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.

XLIII.

OF THE BURIAL OF BEOWULF.

• FOR him then they geared, the folk of the Geats,
• A pile on the earth all unweaklike that was,
• With war-helms behung, and with boards of the battle,
• And bright byrnies, e’en after the boon that he bade.
• Laid down then amidmost their king mighty-famous
• The warriors lamenting, the lief lord of them.
• Began on the burg of bale-fires the biggest
• The warriors to waken: the wood-reek went up
• Swart over the smoky glow, sound of the flame
• Bewound with the weeping (the wind-blending stilled),
• Until it at last the bone-house had broken
• Hot at the heart. All unglad of mind
• With mood-care they mourned their own liege lord’s quelling.
• Likewise a sad lay the wife of aforetime
• For Beowulf the king, with her hair all up-bounden,
• Sang sorrow-careful; said oft and over
• That harm-days for herself in hard wise she dreaded,
• The slaughter-falls many, much fear of the warrior,
• The shaming and bondage. Heaven swallow’d the reek.
• Wrought there and fashion’d the folk of the Weders
• A howe on the lithe, that high was and broad,
• Unto the wave-farers wide to be seen:
• Then it they betimber’d in time of ten days,
• The battle-strong’s beacon; the brands’ very leavings
• They bewrought with a wall in the worthiest of ways,
• That men of all wisdom might find how to work.
• Into burg then they did the rings and bright sun-gems,
• And all such adornments as in the hoard there
• The war-minded men had taken e’en now;
• The earls’ treasures let they the earth to be holding,
• Gold in the grit, wherein yet it liveth,
• As useless to men-folk as ever it erst was.
• Then round the howe rode the deer of the battle,
• The bairns of the athelings, twelve were they in all.
• Their care would they mourn, and bemoan them their king,
• The word-lay would they utter and over the man speak:
• They accounted his earlship and mighty deeds done,
• And doughtily deem’d them; as due as it is
• That each one his friend-lord with words should belaud,
• And love in his heart, whenas forth shall he
• Away from the body be fleeting at last.
• In such wise they grieved, the folk of the Geats,
• For the fall of their lord, e’en they his hearth-fellows;
• Quoth they that he was a world-king forsooth,
• The mildest of all men, unto men kindest,
• To his folk the most gentlest, most yearning of fame.

Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.

Edinburgh & London