{Beowulf is an honor to his race.}
He
to all men became then far more beloved,
Higelac’s
kinsman, to kindreds and races,
To
his friends much dearer; him malice assaulted.—
{The story is resumed.}
80 Oft running
and racing on roadsters they measured
The
dun-colored highways. Then the light of the morning
Was
hurried and hastened. Went henchmen in numbers
To
the beautiful building, bold ones in spirit,
To
look at the wonder; the liegelord himself then
85 From
his wife-bower wending, warden of treasures,
Glorious
trod with troopers unnumbered,
Famed
for his virtues, and with him the queen-wife
Measured
the mead-ways, with maidens attending.
[1] S. emends, suggesting ‘deop’
for ‘deog,’ and removing semicolon after
‘weol.’ The two half-lines ‘welling
... hid him’ would then read: The
bloody deep welled with sword-gore. B. accepts
‘deop’ for ‘deog,’ but
reads ‘deaeth-faeges’: The deep
boiled with the sword-gore of the death-doomed
one.
[2] Another and quite different rendering
of this passage is as follows: Oft a liegeman
of the king, a fame-covered man mindful of songs,
who very many ancient traditions remembered (he found
other word-groups accurately bound together) began
afterward to tell of Beowulf’s adventure,
skilfully to narrate it, etc.
[3] Might ‘guma gilp-hladen’
mean ’a man laden with boasts of the
deeds of others’?
[4] t.B. accepts B.’s ‘he
þaes aron þah’ as given by H.-So., but puts a
comma after ‘þah,’ and takes ‘siethethan’
as introducing a dependent clause: He
throve in honor since Heremod’s strength ...
had decreased.
[33]
HROTHGAR’S GRATITUDE.
Hrothgar
discoursed (to the hall-building went he,
He
stood by the pillar,[1] saw the steep-rising hall-roof
Gleaming
with gold-gems, and Grendel his hand there):
{Hrothgar gives thanks for the overthrow of the monster.}
“For
the sight we behold now, thanks to the Wielder
5
Early be offered! Much evil I bided,
Snaring
from Grendel:[2] God can e’er ’complish
Wonder
on wonder, Wielder of Glory!
{I had given up all hope, when this brave liegeman
came to our aid.}
But
lately I reckoned ne’er under heaven
Comfort
to gain me for any of sorrows,
10 While
the handsomest of houses horrid with bloodstain
Gory
uptowered; grief had offfrightened[3]
Each
of the wise ones who weened not that ever
The
folk-troop’s defences ’gainst foes they
should strengthen,
’Gainst
sprites and monsters. Through the might of the
Wielder
15 A doughty
retainer hath a deed now accomplished
Which
erstwhile we all with our excellent wisdom
