Thus made their mourning the men of Geatland, for
their hero’s passing his hearth-companions:
quoth that of all the kings of earth, of men he was
mildest and most beloved, to his kin the kindest,
keenest for praise.
{0a} Not, of course, Beowulf the Great, hero of the
epic.
{0b} Kenning for king or chieftain of a comitatus:
he breaks off gold from the spiral rings —
often worn on the arm — and so rewards
his followers.
{1a} That is, “The Hart,” or “Stag,”
so called from decorations in the gables that resembled
the antlers of a deer. This hall has been carefully
described in a pamphlet by Heyne. The building
was rectangular, with opposite doors —
mainly west and east — and a hearth in
the middle of th single room. A row of pillars
down each side, at some distance from the walls, made
a space which was raised a little above the main floor,
and was furnished with two rows of seats. On
one side, usually south, was the high-seat midway between
the doors. Opposite this, on the other raised
space, was another seat of honor. At the banquet
soon to be described, Hrothgar sat in the south or
chief high-seat, and Beowulf opposite to him.
The scene for a flying (see below, v.499) was thus
very effectively set. Planks on trestles —
the “board” of later English literature
— formed the tables just in front of the
long rows of seats, and were taken away after banquets,
when the retainers were ready to stretch themselves
out for sleep on the benches.
{1b} Fire was the usual end of these halls. See
v. 781 below. One thinks of the splendid scene
at the end of the Nibelungen, of the Nialssaga, of
Saxo’s story of Amlethus, and many a less famous
instance.
{1c} It is to be supposed that all hearers of this
poem knew how Hrothgar’s hall was burnt, —
perhaps in the unsuccessful attack made on him by
his son-in-law Ingeld.
{1d} A skilled minstrel. The Danes are heathens,
as one is told presently; but this lay of beginnings
is taken from Genesis.
{1e} A disturber of the border, one who sallies from
his haunt in the fen and roams over the country near
by. This probably pagan nuisance is now furnished
with biblical credentials as a fiend or devil in good
standing, so that all Christian Englishmen might read
about him. “Grendel” may mean one
who grinds and crushes.
{1f} Cain’s.
{1g} Giants.
{2a} The smaller buildings within the main enclosure
but separate from the hall.
{2b} Grendel.
{2c} “Sorcerers-of-hell.”
{2d} Hrothgar, who is the “Scyldings’-friend”
of 170.
{2e} That is, in formal or prescribed phrase.
{3a} Ship.
{3b} That is, since Beowulf selected his ship and
led his men to the harbor.
{3c} One of the auxiliary names of the Geats.
{3d} Or: Not thus openly ever came warriors
hither; yet...
