remembered, 1 2 60 She who in dread waters / her dwelling must keep, In coldest streams ; / since Cain became With his blade the bane / of his only brother, The seed of his father ; / then forth into exile went
he, Marked with that murder, / from men's joys
fleeing ; In the wastes he wandered. / Awoke from him
many
Ghosts fore-ordained, / and Grendel one of them, That hateful sword -wolf / who in Heorot found A watching man / his warfare abiding. There was the griesly one / groping after him ; 1270 Howbeit he remembered / his mighty strength, The gift firm-set / which God had sent him ; And himself to the Father's / favour entrusted, For comfort and kindness ; / whereby he
overcame the fiend,
46
Felled the hell-ghost, / who gat him forlorn,
From delights divided, / his death-place to seek,
Man-kindes foe. / And so now his mother,
A glutton gloom-minded / was for going
A sorrowful voyage / her son's death to avenge ;
Came she then to Heorot, / where the Ring-Danes
Through the hall were sleeping. / Then, there,
swiftly, was
A change for the earls, / when in on them charged Grendel's mother. / Was her grimness less By even so much / as a maiden's strength is, A wife's war-grimness / than a weaponed man's, When the hilted blade, / by a hammer beaten, When the sword blood-stained / the Swine on the
helmet
Of the enemy sheareth, / doughtily edged. Then was in hall / the hard-edge drawn, The sword over the seats, / and shield-rings many Held fast in hand ; / of helmet he recked not, Nor of spreading byrny, / whom that horror
seized.
She was in haste, / would hie away thence For safety, as soon / as she was seen ; At once, of the athelings / one she had Fast in her fangs ; / then fenwards she went. He was Hrothgar's / dearest henchman, By the custom of comrades, / two coasts between, A rich shield-warrior, / whom she brake in his
rest,
A baron well-famed. / Nor was Beowulf there, For another inn / was erewhile allotted, After treasure-giving, / to the mighty Geat. Arose shouting in Heorot ; / she in its blood took A hand they kenned ; / their care was renewed, Grew in the dwellings. / That deal was not good Which they on both sides / had to barter, The lives of friends. / Then was the learned King, Hoary warrior, / harshly minded, When his elder thegn / all unliving,
47
His dearest soldier, / dead he saw.
1310 Swiftly to the bower / was Beowulf summoned, The man of triumph ; / with the twilight of dawn Went mid his carles / the excellent champion, Himself with his comrades / where the sage King Wondered whether the Almighty / ever would After that chapter of woe / work him any change. Went then over the floor / the man famed in armies With his handful following, / (the hall-wood
dinned)
That he the wise one / in words might greet, The Lord of Ing's Friends, / might ask if so it was,
1320 After this call in need, / that the night had been quiet.
XX
Hrothgar spake, / the Helm of Shieldings :
" Ask not thou of our safety ; / sorrow is renewed
In the Danish people. / Dead is /Eschere,
Yrmenlafe's / elder brother,
My rune-binder / and my rede-bearer,
Who stood by my shoulder / when we in the shock
Fended our heads / in the footmen's onset,
When crests were shattered. / So should an earl
be
Ever good ; / so /Eschere was. 1330 In Heorot was / the hand that slew him
A wandering death-guest's, / nor wot I whither That terror, carrion-proud, / turned again
homewards,
In the fame of her feast. / She the feud has avenged Wherein thou, yesternight / Grendel quelledst, By thy hardihood / harshly clasping him, For that he too long / my loyal people Beset and brought low. / He bowed in the battle At the cost of his life ; / and now another is come,
48
A mighty murdress, / her man would avenge,
And farther hath / the feud carried,
Wherefore may it be thought / by many a thegn,
Who for his treasure-giver / in his soul greeteth,
A heart-sorrow hard ; / now the hand low lieth
That to each among you / yielded his desire.
I the land-dwellers, / my loyal people,
The sage men in hall, / I have heard them say
That they have seen / such a twain
Of mighty march-steppers / holding the moors,
Ghosts of Elsewhere ; / one of them was,
As with most certainty / they might perceive,
In a woman's likeness ; / the other, to
wretchedness doomed, In a man's image / the exile-ways trod, Save that he was mightier / than any man other, Who in days of yore / Grendel was named By the field-dwellers ; / of his father they know
not
Whether any for him / was ever begotten Among ghosts of darkness. / In a doubtful land Dwell they, wolf -slopes, / windy nesses, Fearsome fen-paths, / where the force from the
mountains
Under misty nesses / netherwards floweth, A flood under the fields. / 'Tis not far from hence As miles are marked / that the mere standeth, Above which hang / rimy bowers, A wood fast-rooted / the water o'ershadows. There will, every night, / a wonder be seen, Fire in the flood. / There is none found so wise Of the sons of men,/ who has sounded those depths. Though the heath-stepper, / by hounds sore
swinked,
The hart strong of horn / the holt-wood seek, Put to flight from afar ; / life freely he selleth, His soul on the shore, / sooner than therein will
he
Hide his head. / 'Tis no happy spot, that ; Thence an eddying wave / ascendeth upwards,
49 F
Wan to the welkin, / when the wind stirreth Loathly weather, / till the lift darkeneth, The heavens weep. / Now wisdom belongs Again to thee only. / That airt yet thou knowest
not,
The marshes of fear / where thou mayest find That soul full of sins. / Seek if thou darest. 1380 I will thee for the fight / with a fee reward, With olden treasures, / as erst I did, With wounden gold, / if away thou comest."
XXI
Beowulf answered, / Ecgtheow's boy :
" Sorrow not, old sage ; / better serves it that each
man
His friend's murder avenge, / than much mourning. Every one of us / the end must await Of life in the world, / let him win who may Fame before death ; / that is for a fighting man Whose life is over / thereafter best.
1390 Arise, Realm -Warden, / let us run forth, G renders kinswoman / go we tracking. I swear to thee this / that she shall not escape me In folds of the earth / nor in mountain forests, Nor on ocean-ground, / go where she will. This day therefore / do thou have patience In each of thy woes, / as I wish of thee. Upleaped then the greybeard, / God he thanked, The Mighty Lord, / for what the man had spoken. Then for Hrothgar / a horse was bridled,
1400 A charger with woven mane ; / the wise old Prince Went forth in state ; / stepped out the war-band Of shield-bearers. / The track was shewing, Along the wood-paths / widely seen, Footprints over the ground ; / she had gone for ward
Over the murky moor, / their mate-thegn had borne,
5°
Of soul bereft, / the best of them
Who with Hrothgar / the home had guarded.
The son of the athelings / then went over
Steep stone-cliffs, / strait passages,
Single tracks, / a road untrodden,
Beetling nesses, / nicor-houses many ;
He went first, / with him a few
Prudent men, / the plain to espy,
Until in a trice / the mountain trees
He found o'erhanging / a hoary stone,
That joyless wood ; / the water stood under,
Drumling, blood-dreary. / To the Danes all was,
To the friends of Shieldings, / sorrow of soul
For many a thegn / that he had to thole,
Trouble for each of the earls / whenas ^Eschere's
Head they met / on that holm-cliff.
The flood surged with blood / (the folk saw that)
With heart-drops hot. / The horn now sang,
Sounding to battle. / The soldiers all sate ;
They saw then in the water / of the worm-kind
many,
Strange sea-dragons / swimming the sound, Also, on the ness-slopes, / nicors lying, (Who in the first daylight / often follow A sorrowful course / on the sail-road), Worms and wild-deer ; / away they hurried, Bitter and belching, / the blast they had heard, The war-horn yelling. / One the Yeats' Prince With his leaping bow / bereft of life, Of his strife with the waves, / so that stood in his
guts
The harsh war-arrow ; / he on the holm was Slower in swimming, / for death then seized him. Swiftly was he on the billows / by their boar-sprits Sharply hooked, / hard bested, Cruelly pressed / and pulled on the cliff, A wondrous wave-breaster ; / the warriors looked On their griesly guest. / Girded him Beowulf In the weeds of an earl, / nor recked at all of life ; He would in his war-byrny, / braided by hand,
5«
Broad and broidered with skill, / brave the deep
sound ;
Well could it shelter / the sheath of his bones That the battle-grip / might not his breast, Nor the angry clutch / his spirit injure ; But the white helmet / his head warded, Which on the mere's floor / was to mingle, 1450 To seek the sound's tumult — / with treasure
made worthy,
With fine chains compassed, / as in former days The weapon-smith wrought it, / with wonders
adorned it,
Beset it with Swine-figures, / so that since then no Brand nor battle-blade / managed to bite it. Nor was that the meanest / of main-supports Wherewith Hrothgar's spokesman / helped him
in his need ;
That hafted blade / Hrunting was named ; Twas one of the foremost / of ancient treasures ; Its edge was of iron, / etched with poison-twigs, 1460 Hardened in the blood of hosts ; / never in battle
had it failed
Any man / whose arm had clasped it, Who the way of terror / dared to tread, The field of foemen ; / 'twas not the first time That an excellent work / it wras to accomplish. Indeed he recalled not, / Ecglaf's kinsman Strong in might, / what he had spoken before, With wine drunken, / when that weapon he lent To a better swordsman ; / himself, he durst not Under the rush of the waves / risk his life, 1470 Act with lordship ; / lost he thereby glory,
An excellent fame ; / 'twas not so with the other When he for the assault / had armed himself.
XXII
Beowulf spake, / Ecgtheow's boy :
" Bethink thee now, mighty / man of Halfdane,
52
Duke most wise, / now that for the deed am I ready, Gold-friend of thy lads, / of what lately we said That if I should, / sharing thy need, Of life be stripped, / thou wouldst stand to me
ever,
When forth I have fared, / in a father's place. Do thou be kind / to my kinsmen-thegns, My boon-companions, / if me the battle take ; Do thou also the treasures / that in tribute thou
gavest me,
Hrothgar dearest, / to Higelac send. May he learn then from that gold, / the Lord of
the Geats, May Hrethel's son see, / when on that hoard he
stare th,
That I had found / a fine and good Jewel-giver, / and had joy while I might. And do thou let Unferth / the old heirloom, The well-wrought wave-sword, / — a widely
known man
Have that hard edge. / For me, I with Hrunting Glory will gain, / or death shall get me." After those words / the Weder-Geats' Prince Sped boldly on , / nor any answer Would he abide ; / the brimming flood whelmed That man of battle. / 'Twas the breadth of a day Ere he might get / to the ground beneath. Soon found she out / who the flood's extent Had held, a sword-glutton, / an hundred seasons, Grim and greedy, / that some groom there That home of else-things / over head was scouting. She groped then towards him ; / the warrior gripped In an awful clutch ; / not at all might she scathe His hale body ; / the rings without guarded him, So that through his coat of mail / she might not
come at him, Through the locken limb-sark / with loathly
fingers. Bare then the mer-wolf, / when to the bottom she
came,
53
The ringed Prince / to her own place, So that he might not, / for all his proud mind, Wield his weapons ; / for such wondrous things 1510 Swinked him in the sound, / sea-deer many With worrying tusks / his war-sark tare, Chased him the creatures. / Then the earl knew That he was in some or other / enemy's hall, Where no water / a whit might scathe him, Nor, for the hall's roof, / might get hold upon
him
The fierce grip of the flood ; / fire-light he saw, A blinding gleam / that brightly shone. The good one grew ware then / of the
ground-lying wolf,
A mighty mer-wife ; / a main-stroke he gave her 1520 W7ith his sword of battle, / nor its swing did his
hand withhold,
Till the ring-set sword / rang out on her head A greedy war-lay. / Then her guest found That his battle-gleamer / would not bite, Nor fetch to her heart, / but the edge of it failed The lord in his need. / It had lasted many Hard-fought meetings, / helms oft had shorn, Fated-men's war-coats ; / this was the first time For the goodly weapon / that its glory waned. Still was he purposeful, / of his prowess lost
nothing ; 1530 Of his honour mindful / was Higelac's mate.
Threw down then the banded sword / with jewels
blended
That angry warrior, / so that on the earth it lay, Stiff and steel-edged. / In his strength he trusted, Hand-muscles of might. / So a man should do Then when in war / he thinketh to win Lasting praise / nor of his life recketh. Caught then by the shoulder / (for the fight he
cared not)
The War-Geats' Master / Grendel's mother ; Flung he then, battle-hardy, / so furious was he, 1 540 The foe of his life, / till she lay on the floor.
54
She quickly again / requited his handiwork With her grim grip, / and against him reached. Stooped over then wearily / the strongest of
warriors,
The foot-men's champion, / until that he fell. Sate she then on the hall-guest / and her saxe she
drew, Broad and brown-edged ; / her bairn she 'Id
avenge,
Her only offspring. / Over his arm there lay A woven breast-net ; / that warded his life, Withstood the entry / of point and of edge. Then had sped / the son of Ecgtheow. Beneath the wide ground, / the Geatish champion, If his battle-byrny / had not brought him help, A hard war-net ; / did not Holy God Rule the winning of wars. / The Wisest Lord, The Justice of Heaven / judged it aright Easily ; / so up he stood.
XXIII
He saw then among the armour / a sword rich in
victories,
An old Eotenish blade, / doughty of edge, To warriors worshipful ; / 'twas the choicest of
weapons,
But it was mightier / than any man other Into the play of battle / might have borne, Good and glorious, / giants' work. He seized then the belted hilt ; / that Wolf of the
Shieldings,
Rough and war-rude, / the ringed blade drew ; Hopeless of living, / with heat he struck So that hard it gripped / her on the neck, Her bone-rings brake ; / the bill went through all Her fated flesh-cover ; / on the floor she crashed. The sword was sweating ; / the soldier rejoiced
in his work.
55
iS7° A flash was kindled, / light filled it within, Even so as from the sky / brightly shineth The Candle of Heaven. / He looked through the
house,
Turned then to the wall ; / the weapon heaved he, Hard, by the hilt, / Higelac's thegn, Angry, one-minded. / That edge was not
worthless
To the man of war, / for at once he would Settle with Grendel / the many assaults That he had wrought / on the Wester-Danes, Far more often / than one time only, 1580 When he Hrothgar's / hearth-companions Slew in their slumber, / swallowed sleeping Fifteen men / of the folk of Danes, And others also / carried out, A loathly loot. / For that loss repaid him The raging champion, / inas resting he saw Grendel lie, / of war grown weary, All unliving, / as erstwhile had left him The battle in Heorot. / His body sprang aside When he after death / endured that stroke 1590 The hardy sword-swing ; / then he carved off his
head.
Soon they saw, / the subtle churls, They who with Hrothgar / on the holm were
gazing,
That the eddying waves / all were mingled, The water blood-foul. / White of hair The elders about the good one / said together That they expected not ever / of that atheling That he, swelled with conquest, / would come to
seek
Their mighty Prince, / for to many it seemed That the wolf of the brine / had broken him up. 1600 Then came nones of the day ; / from the ness
departed The haughty Shieldings. / Went homewards from
thence The Gold-Friend of men. / The guests were sitting
56
Sick in mind, / and staring on the mere ;
They feared, and they felt not / that their friend
and lord
Himself they might see. / Then that sword began From the sweat of death / in icicle drops, The war-bill, to wane ; / that was something
wondrous
That it all melted, / to ice most likened When the bond of frost / the Father unloose th, Unwindeth the whirlpool-ropes, / He that wieldeth Times and climes. / That is a true Creator ! Nor took he in those places, / the Weder-Geats
Prince,
More of rich treasures, / though many he saw there, But that head / and the hilt therewith Medalled and jewelled. / The sword was now melted, Burned up the patterned blade ; / the blood was
so hot, So deadly the strange spirit / that had swooned
there in death. Soon was he swimming, / he who was saved from
the struggle, The onslaught of his enemies ; / up he dived
through the water.
The eddying waves / all were cleansed, The spreading tracts / where the stranger-spirit Finished his lifetime / and this fleeting state. Came then to the shore / that Helm of Sailors, Strong of heart, swimming, / in his sea-spoil
rejoicing,
In the mighty burden / that he brought up with him. Going then towards him, / God they thanked, The gallant band of thegns / were glad of their
Prince,
That they might see him / safe and sound. Then from that bold one / byrny and helmet Were hastily loosened. / The lake grew smooth, Water under the welkin, / weltering with blood. Fared they forth thence / the foot-paths over, Fain of mind / the field-way measured,
57
Streets well-known, / those kingly-bold men ; From that holm-cliff / the head they bare, No easy thing / for any among them, The fiercest-minded ; / four of them must Swinking carry / on a killing-shaft Grendel's head / to the golden hall,
1 640 Until there quickly / came to that hall Fierce, whetted to fight, / four and ten Geats a-going ; / their Guardian with them, Proud-minded among his troop, / the mead-plains
trod.
Then came and entered / that elder among thegns, A deed-keen man, / and duly cherished, A hero, battle-hardy, / Hrothgar to greet. Then into the house / by the hair was borne Grendel's head, / where the host were drinking, Awful before the earls / and that lady also ;
1650 On a wondrous prospect / the warriors peered.
XXIV
Beowulf made utterance, / Ecgtheow's boy : ' What ! we to thee this sea-booty, / son of
Halfdane,
Lord of Shieldings, / lustily bring In token of triumph, / whereto here thou lookest. I all unsoftly / escaped alive, In war under water / work I dared That was not easy ; / almost was My warring finished, / had not God me warded. Nor might I in the heat of it / with Hrunt-ing 1660 Work any whit, / though that weapon be worthy ; But to me granted / the Guardian of men That on the wall I saw / seemly hanging An old sword and good / (oftenmost has He guided When friends are wanting), / so that weapon I drew. Slew I in that onslaught, / as the chance offered, The keepers of the house. / Then that killing blade
58
Burned away, braided mail, / as the blood
out-sprang,
Hottest of battle-sweat. / I the hilt thereof Fetched away from my foes, / avenged their felonies, The death-qualms of Danes, / as it was due. I to thee therefore vow it, / that thou in Heorot
mayest
Sorrowless slumber / with thy soldier-band, And each of the thegns / of thy people, The doughty and young ; / and that dread them
thou needest not,
Prince of Shieldings, / from those parts, A death-bane to earls, / as of old thou didst." Then the golden hilt / to the grey warrior, The hoary host-leader, / into his hand was given, Giants' ancient work ; / it to the ownership passed, After the devils were lost, / of the Danish Lord, Wonder-smiths' work ; / and when gave up this
world
That grim-hearted groom, / God's adversary, Murder-guilty, / and his mother eke, To his keeping it went — / of the Kings of the
world
To the seemliest, / two seas between, Of those who on Sceden-ig / scattered wealth. Hrothgar answered — / the hilt he scanned, An ancient heirloom / whereon was the origin
written
Of the former warring / when the flood destroyed, Gushing ocean, / the Giants' kin ; Fearlessly fared they ; / that folk was foreign To the Lord Eternal ; / to them that ending
payment
By the welling waters / our Wielder sent. So too on the sword-guard / of shining gold By runic staves / aright was marked Was set and said / for whom the sword, Choicest of irons, / had of old been worked With wreathed hilt and worm-pattern. / Then
spake the wise
59
Son of Halfdane ; / were silent all : 1700 ' That, lo ! may he say / who soothly and right Frames for his folk, / all far things remembers, An old hearth -warden, / that this earl was Born of the best. / Thy bloom is upraised Beyond the wide ways, / my welcome Beowulf, Thine over every people. / All of it in patience
thou holdest, Thy might with wisdom of mind. / I shall grant
thee my Pact, as at first we promised ; / Thou shalt
protection furnish
All through time / to thine own tribe, A helper of heroes. / Nor was Heremod such 1710 To Ecgwela's heirs, / to the Honour-Shieldings ; Nor waxed he for their welfare, / but for wanton
slaughter
And for death-qualms / of the Danish people ; He brake, with boiling mind, /his board-companions, Who had stood by his shoulder, / until alone he
stepped,
A famous Prince, / men's pleasures from. Though him Mighty God / in the joys of mastery, In strength, exalted / over all men else, Helped and held him, / yet in his heart there grew A blood-rough breast-hoard ; / no bracelets gave he 1 720 To the Danes, as was due ; / undelighting abode he, So that he from that turmoil / trouble suffered, A lasting folk-sorrow. / Do thou learn by that ; Get thee manly goodness ; / I this gossip for thee Have worded, old in winters. / A wonder it is to
say
How Mighty God / o'er mannes-kind By His Wide Spirit / wisdom spreadeth, Earth and earlship ; / all things He wieldeth. At whiles He in love / letteth turn His Mind-Thoughts to a man / of mighty kindred, 1730 Giveth to his ownership / earthly joys,
A hedged-burgh of men / for him to hold, Doth so for his wielding / a deal of the world,
60
A spreading kingdom, / that himself man cannot In his unwisdom / think of the end. Dwelleth he in wealth ; / no whit him darkeneth Illness nor oldness, / nor anguish of enemies Staineth his soul, / nor strife anywhere, Weapon-hate, sheweth, / but all of the world Works for his will. / Nothing worse he knoweth,
XXV
Until within him / an o'erweening part Waxes and swells, / when the warden slumbers, The soul's shepherd ; / is that sleep too fast, Netted in sorrows, / the Slayer is very near, Who from his arrow-bow / angrily shooteth. Then is he, in his strength, / struck, under his
helmet
By the cruel shaft ; / to shield him he knows not From the crooked wonder-biddings / of the cursed
ghost ;
Thinketh he too little / what long he hath held ; His bold mind is greedy, / never for a boast giveth
he
Fashioned rings, / and then he the fate fore-shapen Forgetteth and forgoeth, / for that God erstwhile
gave him,
Glory's Wielder, / a share of worship. At the end of the tale, / after, it happeneth That the flesh of his body / fleeting faileth, Falleth fated ; / followeth him another, Who not tearfully / the treasure divideth, That earl's ancient-wealth, / nor the awe of him
heedeth. Bestir thee against that balefulness, / lovely
Beowulf, Best of men, / and the more blessed way choose
thee,
Honour eternal ; / incline not to haughtiness, Manly champion. / Now is thy might in bloom
61
A while only ; / soon after it may be
That thee sickness or sword / of thy sovranty
sunder,
Or fire's fingers, / or flood's welling, Or force of blade, / or flight of spear, Or bitter age ; / or the eyes' brightness Forsake and o'ershadow thee ; / swiftly it shall be That thee, duke of men, / death overpowereth. So I the Ring-Danes / an hundred seasons Have wielded under the welkin, / and from wars
have locked them,
From many meinies / over this middle-garth With ash-wood and edged-sword, / so that I not
any
Enemy counted / under heaven's arch. What ! to me in my chamber / came a change, Gloom after gladness, / since Grendel was, An old adversary, / invading me ; I by his questing / constantly bore Mind-care mickle. / To the Maker be thanks, Eternal Lord, / that I in life have abode Until I on his head, / hacked by the sword, After the old struggle / with my eyes may stare. Go now to thy seat, / the supper-joy share, Worshipful in war ; / for us shall a wealth Of treasure be measured, / when morning comes." Geat was glad -minded, / soon did he go To take his seat, / as the trusty one bade him. Then was, after as erst, / for the valiant in action, For the floor-sitters / fairly furnished A new feast. / Night's helmet lowered Dark over the kinsmen. / The company all arose ; Would that blanched head / his bed discover, The aged Shielding. / Before all things the Geat, Rough shield-warrior, / for rest was longing ; Weary of his swimming, / swiftly the hall-thegn Guided him forth, / who was come from far ; He that worshipfully / watched over all The needs of a thegn, / such things as in those
days
62
Sea-wanderers / might be wanting.
Rested him then, roomy-hearted ; / the roof
towered,
Gaping and gold-decked ; / the guest within slept, Until the black raven / of heaven's blessings Boded, blithe-hearted ; / then came brightly
scattering
The sun over the hills, j The soldiers hastened ; Were the athelings / again to their people Fain to be faring : / far thence would he, The bold-hearted stranger, / seek out his bark. Bade then the hardy one / to gird on Hrunting Ecglaf's son, / his sword bade him take, Lovely iron ; / for the loan he thanked him, Quoth he, that battle-friend / a fine one he
reckoned,
Strong in war ; / in no words blamed he The edge of that blade. / 'Twas a brave-minded
man. And when ready to travel, / trapped in their
armour,
Were the warriors, / went, worshipped of Danes, The atheling to the upmost place, / where the
other was ; The hero battle-haughty / Hrothgar greeted.
XXVI
Beowulf made utterance, / Ecgtheow's boy :
" Now we sea-wanderers / wish to say,
Come from far, / that forth we will go
Higelac to find ; / here were we fitly
Housed, as we wished ; / well hast thou done by
us.
If then I on this earth / may one whit More attain / of thy mind's love, Duke of men, / than I yet have done, For striving in war / I am willing straightway. If I should learn, / over the lane of ocean,
63
That on thee thy neighbours / throng with terrors,
As, hating thee, / awhile they did,
I to thee a thousand / thegns shall bring,
1830 Heroes to help thee. / Of Higelac I wot,
Of the Yeatish lord, / though young he be, The Folk's Shepherd, / that he will so frame for me Words and works, / that well may I worship thee, And to thy support / my spear-shaft bear, My might for thy comfort, / when men thou
era vest.
If then Hrethric himself / in the House of the Geats Muster, a King's son, / he may there many Friendships find ; / far-countries are Seemliest sought / by whomso himself is doughty."
1 840 Hrothgar made utterance / to him in answer : ' The words thou sayest / our Wisest Lord Hath sent to thy soul ; / nor have I heard sagelier Any man reason / so early in life ; Thou art strong in might / and old in mind, A wise word-speaker. / Ween I it likely, If it be spelt / that the spear take, Or sword-grim battle, / the son of Hrethel, Illness or iron / end thine Elder, Shepherd of the laity, / and thou thy life havest,
1850 That the Sea-Geats / will have no seemlier King than thee / to call to them, Hoard-warden of heroes, / if hold thou wilt The rule over the meiny. / Me thy mind and heart Liketh longer and better, / lovely Beowulf. Thou hast found out a way / that to the folks shall be, To the Yeatish people, / and the Yard-Danes, Peace in common ; / and strife shall perish, The bitter enmity / that erst they bore ; There shall, while I wield / this wide kingdom,
1860 Be mingling of treasures ; / many shall others Greet with gifts / across the gannet's bath ; Shall a ringed-ship / over the sea bring Loot and love-tokens. / The laity, I wot, To friend and to foe / are fast established, In all things blameless / in the ancient ways."
64
Then again the Earls' Guardian / gave him,
within there,
Halfdane's Prince, / prizes twelve, Bade him with that treasure / his dear tribe Seek in safety, / soon again come. Kissed then / the King well-born, Baron of Shieldings, / that best of thegns, And clasped his neck ; / coursed his tears, The hoary-beard. / Both things he looked for, Ancient and old, / but one thing rather, That, some time, each / might see the other, Proud minds in a meeting. / Was that man so dear
to him
That his breast's swelling / he might not bear, But far within his bosom, / fast in bonds of thought, For the dear man / a deep-hid longing Burned in his blood. / And Beowulf thence, A gold-proud warrior, / the grassy mould trod In his booty exulting ; / the sea-goer abode Her lord and owner, / which at anchor rode. Then was in their going / the gift of Hrothgar Often appraised. / That was a King In all things blameless, / until age bereft him Of joy in his might, / which oft many hath scathed.
XXVII
Came then to the flood / the crowd of haughty Bachelor-men ; / ring-nets bore they, Locken limb-sarks. / The land-warden espied Earls a-going, / as erst he had ; Nor did he with harmful words / from the
headland's height
Greet the guests, / but galloped towards them ; Quoth he that welcome / the Weder-People's Shining-clad soldiers / to their ships might fare. There on the sand was / the sea-worthy craft Laden with hero -weeds, / the ringed prow • With mares and with money ; / the mast towered
65 G
Over Hrothgar's / hoard of treasure. 1900 He on the boat-warden / a gold y-bounden Sword bestowed, / so that sithence he was On the mead-benches / by that boon held worthier, A dear heirloom. / On deck he departed To drive deep water. / Danes' land he left. Then was to the mast / one of the mer-sheets, A sail rope-fastened ; / the sea-wood roared ; Nor that wave-floater / did the wind over the
waters
Hinder from sailing ; / the sea-goer started, Floated, foamy-necked, / forth over the waves, 1910 The banded stem / over brimming streams, Till they Geatish cliffs / might get in sight, Kenned nesses ; / the keel pushed up Driven by the breeze, / on the beach she stood. Rapidly by the holm / was the hythe-warden ready, He who ever and long / for the lovely men, Fain by the flood, / afar had gazed ; He bound to the sand / the broad-bosomed ship With anchor-bonds fast, / lest the force of the
waves
That winsome wood / might wrench away. 1 920 Bade he then upwards bear / the athelings' treasure, Fretted and fashioned gold ; / nor had they far
thence
To go seeking / the giver of jewels, Higelac Hrethling, / where at home he dwelt, Himself with his subjects / the sea-wall near. The building was beautiful, / its baron a proud
King,
High were the halls ; / Hygd was very young, Wise, well-thriven, / though winters few Locked in the burgh / had she abode, Haereth's daughter ; / was she not humble however, 1930 Nor too niggard of gifts / to the Geatish people, Of massy treasure.
Moodiness Thrytho shewed, Valiant folk-queen, / fearsome violence ; Was none who durst, / doughty, to venture
66
Of her own household, / her husband save,
Her upon by day / with his eyes to stare ;
But on ropes of death / for a doom might he reckon
Hand-i-woven ; / hastily then was
After his seizure / the sword allotted him,
That sharply, sheerly, / should life shut,
Make clear his killing. / Not so is the queenly
custom
For a woman to work, / though wonder-fair she be, That she, a Peace-Weaver, / the life pursue, In lying malice, / of a man beloved. Howbeit, that did he hinder, / Hemming's kinsman.
Ale-drinkers / otherwise said,
That she of folk-damage / fashioned less,
Of feud and hatred, / since first she was
Given, gold-decked, / to the gallant youth,
Dear of ancestry, / when she Offa's floor
Over the fallow flood / by her father's counsel
Sailing sought : / there she, sithence, well
On the royal seat, / renowned for goodness,
The life allotted her / lived and enjoyed,
Held high love / for the Heroes' Prince,
Who of all mankind, / in my story,
Was seemliest, / two seas between,
Of every-kind. / Wherefore Offa was,
In spending and striving / a spear-keen man,
Widely worshipped ; / in wisdom held he
His own homestead. / From him Eomaer sprang
For the help of heroes, / Hemming's kinsman,
Grandson of Garmund, / great in battle.
XXVIII
Bewent him then the hardy one / with his handful Himself over the sand / the sea-field treading, Wide water-marks ; / the world-candle shone, The sun, south-rising ; / they shaped their way, With force they went / where the Fence of Earls, The bane of Ongentheow, / his burgh within,
67
Their young and good / War-King (they guessed)
1970 Rings was dealing. / Higelac was
Of Beowulf's travelling / quickly told,
That within those walls / the warriors' champion,
His linden-comrade / alive was come,
Hale from the battle-play / to the house going.
Rapidly was made ready, / as the rich one bade,
For the footing guests / the floor within.
Sate then by his side / he who was saved from the
strife,
Kinsman by kinsman, / when the King of men Speaking aloud / his liegeman greeted
1980 In mighty words. /With mead-draughts moved Over that hall-floor / Haereth's daughter ; She loved the laity, / liquor-bowls bare To the hands of the heroes. / Higelac began His housemate / in the high haH To question kindly ; / knowledge he craved, What the Water-Geats' / wanderings were. 1 What came to you on your crossing, / kinsman
Beowulf,
When thou, in a moment, / wert minded afar Strife to seek, / over salt water,
1 990 Hand-play in Heorot ? / And hast thou Hrothgar's Wide-famed woe / one whit made better, That mighty Prince. / I with painful mind In sorrow-waves seethed, / that sailing mistrusted Of a man beloved. / Long time I prayed thee Never to meet / that murder-guest But to leave the South -Danes' / selves to settle Their grievance with Grendel. / To God I say
thanks
That I may see thee / safe and sound." Beowulf answered, Ecgtheow's boy :
2000 ;< It is no secret, / Sovran Higelac,
Among many men, / our mighty meeting, What a bout of gripping / to Grendel and me Came on that field / where he with countless Sorrows had troubled / the Triumph-Shieldings, Everlasting anguish : / All of it I avenged,
68
So cannot boast / any cousin of Grendel
In all the earth, / of that morning-uproar,
Not he that longest liveth / of the loathly clan,
Fenced in his fens. /There first I came
To that Ring-Hall, / Hrothgar greeting ;
Straightway for me the mighty / man of Halfdane,
Whenas the mind / of me he knew,
By the son of himself / a seat appointed.
The laity laughed ; / nor in all my life saw I
Under heaven's vault, / among sitters in hall,
More joy in their mead. / At times the mighty
Queen,
Peace-maker among peoples, / paced the floor, Boldened the young boys ; / often a bended ring she Bestowed on a stalwart / ere she stepped to her
stool. At times before the doughty / the daughter of
Hrothgar
To the earls at each end / the ale-cup bare, ' Freawaru ' then I, / by the floor-sitters, Heard her named, / as the nail-studded treasure she Bent to the brave. / Betrothed is she, Young, gold-embroidered, / to the glad son of Froda. A fair thing has it seemed / to the Friend of
Shieldings, Shepherd of his Realm, / and a good rede he
counteth it,
That he by this woman / a wealth of feuds And slaughter may settle. / Not seldom but often, When a Lord is fallen, / a little while only Is the death-spear banished, / though the bride be
doughty. This, then, may displease / the Prince of
Heathobeards
And every thegn / among that people When he with that femme / upon the floor goeth, That on a well-born Dane / his warriors wait ; One on whom gleameth / their grandsires' leavings Hard and ring-mailed, / the Heathobeards' treasure; While they those weapons / might be wielding,
69
[XXX]
Till they led astray / to the linden-play 2040 Their loved comrades, / and their own lives.
Then says over his beer, / as the booty he sees,
An old ash-warrior / who it all remembers,
The spear-murder of men, / (and his mind is
grim)—
He beginneth gloomily / the young champion's Courage to spy out, / by the thoughts of his spirit, War-anger to kindle, / and this word quoth : ' Dost thou, my son, / the sword distinguish, Which thy father / to the fight bare, Trapped in his helmet, / the hindmost time, 2050 His dear iron, / when the Danes slew him ;
And won the slaughter-field, / when Withergyld
lay there,
And the fighters were fallen, / the fierce Shieldings ? Now, here, those slayers' / son, or such-like, Exulting in his finery / over the floor goeth, Of the treason boasteth, / and the treasure beareth Which rightly had passed / into thy possession/ Moveth he him so and remindeth him, / manyfa
time,
With savage words, / till the season cometh And the femme's thegn / for his father's deeds, 3060 When the blade has bitten him / in blood sleepeth, Endeth his days ; / and the other from thence Loseth himself alive, / for that land is well-known
to him.
Then bin broken / on both sides The oaths earls swore, / when in Ingeld Welleth up deadly loathing, / and his love of his
wife
Under waves of care / waxeth cooler. So I on the Heathobeards' / honesty count not, On their share in the Peace / with the simple
Danes, Or fastness in friendship.
Henceforth shall I speak
70
Again about Grendel, / till thou get full
knowledge,
Offerer of treasures, / how it turned at the end, That hand-fight of heroes. / After heaven's gem Glided below the ground, / that guest angrily
came,
An awful evening-rage, / us to visit, Where safe and sound / we sate in the hall. There upon Hondscio / a host descended, His life forfeit by fate ; / the first he fell. A girded champion ; / to him Grendel was, To our mighty man / a mouth of murder, Of that swain beloved / the limbs he swallowed. None the earlier out again, / idle-handed, That bloody-toothed bane, / of butchery mindful, From the gold-hall / would be going ; But, bold in his might, / of me made trial, Grappled me greedy-handed. / His glove was
hanging
Wide and wondrous, / with woven-bands fastened ; It was by cunning / all contrived With devils' craft / and dragons' pelts. He there, inside it, / me unsinning, That dire deed-worker, / would have done away, One among many ; / that might not be When I in ire / upright arose, Too long is it to reckon / how I to that land-scather For each of his evils / offered hand-payment ; There I, my Prince, / made thy people Worshipful by my work. / Away he escaped, A little while / life's joys he brooked ; But his right arm / the road pointed, His hand in Heorot ; / and he, hapless, thence, Mournfully minded, / to the mere's floor fell. Me for that fight / the Friend of Shieldings With fashioned gold / in full rewarded, With many treasures, / when morning came, And we to the banquet / had bent us down. Then was song and glee. / The greybeard Shielding Asking us many things, / old tales remembered ;
7*
At times a hero / the happy harp,
The joy-wood swept, / while a song he uttered,
True and tragic ; / at times a strange tale
2 1 10 Read us aright / the roomy-hearted King ; Awhile after began, / by age bounden, A grizzled warrior / his youth to bewail, His battle-strength ; / his breast in him swelled As he, old in winters, / all that remembered. So we inside there / all the day long Tasted of pleasure, / until night returned Again to the earth. / Thereafter was rapidly Girt for vengeance / Grendel's mother ; Set her forth sorrowful ; / her son death had taken,
2120 The Weders' war-hate. / A wife unlovely, Her bairn she avenged ; / a brave man she
vanquished
Unafraid ; / there from Aeschere, A learned elder, / life went out. Neither might they, / when morning came, Him, death-weary, / the Danish people Burn with brands, / nor on the bale-fire lay Their loved kinsman ; / his corpse she bare off In fiendish fingers / under the mountain-flood. That was for Hrothgar / harshest of the sorrows
2130 Which on that Folk-Lord / long time had fallen. Then that lord of me, / by thine own life, Wistfully besought / that in the swirling waters I should act with earlship, / offer life up, Merit glory ; / meed he promised me, I then of those wells / — it is widely known — The grim and griesly / guardian found. There for us two awhile was / a hand-encounter ; The pool heaved with blood, / and I the head
carved off, In that ground-mansion, / of Grendel's mother,
2140 With a huge sword ; not softly thence
Did I fetch me alive ; / I was not fated as yet ; But the Guardian of Earls / afterwards gave me A heap of treasures, / Halfdane's son.
7*
XXXI
So the people's King / by custom lived ; In no way my fee / foregone had I, Tribute for might, / but treasures he gave me, Halfdane's son, / as myself I chose, Which I, bravest of Kings, / will bring to thee, Will gladly offer. / Ever from thee do all Favours fall ; / but few have I Of high kinsmen / save, Higelac, thee." Bade he then bear in / the Boar, the head-crest, The battle-steep helmet, / hoary byrny, War-sword splendid ; / then spake a word : 1 To me this harness / Hrothgar offered, Sagest of Princes, / and in certain words bade That I first should thee / of his friendship tell ; Quoth he, that held them / Heorogar the King, Lord of Shieldings, / a long while ; Nor yet to his own son / would he assign, To lusty Heoroweard, / loyal though he were to
him,
That breast-armour. / Use it all well." Heard I that this finery / four horses. All alike, / did follow after, Apple-yellow ; / he yielded him the honour Of horses and treasures. / So should a tribesman do, Never envy-nets / for others weave, Nor by dark-hid craft / with death encompass His hand-companions. / To Higelac was, Hardy in fight, / his nephew most faithful, And each was mindful / of the other's good. Heard I, that he the necklace / on Hygd bestowed, That work of wonder / which Wealhtheow had
given him,
A prince's daughter; / and three palfreys therewith Slim, bright-saddled ; / since then she went, After his bounty, / with breast adorned. So was emboldened / Ecgtheow's boy, A groom war-famed. / by his good deeds ; He dwelt as he deemed, / never, drunken, slew
73
2180 His hearth-fellows ; / nor was he harsh in spirit, But among man-kind / with most of craft The gift firm-set / which God had sent him Held, battle-hardy. / Humbled was he long, For the sons of the Geats / no good of him said, Nor, on the mead-bench, / of mickle worth The captains of warriors / would account him ; Shrewdly they reckoned / that slack he was, An atheling ungallant. / Atonement came To the man triumphant / for all his troubles.
2190 Then the Fence of Earls / bade fetch him in, The King battle-haughty, / Hrethel's heirloom Gay with gold ; / among the Geats was not then A wealthier treasure / in the way of swords ; This he in Beowulf's / bosom laid, And spent upon him / seven thousands, A bower and a throne. / To both of them was In that country / land bequeathed, Home and ownership ; / to the other one, rather, The broad realm ; / wherefore the better man was he there.
2200 After that it happened, / in other days,
In the fury of hosts, / when Higelac was fallen, And on Heardred / the hewing swords Through the board of his shield / balefully
shattered,
When sought him out / mid his soldier-people Bold wolves of battle, / Warrior- Scylfings, Who forcefully harried / Hereric's nephew ; — Then to Beowulf / the broad realm Came under his hand. / He held it aright Fifty winters / (then was he a white-haired King,
2210 An old land-warden), / until one began
In darkness of night, / a dragon, to lord it ; Which in a high law / lay over a hoard, A steep stone-barrow ; / and steps thereunder, Unknown to the world. / Within there went
74
Some enemy, / who in envy seized The heathenish hoard ; / his hand took forth A jewelled bowl, / nor did he bring it again, But he ensnared / the sleeping warden By thievish craft ; / so the King found, 220 The brave one of the folk, / that he was belching with fury.
XXXII
Never of a purpose / the power of the Worm's
hoard Sought he, for his own sake, / who sorely scathed
himself ;
But in straitest need, / the slave of some one Of the sons of heroes, / hate-swinges fled, Finding no home, / and therein fell, A soul sin-busied. / Soon it betided That there, over the guest, / griesly terror came ; Whether in his wretchedness, /
230 / While on him the fear pressed
The jewel-cup he saw. / Of such were there many In that earth-house, / of ancient riches, Such as in olden days / any one of men, (The whole heritage / of an honoured kindred) Heedful in thought, / there had hidden, Dearest treasures. / All of them death had taken In earlier times, / and the only one now Of the people's lords, / he who longest abode
there, Waxed friend-sorry, / wished to linger,
240 That he a little spell / the long-kept riches Might enjoy. / The mound all in readiness Stood on the earth / near the streams of ocean, New-wrought on the ness, / narrow-closed and
fast ; Bare he then inside / of those earls' bounties,
75
That lord of rings, / a heavy load, Of fashioned gold, / and few words quoth : " Hold thou now, earth, / now heroes may not, What Earls have owned. / What ! of old out of thee Gallants got them ; / grim death has taken, 2250 Massacre fierce, / the men, each and all
Of my people, / who have passed from this life ; They had seen the hall's bliss. / None have I who
beareth sword.
Or polisheth / the plated bowl, The drinking-cup dear ; / the doughty are
elsewhere scattered.
From the hard helmet / harnessed with gold Its plates shall slip ; / the polishers slumber Who the battle -masks / were wont to burnish ; And so the army-coat / that in conflict endured, When boards were broken, / the bite of iron, 2260 Moulders with its master ; / nor may the mailed
byrny
With the war-chief / widely journey, At hand by the heroes. / In the harp is no joy, No game of the glee-beam ; / no good hawk O'er the house swingeth, / nor any swift horse In the stone-court stampeth. / For stern death All of the folk-life / forth has exiled." Thus, sad of mood, / his sorrows he mourned, One, after them all ; / unblithe he wept, Daily and nightly, / until death's tide 2270 Felt at his heart.
The hoard of joy he found, That old striker in twilight, / standing open, He who, burning, / the barrows seeketh, A naked fear-dragon, / nightly flieth Driven by fire ; / him the field-dwellers Sorely dread. / Still he seeketh A hoard in the ground / where he heathen gold Watcheth, old in winters : / nor is he a whit the
wealthier.
So the people's threatener, / three hundred winters Held in the earth / such a hoard-house,
76
Of endless strength, / until angered him one Man in his mind ; / to his master bare The plated bowl, / for a peace-pact begged The lord of him. / Then was the hoard looted, Borne off its bracelets ; / as a boon 'twas granted To the friendless man. / His master saw The former work of the folk, / for the first time. When the Worm awoke, / was war renewed ; He snuffed then over the stones, / stark-hearted
he found
Footprints of a foe, / who too far had stepped, Crafty in darkness, / the dragon's head near. So may one unfated / easily escape Woe and exile, / who the Wielder's Friendship holdeth. / The hoard -warden sought Greedily over the ground, / that groom he would find Who to him in his slumber / sorrow had brought ; Hot and harsh-minded / the hill he oft hunted All round about ; / nor was any man there Upon that waste. / Yet for war he was joyful, For battle-work ; / at whiles to the barrow he
turned,
The jewel-cup sought ; / but soon he found That some one of men / had searched out the gold, That high treasure. / The hoard-warden abode 111 at ease, / until evening came ; Was belching then / the barrow's keeper, Would the foul foe / with flame repurchase His drinking-cup dear. / Then was day forth
driven, As the Worm could wish ; / Nor within his walls
for long
Would he abide, / but with bale-fire went, Forth on his flame. / At the first it affrighted The country folk, / even as quickly it was And bloodily ended / by their Bounty-Giver.
XXXIII
Then the enemy began / to spit forth embers, To burn the bright houses ; / a blazing light shone
77
Awful to all men ; / nor aught there alive
That loathly lift -flier / would he leave.
Was the Worm's warfare / widely seen,
The narrow-foe's fury / near and far,
How a warring punisher / the Geatish people
Was hating and humbling. / To the hoard again
he shot,
2320 To his dark domain, / ere dawn of day ; He had the folk of the land / with fire
encompassed, With burning and branding ; / in his barrow he
trusted, In his war and his wall ; / that weening bewrayed
him.
Then was the tale of terror / told to Beowulf Swiftly and in sooth, / how himself his home Best of buildings / in burning waves melted, The gift-stool of the Geats. / That to the gallant
one was
Hurtful at heart, / heaviest of mind-sorrows ; Weened the wise one / that the Wielder he, 2330 Against the ancient Law, / the Lord Eternal Had bitterly angered ; / his breast welled in
him
With darkest cares, / as his custom was not. Had the fire-dragon / the people's fastness Which on earth they owned, / by the ocean's edge, With coals consumed ; / wherefore the King of
Battle,
The Weders' Prince / planned a vengeance. Bade he then work him / (the Warriors' Buckler) All of iron / (the Lord of Earls) A wondrous war-shield ; / wist he well 2340 That hewn-wood to him / no help might furnish, Fuel against flame. / Must he of his fleeting days, An atheling ever-good, / the end await, Of life in the world, / and the Worm to boot, Though he the hoarded wealth / had held for
long. Too proud was then / the Prince of Rings
78
That he the wide-flier / with warriors should
seek, With a strong host ; / nor for himself the struggle
dreaded,
Nor the Worm's warring / a whit esteemed, His might and menace ;/ for that many times, of
old, Venturing in strait places / by strife he had
vanquished,
In heat of battle, / since he Hrothgar's Hall had cleansed, / a happy conqueror, And in fight had outgripped / Grendel's folk, That loathly kindred.
Nor the least was that
Of hand-encounters, / where Higelac they killed, When the Geats' ruler / in the race of battle, Friend of his folk / in Frisian land, Son of Hrethel, / the sword-drink swallowed, Beaten down by the blade ; / therefrom Beowulf
came
By his own craft, / used his sea-cunning ; He had on his arm, / he only, thirty Weapons of war, / when to the water he went. Never did the Hetware / need to exult In their fighting on foot, / who forward against
him
Linden-shields bare ; / little of them came back From that battle-wolf, / to behold their homes. Overswam then the sea's width / the son of
Ecgtheow,
In poverty, alone, / again to his people. There Hygd offered him / hoard and kingdom, Bracelets and throne ; / in the boy she trusted not, That he against strange folk / the stool of his
fathers
Would know how to hold, / and Higelac killed. None the sooner the mourners / might obtain From that atheling, / on any terms, That he would Heardred's / lord become, Or that kingdom / choose to hold ;
79
However he kept him with the folk / in friendly
counsel,
Graciously, with honour, / until the lad older grew. The Weder-Geats ruled. / Him wretched exiles
2380 Sought over the sea, / the sons of Ohthere ;
Had they held out against / the Helm of Scylfings,
The seemliest / of the sea-kings
Who in Swio-rice / riches scattered,
A mighty lord. / His measure that marked ;
He there, destitute, / his death-wound won
By swingeing sword, / the son of Higelac.
And thereafter bewent him / Ongentheow's bairn
His home to behold, / when Heardred lay dead,
He let Beowulf keep / the kingly seat,
2390 Govern the Geats. / That was a good king.
XXXIV
He was minded to have payment / for that Prince's
murder
In after days ; / To Eadgils he was A friend in his sorrows, / with his folk he
supported,
Over the wide sea, / the son of Ohthere, With warriors and weapons. / He wreaked
vengeance thereafter
Coldly marching, / that King of life bereft. So from every enemy / escape he did, From savage onslaughts, / the son of Ecgtheow, From deeds of daring, / until that same day 2400 When he with that Worm / wager must.
Went then, one of twelve, / with anger swelling, The Duke of Geats / the dragon to seek : He had then found out / whence the feud arose, The curse on the captains ; / into his keeping was
come
The famous treasure-cup /from the finder's hand. He was in that troop / the thirteenth man, Who of that battle / beginning had made ;
80
A slave in sorrow / must he show forthwith Where the way was. / Unwilling went he To where was one / earth-house he wist, Hollowed under ground / the holm-waves near, The warring floods, / that was filled within With wrought-work and wire -work. / A warden
unkindly,
A greedy war-wolf / the gold-treasures held, An old one under the earth ; / 'twas no easy bargain For any man / to enter in.
Sate then on the headland / the hardy War-King, While hail he bade / his hearth-companions, The Gold-Friend of Geats. / Full of gloom was his
mind, Wavering, death-willing ; / the Wyrd was very
near
Which that greybeard / was to greet, To seek his soul's hoard, / to scatter asunder Life from limbs ; / not for long then was That atheling's being / bound in his flesh. Beowulf made utterance, / Ecgtheow's son : " Often in youth have I borne me / out from the
battle -race,
In hours of onset ; / all of that I remember. I had seven winters / when the Wielder of Treasures, Friend and Lord of the Folk, / from my father
took me ; j
Held me and had me / Hrethel the King, Gave me fee and feast, / of our friendship was
mindful ;
Nor was I in his life to him / a whit less likely A brave in his burgh / than any of his boys, Herebeald or Haethcyn, / or Higelac mine own. Was for the eldest / unbefittingly By a kinsman's deed / his death-bed strewn, When him Haethcyn / and his horned bow, His friend and lord / by an arrow felled, Missed the mark / and his mate shot dead, One brother the other, / with bloody shaft. Twas a feud beyond fee, / a felonish sinning,
81 G
Mind-wearying and heart ; / must howsoever That lord unavenged / from life depart. So mournful is it / for an aged man To bide alive / while his bairn rideth Young on the gallows ; / then a glee may he sing, A sorry song, / when his son hangeth, A raven's comfort, / and to help him he cannot, In oldest age, / aught devise. 2450 Always is he reminded, / every morning.
Of his offspring gone elsewhere ; / nor of another
careth he
To abide the birth, / his burgh within, For a further heir / when the former hath By death's constraint / of his deeds made proof. Sore at heart he seeth / in his son's bower The wine-hall a waste, / for winds to rest in it, Of revels bereft ; / the riders are sleeping, The heroes in shadow ; / nor is sound there of
harping, Nor gaming in the yards / as of yore there were.
XXXV
2460 Wendeth he then to his chamber, / a chant of
sorrow waileth,
One man for another ; / seem to him all too roomy The fields and the folk-stead. / So the Fence of
Weders
For Herebeald / with sorrow of heart Melted away ; / no whit he might Upon the murderer / mend the feud ; None the sooner that soldier / might he shame By deeds of hatred, / though dear to him he was
not. Then for that sorrow, / the sore that had wounded
him,
Man's cheer he gave up. / God's light chose ; 2470 To his children he willed, / as doth a wealthy
man,
82
Land and lordship, / when this life he left. Then was sin and strife / among Swedes and Geats. Over the wide water, / wrath in common, Hard troop-hatred, / after Hrethel was dead. And to them Ongentheow's / offspring were Proud and warlike ; / peace they would not Hold, across the water, / but against Hreosna
Hill
Evil inroads / often planned. Which mates and kin / of mine avenged, Feuds and felonies, / (so the fame of it went) Though one of them / with his own life paid, A hard bargain ; / for Haethcyn was, For the Geats' Warden, / war-death fated. Then at break of day / one man his brother By the sword's edge, / on his slayer avenged, When Ongentheow / with Eofor met ; His battle-helm glided asunder, / the grey-haired
Scylfing
Fell, murder-pale ; / a hand remembered Feuds enough, / nor failed at the death-stroke.
Him then, for the gold / which he had given me
I repaid in war, / as it was awarded to me,
With lightning sword ; / land he gave me,
Ownership of earth. / Was not any need
That he of the Yifthas, / or of the Yard-Danes,
Or in Swio-rice, / should be seeking
A weaker war-wolf, / or pay him his worth ;
Ever for him with the foot-men / before would I
go,
Alone in the van, / and so always shall I Seek to fight, / while this sword endureth, Which early and late / hath often served me, Since I in my doughtiness / was Dayraven's Hand-slayer, / the Hugas' champion's. Never could he the finery / to the Frisian King, The breast-adornments / bring again ; But in strife was struck down / the standard's
keeper,
83
An atheling brave ; / nor was the blade his ending, But the battle-grip / his heart's beating, His bone-house brake. / Now shall the bill's edge, Hand and hard-sword, / for the hoard contest." 2510 Beowulf made utterance, / boasting words spake, For the last time : / " I launched me on many Wars in my youth ; / yet again will I, An old folk-shepherd, / seek the fight, Do mighty deeds, / if me the monster From his earth-house / come out to meet." Greeted he then / the grooms each one, Haughty helm-bearers, / a hindmost time, His sweet companions : / " A sword would I not
bear,
Nor weapon against the Worm, / if I wist how 2520 With that enemy / else I might
Come to grips, boast-yelling, / as of yore with
Grendel I did ;
But here on a hate-fire / hot I reckon, And breathing of venom ; / wherefore I bear on
me Board and byrny. / Nor will I from the barrow's
warden
Flee away / one foot's measure, But to us shall it be at the wall / as Wyrd shall
appoint for us, The measure of every man. / I am in mind
emboldened,
So that I forgo boasting / before that battle-flier. Await ye on the barrow, / byrnies wearing, 2530 Men in armour, / which may the better After the duel / endure his wounds, Of us twain. / Nor is it your trial, Nor any man's, / save mine only, That he with the monster / measure his strength, Match his earlship. / I by my might shall Gain the gold, / or die battle gather, Cruel life-bane, / the lord of you." Stood up then with his shield / the stalwart
champion,
84
Hardy under his helm, / his harness bare
Under the stone-cliffs, / in the strength he trusted
Of a single man ; / such is not the manner of
cowards.
Saw he then in the wall, / (he who in a wealth Of battles had vanquished, / blest with valour, Roaring fights, / in the rush of foot-men) A stone-arch standing, / a stream out thence Breaking from the barrow ; / were that burn's
eddies
Hot with hate-fire ; / nor near the hoard might he Unburned / for any time Its depths endure, / for the dragon's flame. Let then from his breast, / so he boiled with anger, The Weder-Geats' Prince / pass out a word ; Stark-hearted he stormed ; / under the hoary
stone,
Echoing battle-bright, / brake his voice ; Hatred was kindled, / the hoard -warden knew The speech of man, / nor was there space any more To bid for peace. / Burst forth first The breath of the ogre / out of the stone, Hot sweat of battle. / Shook the ground. The brave under the barrow / his round-board
swung
Against the griesly guest, / the Geatish lord ; Then the ring-twister's / heart was fain A duel to seek. / His sword now had drawn The excellent War-King, / bequeathed from of old, Unslow of edge ; / to each of them was, Murder-minded, / menace from the other. Stiff-minded stood / behind his steep shield The King of Friends, / as coiled the Worm Swiftly together ; / in his trappings he waited. Came then the burning one, / bowed and creeping, Speeding to his doom. / The shield well defended Life and limb, / a lesser while For the mighty lord, / than he might look for So he at that point, / in the prime of the day, Was to win / (as Wyrd had not written for him)
85
The honour of the fight. / His hand upraised The Geatish lord, / the griesly-hued one struck With Ing's heirloom, / but its edge fell back, Brown from the bone, / bit less keenly Than its Nation-King / had need of it,
2580 Busily beset. / Then was the barrow's warden,
After that fierce stroke, / stirred to fury, - And spewed slaying fire ; / sprang forth afar Its battle-gleams. / Boasted not of triumph The Gold-Friend of Geats ; / his good sword had
failed,
Naked in the fight, / as never should Excellent iron. / Nor was that an easy journey When the champion, / the child of Ecgtheow, Had to forsake / the fields of earth, Must, undesiring, / make his dwelling
2590 Elsewhere, / as must every man
Leave his loan of days. / Nor was it long then ere
Either champion / charged again.
Boldened him the barrow -warden, / his breast
swelled with breath, Now anew ; / he was narrowly beset, Fenced in fire, / who the folk had ruled. Nowise for him in their host /his hand-companions, Athelings' stock, / stood around In their battle -worth, / but to the wood they
bound them, To save their lives. / In one alone swelled
2600 His soul with care ; / kinship never may
Any thing unbind, / in one who well thinketh.
XXXVI
Wiglaf was he named, / Weohstan's son, A loved linden -warrior, / a lord of Scylfings, Sib to Aelfhere ; / he saw his master Under the shutten helmet / suffering heat ; He minded him then of the honour / which he of old had given him,
86
The wealthy township / of the Waegmundings, And folk-rights all, / as his father had owned
them ; Nor might he hold back then, / his hand the shield
seized,
Yellow linden, / his yore-sword he drew. That was, for all men, / Eanmund's heirloom, Ohthere's son's, / whom in the slaughter, A friendless wanderer, / Weohstan finished With the blade's edge, / and from his fellows bare off The brown-hued helm, / the ringed byrny, The old sword, Eotenish, / which Onela had given
him ;
His brother-clansman's / battle clothing, Fit for service. / Nor about the feud spake he Though he his brother's / bairn had murdered. He wore those treasures / many winters, Blade and byrny, / until his own boy might Earlship achieve, / as erst his father ; He gave him then among the Geats / his gear of
battle
All, unnumbered, / when out from life he went, Old, forth -faring. / This was the first time For the young champion / that he the charge of
battle
With his sovran lord / had to suffer ; Nor melted his courage, / nor was his kinsman's
heirloom
Weak at warfare ; / that the Worm found out When they together / once had gone. Wiglaf uttered / words fit and many, Said to his comrades / (full of care was his soul) " Of that time I am mindful, / when the mead we
tasted,
When we made a vow / to the master of us In the beer-hall, / who these bracelets gave us, That we for our weapons / would repay him, If to him this kind / of peril came, For helmets and hard swords. / Nay, he us from
the host did choose
8?
For this journey, / of his own judgement, 2640 Reminded us of glory, / and to me these treasures
gave,
Because he accounted us / cunning spearmen, Lusty helm-bearers ; / though our lord for us This work of valour / wished alone To shape and finish, / the Folk's Shepherd, For that he most among men / of mastery hath
wrought,
Of desperate deeds. / Now is the day come That our lord and master / the main-strength
needeth
Of gallant warriors. / Let us go t&? And help our hero, / while this heat endureth, 2650 Flame-terror grim. / God wot of me,
That to me it is much liefer / that my live body
With my gold-giver's / the flame should grasp.
Nor meseems it becoming / that we bear our shields
Back to our folk, / save first we may
Fell this foe, / defend the life
Of the Weders' Prince. / Well do I know
That his ancient worth is not such / that he only
should
Of the Geatish soldiery / suffer sorrow, Sink in the strife ; / for us twain shall be sword
and helm,
2660 Byrny and covered-shield, / for both in common." Waded he then through that blood-reek, / his
war-head bore
His friend to comfort, / and few words quoth : " Dearest Beowulf, / do all things well, Even as thou in thy youth-time / of yore didst say That thou wouldst not let, / from thyself living Glory dwindle ; / now must thou, great in thy
deeds,
Atheling one-minded, / with all thy might Save thy life ; / and I support thee." After those words / the Worm irefully came 2670 An evil guest of enmity, / another time,
With fire-waves flashing, / his foes to seek,
88
Those loathed men. / In lapping-fire was burned Board with boss ; / his byrny might not To the young spearman / yield any succour ; But the young man / under his master's shield Went eagerly on, /when his own was Wasted by fire. / Then again the War-King Was mindful of his fame, / by main-strength he
smote
With his hostile blade, / so that on the head it beat, Forced by his fury ; / in flinders Nailing Swooned in the battle, / Beowulf's sword, Hoary and grey. / 'Twas not granted to him That any edge / of iron might Help in the struggle ; / was that hand too strong, Which every sword, / as I have heard say, Overbore with its stroke, / when to the strife he bare A wondrous-hard weapon ; / nor was he a whit the
better.
Then the tribe's scather / a third time, The fearsome fire-dragon / his feud remembered, Rushed on that gallant one, / when room he gave
him,
Hot, battle-grim, / all his neck he grasped In bitter tooth-bones ; / he bloodied was With his soul's gore ; / that sweat in streams
gushed.
XXXVII
Then I heard that in the need / of the Nation's
King
That earl unceasing / excellence shewed, Craft and keenness, / as his kind was ; Nor heeded he that head / (but the hand was
burned
Of that masterful man, / when his mate he helped), For he that dread guest / downwards a little struck, A soldier in armour, / so that the sword dived in, Brightly fashioned, / and the fire began
89
To slacken straightway. / Then himself the King
again
Conquered his wits, / the killing-knife drew, Bitter and battle -sharp, / which on his byrny he
wore ; The Weders^ Helm wrote into / the Worm's
middle.
Their foe they felled, / their valour finished him, And both of those twain / had broken him up, Kinsmen-athelings ; / so should every man be, A thegn in peril. / For the Prince that was 2710 The utmost triumph-day / of his own deeds,
Of his work in the world. / Then the wound began, Which upon him the earth-dragon / earlier had
wrought,
To sweal and to swell ; / soon he found out That through his breast / a baleful hurt was welling, Poison from within. / Went then the atheling Until he by the wall / in wisdom of mind Sate on a seat ; / he saw the giants' work, How that stone-arches / on staples fast The everlasting earth-hall / inwardly held, 2720 Him then with his hands, / horrid with blood,
His famous Prince, / that thegn faithful beyond
measure,
His friend and lord / did lave in water, JSpent with battle, / and unspanned his helm. Beowulf made utterance ; / of his bane he spake, -Of his wound death-piteous ; / wist he readily That he his day-span / had spent at length Of earthly joy ; / then was all scattered The tale of his days, / death very nigh :-— " Now I to a son of mine / would seek to give 2730 My weeds of war, / were it so awarded me That any heir should / after me come, Begotten of my body. / This burgh have I held Through fifty winters ; / nor was there a
Folk-King
Who me with his war-friends / to welcome dared, To harass me with terrors. / At home I attended
90
What time should bring me, / treated well mine
own,
Nor sought armed quarrels, / nor swore me many Oaths unrightly. / From all of this I may When sick with death-wounds / succour draw ; Blame me for that cannot / the King of Men For the murder of kinsmen, / when cast forth is my Life from my limbs. / Let thee now hasten The hoard to behold, / under the hoary stone, Beloved Wiglaf, / now that the Worm lieth, Sleepeth sore-wounded, / of his silver bereft. Be off now in haste, / that I the ancient wealth, The gold-hoard may glimpse, / may gaze my fill On the shining jewels, / that so more softly I may For that mass of treasure / take leave of my Life and lordship, / which I long did hold."
XXXVIII
Then swiftly (as I heard) / the son of Weohstan When this word was spoken / his wounded lord, War-sickened, obeyed, / went in his ringed byrny, His braided battle-sark, / under the barrow's roof, Saw he then in his triumph, / as by the seat he
went,
A masterful tribe-thegn, / treasures many, Glistening gold / on the ground gathered, Wonders on the walls, / and the Worm's den, The old twilight-flier's ; / flagons stood there, Far-dead men's vessels, / with none to furbish
them, Husked of their platings. / There were helms in
plenty,
Old and rusty, / arm-rings many Twisted and tied. / Treasure easily may, Gold in the ground, / get from the grasp Of any man in the world, / hide it who will. So too, set there he saw / a sign all golden
91
High over the hoard, / of hand-wonders the greatest, Locked by skill of limb ; / wherefrom a light so
shone 2770 That he the ground there / might get in sight,
Throughout the wealth on it. / Nor of the Worm
was there
Any sign, / for him an edge had slain. Then I heard that in the hill / the hoard was rifled, The old work of ogres, / by one man only ; That his breast he loaded / with bowls and dishes As seemed good to himself ; / the sign also he took, Brightest of beacons. / The blade now had scathed
him
Iron-edged, / of an old lord, Him who had held / in his hand those treasures 2780 A long while. / Lightning-terror he waged Hot for his hoard, / with hatred welling In the midst of the night, / until by murther he
perished.
Fleet was the messenger, / fain to return, Driven on by his treasures ; / doubt was tearing
him
Whether, full-hearted, / he would find alive On yonder plain / the Prince of Weders, Power-less, / where he had left him anon. Then he with that gold / the glorious Prince, The Lord of him / at his life's end, 2790 Bleeding, found ; / then again began he
To sprinkle him with water, / until an opening
word
Brake from his breast-hoard ; / Beowulf spake, Grey-haired, in grief / on the gold he gazed : " I for these riches / to the Ruler of All my thanks (To the Worshipful King) / in words will say (To the Lord Eternal), / whereon I here do look, For that I might / for mine own people Ere my killing-time / conquer such things. Now I for the precious hoard / have paid with my 2800 Old life laid down, / look thou still
92
To the laity's need ; / here may I no longer be. Bid the battle-famed ones / build me a barrow Bright with the bale-fire / on the brink of the cliff ; It shall for a memory / to my people Be walled up high / on the whale's headland, So that sea-farers / in future say 1 Beowulf's Barrow ! ' / who their brave ships Over the mists of the flood / from afar shall drive." Did off from his neck / that noble Prince 3 A golden ring ; / to his thegn he gave it,
To the young spear-warrior, / his gold-wrought
helm.
Armlet and byrny, / bade him well to use them. 1 Thou art left at the end / of our kindred, Of the Waegmundings ; / all of them Wyrd hath
swept off,
Friends of mine / to the fate fore-doomed, Excellent earls ; / and I must after them." That was the old warrior's / utmost word Of the thoughts of his breast, / ere the bale-fire
he sought, Hot battle-waves ; / from his bosom went
820 His soul to seek / the salvation of the faithful.
*•• •« '•<
[XXXIX]
Thereafter it was / for the young warrior 111 to bear, / that on the earth he saw That most beloved, / at his life's end, Cruelly suffering. / His killer likewise lay, The loathsome earth-dragon / of life bereft, Struck down in ruin. / The ring-hoard for longer That winding Worm / might never wield, For him the iron / edges had taken, Hard, battle-scarred, / hammers' bequests, jo So that the wide-flier / by wounds made still
Heltered upon the ground, / his hoard-place near ; Nevermore in the welkin