Beowulf - Delphi Poets Series Read online

  2 See Finnsburg, vv. 7 f . for a more striking personification.

  3 “Before the shoulders,” whatever position this was. Gering: “at the left shoulder of the lord of the land.”

  4 Literally, “oldest.” See above, v. 258.

  VI

  Hrothgar answered, helmet of Scyldings: —

  “I knew him of yore in his youthful days;

  his agéd father was Ecgtheow named,

  to whom, at home, gave Hrethel the Geat

  375 his only daughter.1 Their offspring bold

  fares hither to seek the steadfast friend.

  And seamen, too, have said me this, —

  who carried my gifts to the Geatish court,

  thither for thanks, — he has thirty men’s

  380 heft of grasp in the gripe of his hand,

  the bold-in-battle. Blesséd God

  out of his mercy this man hath sent

  to Danes of the West, as I ween indeed,

  against horror of Grendel. I hope to give

  385 the good youth gold for his gallant thought.

  Be thou in haste, and bid them hither,

  clan of kinsmen, to come before me;

  and add this word, — they are welcome guests

  to folk of the Danes.”

  [To the door of the hall

  390 Wulfgar went]2 and the word declared: —

  “To you this message my master sends,

  East-Danes’ king, that your kin he knows,

  hardy heroes, and hails you all

  welcome hither o’er waves of the sea!

  395 Ye may wend your way in war-attire,

  and under helmets Hrothgar greet;

  but let here the battle-shields bide your parley,

  and wooden war-shafts wait its end.”

  Uprose the mighty one, ringed with his men,

  400 brave band of thanes: some bode without,

  battle-gear guarding, as bade the chief.

  Then hied that troop where the herald led them,

  under Heorot’s roof: [the hero strode,]3

  hardy ‘neath helm, till the hearth he neared.4

  405 Beowulf spake, — his breastplate gleamed,

  war-net woven by wit of the smith: —

  “Thou Hrothgar, hail! Hygelac’s I,

  kinsman and follower. Fame a plenty

  have I gained in youth!5 These Grendel-deeds

  410 I heard in my home-land heralded clear.

  Seafarers say6 how stands this hall,

  of buildings best, for your band of thanes

  empty and idle, when evening sun

  in the harbor of heaven is hidden away.

  415 So my vassals advised me well, —

  brave and wise, the best of men, —

  O sovran Hrothgar, to seek thee here,

  for my nerve and my might they knew full well.

  Themselves had seen me from slaughter come

  420 blood-flecked from foes, where five I bound,

  and that wild brood worsted. I’ the waves I slew

  nicors7 by night, in need and peril

  avenging the Weders,8 whose woe they sought, —

  crushing the grim ones. Grendel now,

  425 monster cruel, be mine to quell

  in single battle! So, from thee,

  thou sovran of the Shining-Danes,

  Scyldings’-bulwark, a boon I seek, —

  and, Friend-of-the-folk, refuse it not,

  430 O Warriors’-shield, now I’ve wandered far, —

  that I alone with my liegemen here,

  this hardy band, may Heorot purge!

  More I hear, that the monster dire,

  in his wanton mood, of weapons recks not;

  435 hence shall I scorn — so Hygelac stay,

  king of my kindred, kind to me! —

  brand or buckler to bear in the fight,

  gold-colored targe: but with gripe alone

  must I front the fiend and fight for life,

  440 foe against foe. Then faith be his9

  in the doom of the Lord whom death shall take.

  Fain, I ween, if the fight he win,

  in this hall of gold my Geatish band

  will he fearless eat, — as oft before, —

  445 my noblest thanes.10 Nor need’st thou then

  to hide my head;11 for his shall I be,

  dyed in gore, if death must take me;

  and my blood-covered body he’ll bear as prey,

  ruthless devour it, the roamer-lonely,

  450 with my life-blood redden his lair in the fen:

  no further for me need’st food prepare!12

  To Hygelac send, if Hild13 should take me,

  best of war-weeds, warding my breast,

  armor excellent, heirloom of Hrethel

  455 and work of Wayland.14 Fares Wyrd15 as she must.”

  Footnotes

  1 It is point of honor in the sovran — and the late Queen Victoria was proud of her accomplishment in this respect — to know all the nobles and royal persons in their relationship and descent. So Hildebrand, trying to make his son believe that the paternal claim is true, asks to be put to the test of genealogies and kinship: “If thou namest one only, the others I know.” The loquacity of Hrothgar is both the royal leisurely way, and also an attempt of the poet to characterize the king, and set him apart.

  2 Grein’s insertion to mend an evident omission of the scribe.

  3 Grein’s insertion.

  4 “Hardy beneath his helmet” is a common phrase in epic description. See above, v. 296, and Nibelungen, under helme gân, in many places. — The hearth, always in the middle of the hall, would be close to the throne, as Heyne points out in his essay on the situation and structure of Heorot, referring to an Anglo-Saxon document of the eleventh century. “Hearth” is more specific and better visualized than the mere “interior” of some readings.

  5 So all the old epic heroes; they have no passion for modesty.

  Sum pius Aeneas fama super aethera notus,

  is more vigorous trumpeting than even this blast from Beowulf. Dryden notes in his Essay on Dramatic Poetry that only the later heroes made anything of reticence as a manly virtue.

  6 See ahove, v. 377, and Hildebrand, v. 44. These “seafarers” are not necessarily sailors by profession, but any persons who fare over sea and bring the news; cf. v. 1818, “we seafarers” = Beowulf and his men.

  7 The nicor, says Bugge, is a hippopotamus; a walrus, says ten Brink. But that water-goblin who covers the space from Old Nick of jest to the Neckan and Nix of poetry and tale, is all one needs, and Nicor is a good name for him. Dan Michel in the fourteenth century renders sirens or sea-fairies by this word nicor. A glance, too, at Vigfusson’s Icelandic Dictionary, s.v. “Nykr,” is instructive. To square this story with vv. 550 ff., below, many emendations are proposed; but figures may be changed even in hunting-stories. Moreover, see vv. 574–7. There was genuine fear of sea-beasts among these men of the coast, and Horace’s monstra natantia (I, iii, 18) would have appealed to them as no matter for jests. They enhance the horror of Nicor’s Mere, below, v. 1425. Whales are specified in v. 541 as objects of fear; see note to v. 549.

  8 His own people, the Geats.

  9 Klaeber, with Earle: “he shall resign himself to the judgment.” It is a kind of trial by battle; and perhaps the sense is that the one who falls in the fight may well have cause to believe in God’s justice. But the common and ancient belief that “Wyrd goes as she must” is in the background.

  10 Literally, “the flower of my men” (Schücking); it is parallel to “Geatish band.” This interpretation removes grave difficulties from the passage. “As oft before” is a general and pregnant phrase referring to Grendel’s previous attacks on the Danish clansmen.

  11 That is, cover it as with a face-cloth. “There will be no need of funeral rites.”

  12 The fondness for emphasis by understatement — litotes — here takes the form of anticlimax.


  13 Personification of Battle. That personal and mythological force lingers in the word seems clear from its uses in poetry.

  14 The Germanic Vulcan. See below, Deor’s Song, and notes.

  15 Compare the personifying force in a phrase of the Heliand, “Thy Wyrd stands near thee,” — thy fated hour is nigh. This mighty power, whom the Christian poet can still revere, has here the general force of “Destiny.” Chaucer glosses the plural (Wirdes) as Destiny, but Macbeth has no doubt of the “personification” when he meets the Weird-Sisters, that is, sister fates.

  VII

  Hrothgar spake, the Scyldings’-helmet: —

  “For fight defensive. Friend my Beowulf,

  to succor and save, thou hast sought us here.

  Thy father’s combat1 a feud enkindled

  460 when Heatholaf with hand he slew

  among the Wylfings; his Weder kin

  for horror of fighting feared to hold him.

  Fleeing, he sought our South-Dane folk,

  over surge of ocean the Honor-Scyldings,

  465 when first I was ruling the folk2 of Danes,

  wielded, youthful, this widespread realm,

  this hoard-hold of heroes. Heorogar was dead,

  my elder brother, had breathed his last,

  Healfdene’s bairn: he was better than I!

  470 Straightway the feud with fee3 I settled,

  to the Wylfings sent, o’er watery ridges,

  treasures olden: oaths he4 swore me.

  Sore is my soul to say to any

  of the race of man what ruth for me

  475 in Heorot Grendel with hate hath wrought,

  what sudden harryings. Hall-folk fail me,

  my warriors wane; for Wyrd hath swept them

  into Grendel’s grasp. But God is able

  this deadly foe from his deeds to turn!

  480 Boasted full oft, as my beer they drank,

  earls o’er the ale-cup, arméd men,

  that they would bide in the beer-hall here,

  Grendel’s attack with terror of blades.5

  Then was this mead-house at morning tide

  485 dyed with gore, when the daylight broke,

  all the boards of the benches blood-besprinkled,

  gory the hall: I had heroes the less,

  doughty dear-ones that death had reft.

  — But sit to the banquet, unbind thy words,

  490 hardy hero, as heart shall prompt thee.”

  Gathered together, the Geatish men

  in the banquet-hall on bench assigned,

  sturdy-spirited, sat them down,

  hardy-hearted. A henchman attended,

  495 carried the carven cup in hand,

  served the clear mead. Oft minstrels sang

  blithe in Heorot. Heroes revelled,

  no dearth of warriors,6 Weder and Dane.

  Footnotes

  1 There is no irrelevance here. Hrothgar sees in Beowulf’s mission a heritage of duty, a return of the good offices which the Danish king rendered to Beowulf’s father in time of dire need. — F. Seebohm, Tribal Customs in Anglo-Saxon Law, London, 1902, comments on this ethical side of the feud, and makes great use of the material in Beowulf.

  2 Repeated from v. 463, also in the original.

  3 Money, for wergild, or man-price.

  4 Ecgtheow, Beowulf’s sire.

  5 “With terrible blades,” — drawn swords.— “Boast” is not used in the modem sense, nor was it “Dutch courage” that inspired the utterance. As in the Indian war-dance, so at the Germanic feast in hall or camp before battle, the warrior was expected to make his beót or promise of prowess, — and to keep it. These vaunts easily lent themselves to jocose treatment in the declining days of epic or romance; witness the famous “gabs” in Charlemagne’s Journey to Jerusalem.

  6 In spite of v. 476, Hrothgar still has a large band of retainers.

  VIII

  Unferth1 spake, the son of Ecglaf,

  500 who sat at the feet of the Scyldings’ lord,

  unbound the battle-runes.2 — Beowulf’s quest,

  sturdy seafarer’s, sorely galled him;

  ever he envied that other men

  should more achieve in middle-earth

  505 of fame under heaven than he himself. —

  “Art thou that Beowulf, Breca’s rival,

  who emulous swam on the open sea,

  when for pride the pair of you proved the floods,

  and wantonly dared in waters deep

  510 to risk your lives? No living man,

  or lief or loath, from your labor dire

  could you dissuade, from swimming the main.

  Ocean-tides with your arms ye covered,

  with strenuous hands the sea-streets measured,

  515 swam o’er the waters. Winter’s storm

  rolled the rough waves. In realm of sea

  a sennight strove ye. In swimming he topped thee,

  had more of main! Him at morning-tide

  billows bore to the Battling Reamas,3

  520 whence he hied to his home so dear,

  beloved of his liegemen, to land of Brondings,

  fastness fair, where his folk he ruled,

  town and treasure. In triumph o’er thee

  Beanstan’s bairn4 his boast achieved.

  525 So ween I for thee a worse adventure

  — though in buffet of battle thou brave hast been,

  in struggle grim, — if Grendel’s approach

  thou darst await through the watch of night!”

  Beowulf spake, bairn of Ecgtheow: —

  530 “What a deal hast uttered, dear my Unferth,

  drunken with beer, of Breca now,

  told of his triumph! Truth I claim it,

  that I had more of might in the sea

  than any man else, more ocean-endurance.

  535 We twain had talked, in time of youth,

  and made our boast, — we were merely boys,

  striplings still, — to stake our lives

  far at sea: and so we performed it.

  Naked swords, as we swam along,

  540 we held in hand, with hope to guard us

  against the whales. Not a whit from me

  could he float afar o’er the flood of waves,

  haste o’er the billows; nor him I abandoned.

  Together we twain on the tides abode

  545 five nights full till the flood divided us,

  churning waves and chillest weather,

  darkling night, and the northern wind

  ruthless rushed on us: rough was the surge.

  Now the wrath of the sea-fish5 rose apace;

  550 yet me ‘gainst the monsters my mailéd coat,

  hard and hand-linked, help afforded, —

  battle-sark braided my breast to ward,

  garnished with gold. There grasped me firm

  and haled me to bottom the hated foe,

  555 with grimmest gripe. ’Twas granted me, though,

  to pierce the monster with point of sword,

  with blade of battle: huge beast of the sea

  was whelmed by the hurly through hand of mine.

  Footnotes

  1 Spelled Hunferth in the text, but always riming with vowels.

  2 “Began the fight.” — But here is scarcely the flyting, or song-contest, found everywhere among peoples in a primitive stage of culture. It is rather a report of the spirited way in which Beowulf carried off the laurels in the “hazing” of the guest by a competent official of the host. Probably this test was part of the formal reception; but it seems a strange survival in epic by the side of the courtly and extravagant complimenta exchanged between Beowulf and Hrothgar. In Scandinavian sources one gets the rough flyting in its coarseness and strength. See the Lokasenna, above all, and the cases reported by Saxo. In one the prizes are peculiar: a queen’s necklace, the man’s life.

  3 Bugge places the home of these Heathoreamas in Southern Norway. He als
o notes a parallel swimming-match in the Egilssaga.

  4 Breca.

  5 Partly founded on actual experience of angry whales, as York Powell pointed out, and partly on doings of mythical beasts of the sea.

  IX

  Me thus often the evil monsters

  560 thronging threatened. With thrust of my sword,

  the darling, I dealt them due return!

  Nowise had they bliss from their booty then

  to devour their victim, vengeful creatures,

  seated to banquet at bottom of sea;

  565 but at break of day, by my brand sore hurt,

  on the edge of ocean up they lay,

  put to sleep by the sword. And since, by them

  on.the fathomless sea-ways sailor-folk

  are never molested. — Light from east,

  570 came bright God’s beacon; the billows sank,

  so that I saw the sea-cliffs high,

  windy walls. For Wyrd oft saveth

  earl undoomed if he doughty be!1

  And so it came that I killed with my sword

  575 nine of the nicors. Of night-fought battles

  ne’er heard I a harder ‘neath heaven’s dome,

  nor adrift on the deep a more desolate man!

  Yet I came unharmed from that hostile clutch,

  though spent with swimming. The sea upbore me,

  580 flood of the tide, on Finnish2 land,

  the welling waters. No wise of thee3

  have I heard men tell such terror of falchions,

  bitter battle. Breca ne’er yet,

  not one of you pair, in the play of war

  585 such daring deed has done at all

  with bloody brand, — I boast not of it! —

  though thou wast the bane4 of thy brethren dear,

  thy closest kin, whence curse of hell

  awaits thee, well as thy wit may serve!

  590 For I say in sooth, thou son of Ecglaf,

  never had Grendel these grim deeds wrought,

  monster dire, on thy master dear,

  in Heorot such havoc, if heart of thine

  were as battle-bold as thy boast is loud!

  595 But he has found no feud will happen;

  from sword-clash dread of your Danish clan

  he vaunts him safe, from the Victor-Scyldings.

  He forces pledges, favors none

  of the land of Danes, but lustily murders,

  600 fights and feasts, nor feud he dreads