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Speaker 1: August two thousand six. Beowulf, translated by Francis Barton Gummere,
Speaker 1: Section three. Then Rothgar went with his hero trained defense
Speaker 1: of Sildings. Forth from hall Fain. Would the war lord
Speaker 1: Wilvou seek couch of his queen, the king of glory.
Speaker 1: Against this Grendel, a guard had set. So heroes heard
Speaker 1: a whole defender, who warded the monarch and watched for
Speaker 1: the monster. In truth, the Gheet's prince gladly trusted his metal,
Speaker 1: his might, the mercy of God cast off. Then his
Speaker 1: corselet of iron helmet from head to his henchmen, gave
Speaker 1: choicest of weapons, the well chased sword, bidding him guard
Speaker 1: the gear of battle spake. Then his vaunt, the valiant
Speaker 1: man Beowulf gate e're the bed be sought O force
Speaker 1: in fight. No feebler I count me in grim war
Speaker 1: deeds than Grendel deems him not with the sword. Then
Speaker 1: to sleep of death his life will I give, though
Speaker 1: it lie in my power. No skill is his to
Speaker 1: strike against me. My shield to hue. Though he hardy
Speaker 1: be bold in battle, we both this knight shall spurn
Speaker 1: the sword if he seek me here unweaponed for war.
Speaker 1: Let wisest God, Sacred Lord, on which side, soever doomed
Speaker 1: decree as he deemeth right reclined. Then the chieftain and
Speaker 1: cheek pillows held the head of the Earl, while all
Speaker 1: about him seamen hardy on ball beds sank. None of
Speaker 1: them thought that, thence their steps to the folk and
Speaker 1: fastness that fostered them to the land they loved, would
Speaker 1: lead them back full well. They wist that on warrior's
Speaker 1: many battle death seized in the banquet hall of Danish clan.
Speaker 1: But comfort and help war weal weaving to wade of folk,
Speaker 1: the master gave that by might have won over their enemy.
Speaker 1: All prevailed by single strength in sooth, tis told that
Speaker 1: highest God o'er human kind wielded ever through one night,
Speaker 1: striding came the walker in shadow warriors slept, whose hest
Speaker 1: was to guard the gabled hall. All save one. Twas
Speaker 1: widely known that against God's will, the ghostly ravager hymn
Speaker 1: could not hurl to haunts of darkness. Wakeful, ready with
Speaker 1: warrior's wrath, bold, he bided the battle's issue. Then from
Speaker 1: the moorland by misty crags, with God's wrath laden, Grendel came.
Speaker 1: The monster was minded of mankind, now sundry to seize
Speaker 1: in the stately house under welcome, he walked till the
Speaker 1: wine palace. There gold hall of men he gladly discerned,
Speaker 1: flashing with fretwork. Not first time this that he the
Speaker 1: home of Rothcar sought, yet ne'er in his life, day
Speaker 1: late or early, such hardy heroes such hall Thanes found
Speaker 1: to the house. The warrior walked apace, parted from peace.
Speaker 1: The portal opened it, though with forged bolts, fast when
Speaker 1: his fist had struck it, and baleful, he burst in
Speaker 1: his blatant rage the house's mouth all hastily, Then o'er
Speaker 1: fair paved floor. The fiend trod on ireful. He strode there,
Speaker 1: streamed from his eyes fearful flashes like flame to see
Speaker 1: he spied in hall the hero band kin and clansmen
Speaker 1: clustered asleep, hardy liegemen. Then laughed his heart, for the
Speaker 1: monster was minded ere morn should dawn savage to sever
Speaker 1: the soul of each life from body, since lustful banquet
Speaker 1: waited his will, but weird forbade him to seize any
Speaker 1: more of men on earth. After that evening eagerly watched
Speaker 1: Heglack's clansman, his cursed foe, how he would fare in
Speaker 1: fell attack, Not that the monster was minded to pause.
Speaker 1: Straight away, he seized a sleeping warrior for the first
Speaker 1: and tore him fiercely asunder the bone frame, bit drank
Speaker 1: blood in streams, swallowed him piecemeal swiftly. Thus the lifeless
Speaker 1: course was clear, devoured e'en feet and hands. Then farther
Speaker 1: he hied for the hardy hero. With hand he grasped,
Speaker 1: felt for the foe with fiendish claw, for the hero reclining,
Speaker 1: who clutched it boldly, prompt to answer, propped on his arm.
Speaker 1: Soon then saw that shepherd of evils that never he
Speaker 1: met in this middle world in the ways of earth,
Speaker 1: another white with heavier hand, gripe at heart. He feared,
Speaker 1: sorrowed in soul, none the sooner escaped. Fain would he
Speaker 1: flee his fastness, seek the den of devils. No doings
Speaker 1: now such as oft he had done in days of old.
Speaker 1: Then bethought him the hardy higlock fane of his boasted evening.
Speaker 1: Up he bounded, grasped firm his foe, whose fingers cracked.
Speaker 1: The fiend made off, but the earl close followed. The
Speaker 1: monster meant if he might at all to fling himself
Speaker 1: free and far away, fly to the fens. Knew his
Speaker 1: fingers power in the gripe of the grim one, gruesome
Speaker 1: marsh to herod, this monster of harm had made Din
Speaker 1: filled the room. The Danes were bereft, castle dwellers and clansmen,
Speaker 1: all earls of their ale angry were both so savage
Speaker 1: hall guards. The house resounded wonder it was the the
Speaker 1: wine hall firm, in the strain of their struggle, stood
Speaker 1: to earth. The fair house fell not too fast, It
Speaker 1: was within and without by its iron bands, craftily clamped,
Speaker 1: though there crashed from sill. Many a mead bench men
Speaker 1: have told me, gay with gold, where the grim foes
Speaker 1: wrestled so well had weened the wisest suldings, that not
Speaker 1: ever at all might any man that bone decked brave
Speaker 1: house break asunder crushed by craft, unless clasp of fire
Speaker 1: and smoke engulfed it again up rose din redoubled Danes
Speaker 1: of the north with fear and frenzy were filled each
Speaker 1: one who from the war that wailing heard God's foe,
Speaker 1: sounding his grisly song, cry of the conquered, clamorous pain
Speaker 1: from captive of hell too closely held him, he who
Speaker 1: of men in might was strongest in that same day
Speaker 1: of this our life. Not in any wise would the
Speaker 1: Earl's defense suffer that slaughterous stranger to live, unless dealing
Speaker 1: his days and years to men on earth. Now many
Speaker 1: an earth, All of Beowulf, brandished blade ancestral, feigned the
Speaker 1: life of their lord to shield their praised prince. If
Speaker 1: power were theirs. Never they knew as they neared the foe,
Speaker 1: hardy hearted heroes of war, aiming their swords on every
Speaker 1: side the accursed to kill. No keenest blade, no fairest
Speaker 1: of faucians fashioned on earth, could harm or hurt that
Speaker 1: hideous fiend. He was safe by his spells, from sword
Speaker 1: of battle, from edge of iron. Yet his end and
Speaker 1: parting on that same day of this our life woeful
Speaker 1: should be, and his wandering soul far off flit to
Speaker 1: the fiend's domain. Soon he found who in former days,
Speaker 1: harmful in heart and hated of God. On many a
Speaker 1: man such murder wrought that the frame of his body
Speaker 1: failed him. Now for him, the keen souled kinsman of
Speaker 1: Higlac held in hand, hateful alive was to each other,
Speaker 1: the outlawed dire took mortal hurt. A mighty wound showed
Speaker 1: on his shoulder, and sinews cracked, and the bone frame burst.
Speaker 1: To Beowulf, now the glory was given, and Grendel, thence death, sick,
Speaker 1: his denier in the dark moor, sought noisome abode. He
Speaker 1: knew too well that here was the last of life,
Speaker 1: an end of his days on earth. To all the Danes.
Speaker 1: By that bloody battle the boon had come from Ravage,
Speaker 1: had rescued the roving stranger Rothgar's hall. The hardy and
Speaker 1: wise one had perched it anew. His night work pleased him,
Speaker 1: his deed and its honor to eastern Danes. Had the
Speaker 1: valiant geat his vaunt made good. All their sorrow and
Speaker 1: ills are swaged, their bale of battle borne so long,
Speaker 1: and all the dole they erst endured pain a plenty
Speaker 1: twas proof of this, When the hardy in fight a
Speaker 1: hand laid down, arm and shoulder, all indeed of Grendel's
Speaker 1: gripe neath the gabled roof. Many at morning, as men
Speaker 1: have told me, warriors gathered the gift hall round folk
Speaker 1: leaders faring from far and near o'er wide stretched ways
Speaker 1: the wonder to view traces of the traitor. Not troublous
Speaker 1: seemed the enemy's end to any man who saw by
Speaker 1: the gait of the graceless foe. How the weary hearted
Speaker 1: away from thence baffled in battle, and band his steps
Speaker 1: death marked, dragged to the devil's mere. Bloody, the billows
Speaker 1: were boiling there, turbid of a tide, of tumbling waves,
Speaker 1: horribly seething with sword blood hot by that doomed one died, who,
Speaker 1: in den of the moor, laid forlorn his life, adown
Speaker 1: his heathen soul, and hell received it home. Then rode
Speaker 1: the hoary clansmen from that merry journey, and many a
Speaker 1: youth on horses white the hardy warrior's back from the mere.
Speaker 1: Then Beowulf's glory. Eager they echoed, and all averred that
Speaker 1: from sea to sea, or south or north, there was
Speaker 1: no other in earth stoemain under vault of heaven more
Speaker 1: valiant found of warriors none more worthy to rule on
Speaker 1: their lord beloved. They laid no slight gracious rofka a
Speaker 1: good king. He From time to time the tried in
Speaker 1: battle their gray steeds, set to gallop a main, and
Speaker 1: ran a race when the road seemed fair. From time
Speaker 1: to time a thane of the king, who had made
Speaker 1: many vaunts, was mindful of verses stored with saggers and
Speaker 1: songs of old, bound word to word in well knit rhyme,
Speaker 1: wielded his lay. This warrior, soon of Beowulf's quest, right
Speaker 1: cleverly sang and artfully added an excellent tale in well
Speaker 1: ranged words of the warlike deeds he had heard in
Speaker 1: Saga of Sigamund. Strange the story, he said it, all
Speaker 1: the walesings, wanderings wide, his struggles, which never were told
Speaker 1: to tribes of men, the feuds and the frauds, save
Speaker 1: to Foretella. Only when of these doings he deigned to
Speaker 1: speak uncle to nephew. As ever, the twain stood side
Speaker 1: by side in stress of war and multitude of the
Speaker 1: monster kind they had felled with their swords of Sigamund
Speaker 1: grew when he passed from life no little praise for
Speaker 1: the doughty and combat. A dragon killed, that herd it
Speaker 1: the horde under hoary rock. The atheling dared the deed
Speaker 1: alone fearful quest, nor was foreteller there Yet so it
Speaker 1: befell his fortune. Pierced that wondrous worm on the wall,
Speaker 1: it struck best blade. The dragon died in its blood.
Speaker 1: Thus had the dread one, by daring, achieved over the Ringhorde,
Speaker 1: to rule at will himself, to pleasure. A sea boat
Speaker 1: he loaded and bore on its bosom, the beaming gold
Speaker 1: Son of Wales. The worm was consumed. He had, of
Speaker 1: all heroes, the highest renown among races of men, this
Speaker 1: refuge of warriors for deeds of daring that decked his name.
Speaker 1: Since the hand and heart of Heremond grew slack in battle,
Speaker 1: he swiftly banished to mingle with monsters at mercy of foes.
Speaker 1: To death was betrayed, for torrents of sorrow had lamed
Speaker 1: him too long. A bode of care to earls and athlings,
Speaker 1: all he proved oft. Indeed, in earlier days for the
Speaker 1: warrior's wayfaring, wise men mourned, who had hoped of him
Speaker 1: help from harm and bail, and had thought their sovereign's
Speaker 1: son would thrive follow his father his folk protect the
Speaker 1: Horde and the stronghold hero's Land, home of Sildings. But here,
Speaker 1: Faines said the kinsmen of Higlac kindess seemed to all
Speaker 1: the other was urged to crime, and afresh to the
Speaker 1: race the fallow roads by swift steeds measured the morning
Speaker 1: sun was climbing higher. Clan's men hastened to the high
Speaker 1: built wall. Those hearty minded the wonder to witness warden
Speaker 1: of treasure crowned with glory. The king himself, with stately
Speaker 1: band from the bride bower Strode, and with him the
Speaker 1: Queen and her crowd of maidens, measured the path to
Speaker 1: the mead house. Fair Rothgar spake to the hall. He went,
Speaker 1: stood by the steps the steep roof sore garnished with
Speaker 1: gold in Grendel's hand for the sight I see, to
Speaker 1: the sovereign ruler be speedy. Thanks a throng of sorrows
Speaker 1: I have borne from Grendel. But God still works wonder
Speaker 1: on wonder the warden of glory. It was but now
Speaker 1: that I never more for woes that weighed on me
Speaker 1: waited help long as I lived, When laved in blood,
Speaker 1: stood sword gore stained this stateliest house, widespread woe for
Speaker 1: wise men, all who had no hope to hinder ever foes,
Speaker 1: infernal and fiendish sprites from havocan hall. This hero, now,
Speaker 1: by the Wielder's might, a work has done that not
Speaker 1: all of us erst could ever do by wilent wisdom.
Speaker 1: Lo well can she say, whoso of women this warrior
Speaker 1: bore among sons of men? If still she liveth that
Speaker 1: the God of the ages was good to her in
Speaker 1: the birth of her bairn. Now Beowulf, thee of Hero's best,
Speaker 1: I shall heartily love as mine own my son. Preserve
Speaker 1: thou ever this kinship knew, Thou shalt never lack wealth
Speaker 1: of the world that I wield as mine full oft.
Speaker 1: For less have I large as showered my precious hoard
Speaker 1: on a punier man, less stout in struggle. Thyself hast
Speaker 1: now fulfilled such deeds that thy fame shall endure through
Speaker 1: all the ages as ever he did. Well, may the
Speaker 1: wielder reward thee Still, Beowulf spake, Baron of Eck, Thou
Speaker 1: this work of war most willingly we have fought this fight,
Speaker 1: and fearlessly dared force of the foe. Fain too, were
Speaker 1: I hadst thou but seen himself. What time the fiend,
Speaker 1: in his trappings tottered to fall swiftly? I thought, in
Speaker 1: strongest scripe on his bed of death, to bind him down,
Speaker 1: that he, in the heart of this hand of mine,
Speaker 1: should breathe his last. But he broke away. Here I
Speaker 1: might not the maker, wild, not hinder from flight, and
Speaker 1: firm enough hold the life destroyer. Too sturdy was he,
Speaker 1: the ruthless, and running for rescue. However he left behind
Speaker 1: him his hand in pledge, arm and shoulder. Nor aught
Speaker 1: of help could the cursed one thus procure it all?
Speaker 1: None the longer liveth he loathsome fiend sunk in his sins,
Speaker 1: But sorrow holds him tightly, grasped in gripe of anguish,
Speaker 1: in baleful bonds. Where abide he must evil outlaw such
Speaker 1: awful doom as the mighty Maker shall meet him out
Speaker 1: more silent seemed the son of eglaff emboastful speech of
Speaker 1: his battle deeds, since Athling's all, through the Earl's great
Speaker 1: prowess beheld that hand on the high roof, gazing foeman's fingers.
Speaker 1: The fore part of each of the sturdy nails to
Speaker 1: steel was likest heathen's hand, spear, hostile warrior's chlor uncanny.
Speaker 1: Twas clear they said that him, no blade of the
Speaker 1: brave could touch, how keen soever, or cut away that
Speaker 1: battle hand, bloody from baneful foe. End of Section three.