The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Argument
• The Story of Beowulf
• I.: And First of the Kindred of Hrothgar.
• II.: Concerning Hrothgar, and How He Built the House Called Hart. Also Grendel Is Told Of.
• III.: How Grendel Fell Upon Hart and Wasted It.
• IV.: Now Comes Beowulf Ecgtheow’s Son to the Land of the Danes, and the Wall-warden Speaketh With Him.
• V.: Here Beowulf Makes Answer to the Land-warden, Who Showeth Him the Way to the King’s Abode.
• VI.: Beowulf and the Geats Come Into Hart.
• VII.: Beowulf Speaketh With Hrothgar, and Telleth How He Will Meet Grendel.
• VIII.: Hrothgar Answereth Beowulf and Biddeth Him Sit to the Feast.
• IX.: Unferth Contendeth In Words With Beowulf.
• X.: Beowulf Makes an End of His Tale of the Swimming. Wealhtheow, Hrothgar’s Queen, Greets Him; and Hrothgar Delivers to Him the Warding of the Hall.
• XI.: Now Is Beowulf Left In the Hall Alone With His Men.
• XII.: Grendel Cometh Into Hart: of the Strife Betwixt Him and Beowulf.
• XIII.: Beowulf Hath the Victory: Grendel Is Hurt Deadly and Leaveth Hand and Arm In the Hall.
• XIV.: The Danes Rejoice; They Go to Look On the Slot of Grendel, and Come Back to Hart, and On the Way Make Merry With Racing and the Telling of Tales.
• XV.: King Hrothgar and His Thanes Look On the Arm of Grendel. Converse Betwixt Hrothgar and Beowulf Concerning the Battle.
• XVI.: Hrothgar Giveth Gifts to Beowulf.
• XVII.: They Feast In Hart. the Gleeman Sings of Finn and Hengest.
• XVIII.: The Ending of the Tale of Finn.
• XIX.: More Gifts Are Given to Beowulf. the Brising Collar Told Of.
• XX.: Grendel’s Dam Breaks Into Hart and Bears Off Aeschere.
• XXI.: Hrothgar Laments the Slaying of Aeschere, and Tells of Grendel’s Mother and Her Den.
• XXII.: They Follow Grendel’s Dam to Her Lair.
• XXIII.: Beowulf Reacheth the Mere-bottom In a Day’s While, and Contends With Grendel’s Dam.
• XXIV.: Beowulf Slayeth Grendel’s Dam, Smiteth Off Grendel’s Head, and Cometh Back With His Thanes to Hart.
• XXV.: Converse of Hrothgar With Beowulf.
• XXVI.: More Converse of Hrothgar and Beowulf: the Geats Make Them Ready For Departure.
• XXVII.: Beowulf Bids Hrothgar Farewell: the Geats Fare to Ship.
• XXVIII.: Beowulf Comes Back to His Land. of the Tale of Thrytho.
• XXIX.: Beowulf Tells Hygelac of Hrothgar: Also of Freawaru His Daughter.
• XXX.: Beowulf Forebodes Ill From the Wedding of Freawaru: He Tells of Grendel and His Dam.
• XXXI.: Beowulf Gives Hrothgar’s Gifts to Hygelac, and By Him Is Rewarded. of the Death of Hygelac and of Heardred His Son, and How Beowulf Is King of the Geats: the Worm Is First Told Of.
• XXXII.: How the Worm Came to the Howe, and How He Was Robbed of a Cup; and How He Fell On the Folk.
• XXXIII.: The Worm Burns Beowulf’s House, and Beowulf Gets Ready to Go Against Him. Beowulf’s Early Deeds In Battle With the Hetware Told Of.
• XXXIV.: Beowulf Goes Against the Worm. He Tells of Herebeald and HÆthcyn.
• XXXV.: Beowulf Tells of Past Feuds, and Bids Farewell to His Fellows. He Falls On the Worm, and the Battle of Them Begins.
• XXXVI.: Wiglaf Son of Weohstan Goes to the Help of Beowulf: NÆgling, Beowulf’s Sword, Is Broken On the Worm.
• XXXVII.: They Two Slay the Worm. Beowulf Is Wounded Deadly: He Biddeth Wiglaf Bear Out the Treasure.
• XXXVIII.: Beowulf Beholdeth the Treasure and Passeth Away.
• XXXIX.: Wiglaf Casteth Shame On Those Fleers.
• Xl.: Wiglaf Sendeth Tiding to the Host: the Words of the Messenger.
• Xli.: More Words of the Messenger. How He Fears the Swedes When They Wot of Beowulf Dead.
• Xlii.: They Go to Look On the Field of Deed.
• Xliii.: of the Burial of Beowulf.

XXV.

CONVERSE OF HROTHGAR WITH BEOWULF.

• SPAKE out then Beowulf, Ecgtheow’s bairn:
• What! we the sea-spoils here to thee, son of Healfdene,
• High lord of the Scyldings, with lust have brought hither
• For a token of glory, e’en these thou beholdest.
• Now I all unsoftly with life I escaped,
• In war under the water dar’d I the work
• Full hard to be worked, and well-nigh there was
• The sundering of strife, save that me God had shielded.
• So it is that in battle naught might I with Hrunting
• One whit do the work, though the weapon be doughty;
• But to me then he granted, the Wielder of men,
• That on wall I beheld there all beauteous hanging
• An ancient sword might-endow’d (often he leadeth right
• The friendless of men); so forth drew I that weapon.
• In that onset I slew there, as hap then appaid me,
• The herd of the house; then that bill of the host,
• The broider’d sword, burn’d up, and that blood sprang forth
• The hottest of battle-sweats; but the hilts thereof thenceforth
• From the foemen I ferry’d. I wreaked the foul deeds,
• The death-quelling of Danes, e’en as duly behoved.
• Now this I behote thee, that here in Hart mayst thou
• Sleep sorrowless henceforth with the host of thymen
• And the thanes every one that are of thy people
• Of doughty and young; that for them need thou dread not,
• O high lord of Scyldings, on that behalf soothly
• Life-bale for the earls as erst thou hast done.
• Then was the hilt golden to the ancient of warriors,
• The hoary of host-leaders, into hand given,
• The old work of giants; it turn’d to the owning,
• After fall of the Devils, of the lord of the Danes,
• That work of the wonder-smith, syth gave up the world
• The fierce-hearted groom, the foeman of God,
• The murder-beguilted, and there eke his mother;
• Unto the wielding of world-kings it turned,
• The best that there be betwixt of the sea-floods
• Of them that in Scaney dealt out the scat.
• Now spake out Hrothgar, as he look’d on the hilts there,
• The old heir-loom whereon was writ the beginning
• Of the strife of the old time, whenas the flood slew,
• The ocean a-gushing, that kin of the giants
• As fiercely they fared. That was a folk alien
• To the Lord everlasting; so to them a last guerdon
• Through the welling of waters the Wielder did give.
• So was on the sword-guards all of the sheer gold
• By dint of the rune-staves rightly bemarked,
• Set down and said for whom first was that sword wrought,
• And the choice of all irons erst had been done,
• Wreath-hilted and worm-adorn’d. Then spake the wise one,
• Healfdene’s son, and all were gone silent:
• Lo that may he say, who the right and the soothfast
• Amid the folk frameth, and far back all remembers,
• The old country’s warden, that as for this earl here
• Born better was he. Uprear’d is the fame-blast
• Through wide ways far yonder, O Beowulf, friend mine,
• Of thee o’er all peoples. Thou hold’st all with patience,
• Thy might with mood-wisdom; I shall make thee my love good,
• As we twain at first spake it. For a comfort thou shalt be
• Granted long while and long unto thy people,
• For a help unto heroes. Naught such became Heremod
• To Ecgwela’s offspring, the honourful Scyldings;
• For their welfare naught wax’d he, but for felling in slaughter,
• For the quelling of death to the folk of the Danes.
• Mood-swollen he brake there his board-fellows soothly,
• His shoulder-friends, until he sunder’d him lonely,
• That mighty of princes, from the mirth of all men-folk.
• Though him God the mighty in the joyance of might,
• In main strength, exalted high over all men,
• And framed him forth, yet fast in his heart grew
• A breast-hoard blood-fierce; none of fair rings he gave
• To the Danes as due doom would. Unmerry he dured
• So that yet of that strife the trouble he suffer’d,
• A folk-bale so longsome. By such do thou learn thee,
• Get thee hold of man-valour: this tale for thy teaching
• Old in winters I tell thee. ’Tis wonder to say it,
• How the high God almighty to the kindred of mankind
• Through his mind the wide-fashion’d deals wisdom about,
• Home and earlship; he owneth the wielding of all.
• At whiles unto love he letteth to turn
• The mood-thought of a man that is mighty of kindred,
• And in his land giveth him joyance of earth,
• And to have and to hold the high ward-burg of men,
• And sets so ’neath his wielding the deals of the world,
• Dominion wide reaching, that he himself may not
• In all his unwisdom of the ending bethink him.
• He wonneth well-faring, nothing him wasteth
• Sickness nor eld, nor the foe-sorrow to him
• Dark in mind waxeth, nor strife any where,
• The edge-hate, appeareth; but all the world for him
• Wends as he willeth, and the worse naught he wotteth.