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• 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.

XLII.

THEY GO TO LOOK ON THE FIELD OF DEED.

• THEN it was to be seen that throve not the way
• To him that unrightly had hidden within there
• The fair gear ’neath the wall. The warder erst slew
• Some few of folk, and the feud then became
• Wrothfully wreaked. A wonder whenas
• A valour-strong earl may reach on the ending
• Of the fashion of life, when he longer in nowise
• One man with his kinsmen may dwell in the mead-hall!
• So to Beowulf was it when the burg’s ward he sought,
• For the hate of the weapons: he himself knew not
• Wherethrough forsooth his world’s sundering should be.
• So until Doomsday they cursed it deeply,
• Those princes the dread, who erst there had done it,
• That that man should be of sins never sackless,
• A-hoppled in shrines, in hell-bonds fast set,
• With plague-spots be punish’d, who that plain should plunder.
• But naught gold-greedy was he, more gladly had he
• The grace of the Owner erst gotten to see.
• Now spake out Wiglaf, that son was of Weohstan:
• Oft shall many an earl for the will but of one
• Dree the wrack, as to us even now is befallen:
• Nowise might we learn the lief lord of us,
• The herd of the realm, any of rede,
• That he should not go greet that warder of gold,
• But let him live yet, whereas long he was lying,
• And wonne in his wicks until the world’s ending;
• But he held to high weird and the hoard hath been seen,
• Grimly gotten: o’er hard forsooth was that giving,
• That the king of the folk e’en thither enticed.
• Lo! I was therein, and I look’d it all over,
• The gear of the house, when for me room was gotten,
• But I lightly in nowise had leave for the passage
• In under the earth-wall; in haste I gat hold
• Forsooth with my hands of a mickle main burden
• Of hoard-treasures, and hither then out did I bear them,
• Out unto my king, and then quick was he yet,
• Wise, and wit-holding: a many things spake he,
• That aged in grief-care, and bade me to greet you,
• And pray’d ye would do e’en after your friend’s deeds
• Aloft in the bale-stead a howe builded high,
• Most mickle and mighty, as he amongst men was
• The worthfullest warrior wide over the world,
• While he the burg-weal erewhile might brook.
• Then so let us hasten this second of whiles
• To see and to seek the throng of things strange,
• The wonder ’neath wall; I shall wise you the way,
• So that ye from a-near may look on enough
• Of rings and broad gold; and be the bier swiftly
• All yare thereunto, whenas out we shall fare.
• Then let us so ferry the lord that was ours,
• The lief man of men, to where long shall he
• In the All-Wielder’s keeping full patiently wait.
• Bade then to bid the bairn of that Weohstan,
• The deer of the battle, to a many of warriors,
• The house-owning wights, that the wood of the bale
• They should ferry from far, e’en the folk-owning men,
• Toward the good one. And now shall the gleed fret away,
• The wan flame a-waxing, the strong one of warriors,
• Him who oft-times abided the shower of iron
• When the storm of the shafts driven on by the strings
• Shook over the shield-wall, and the shaft held its service,
• And eager with feather-gear follow’d the barb.
• Now then the wise one, that son was of Weohstan,
• Forth from the throng then call’d of the king’s thanes
• A seven together, the best to be gotten,
• And himself went the eighth in under the foeroof;
• One man of the battlers in hand there he bare
• A gleam of the fire, of the first went he inward.
• It was nowise allotted who that hoard should despoil,
• Sithence without warden some deal that there was
• The men now beheld in the hall there a-wonning,
• Lying there fleeting; little mourn’d any,
• That they in all haste outward should ferry
• The dear treasures. But forthwith the drake did they shove,
• The Worm, o’er the cliff-wall, and let the wave take him,
• The flood fathom about the fretted works’ herd.
• There then was wounden gold on the wain laden
• Untold of each kind, and the Atheling borne,
• The hoary of warriors, out on to Whale-ness.