Beowulf

Anonymous, J. Lesslie Hall

• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781504062787
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

Set in sixth-century Scandinavia, this epic poem recounts a hero's battles against horrific monsters. Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, finds his domain threatened by the beast Grendel. Miraculously, a hero from the Geats seafaring tribe, Beowulf, arrives and slaughters Grendel, saving the Danes. Yet nearly as soon as Grendel is slain, Beowulf must face another foe: Grendel's mother.
This millennium-old work of literature tells of Beowulf's fierce fights during his fifty-year rule over his people—as well as his ultimate battle against a fire-breathing dragon who has wreaked chaos and destruction upon the Geats. This famous and powerful scene was the first appearance of a dragon-slayer in English literature.

XLIII.

The Burning of Beowulf.

The folk of the Geatmen got him then ready

A pile on the earth strong for the burning,

Behung with helmets, hero-knights’ targets,

And bright-shining burnies, as he begged they should have them;

Then wailing war-heroes their world-famous chieftain,

Their liegelord beloved, laid in the middle.

Soldiers began then to make on the barrow

The largest of dead-fires: dark o’er the vapor

The smoke-cloud ascended, the sad-roaring fire,

Mingled with weeping (the wind-roar subsided)

Till the building of bone it had broken to pieces,

Hot in the heart. Heavy in spirit

They mood-sad lamented the men-leader’s ruin;

And mournful measures the much-grieving widow

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The men of the Weders made accordingly

A hill on the height, high and extensive,

Of sea-going sailors to be seen from a distance,

And the brave one’s beacon built where the fire was,

In ten-days’ space, with a wall surrounded it,

As wisest of world-folk could most worthily plan it.

They placed in the barrow rings and jewels,

All such ornaments as erst in the treasure

War-mooded men had won in possession:

The earnings of earlmen to earth they entrusted,

The gold to the dust, where yet it remaineth

As useless to mortals as in foregoing eras.

’Round the dead-mound rode then the doughty-in-battle,

Bairns of all twelve of the chiefs of the people,

More would they mourn, lament for their ruler,

Speak in measure, mention him with pleasure,

Weighed his worth, and his warlike achievements

Mightily commended, as’tis meet one praise his

Liegelord in words and love him in spirit,

When forth from his body he fares to destruction.

So lamented mourning the men of the Geats,

Fond-loving vassals, the fall of their lord,

Said he was kindest of kings under heaven,

Gentlest of men, most winning of manner,

Friendliest to folk-troops and fondest of honor.

1 For the ‘Þæt’ of verse 15, Sievers suggests ‘Þá’ (= which). If this be accepted, the sentence ‘He had … afflicted’ will read: He (i.e. God) had perceived the malice-caused sorrow which they, lordless, had formerly long endured.

2 For ‘aldor-léase’ (15) Gr. suggested ‘aldor-ceare’: He perceived their distress, that they formerly had suffered life-sorrow a long while.

3 A very difficult passage. ‘Áhte’ (31) has no object. H. supplies ‘geweald’ from the context; and our translation is based upon this assumption, though it is far from satisfactory. Kl. suggests ‘lændagas’ for ‘lange’: And the beloved land-prince enjoyed (had) his transitory days (i.e. lived). B. suggests a dislocation; but this is a dangerous doctrine, pushed rather far by that eminent scholar.

4 The reading of the H.-So. text has been quite closely followed; but some eminent scholars read ‘séle-rædenne’ for ‘sele-rædende.’ If that be adopted, the passage will read: Men cannot tell us, indeed, the order of Fate, etc. ‘Sele-rædende’ has two things to support it: (1) v. 1347; (2) it affords a parallel to ‘men’ in v. 50.

5 R. and t. B. prefer ‘ellor-gæst’ to ‘ellen-gæst’ (86): Then the stranger from afar endured, etc.

6 Some authorities would translate ‘demon’ instead of ‘stranger.’

7 Some authorities arrange differently, and render: Who dwelt in the moor-fens, the marsh and the fastness, the land of the giant-race.

8 The translation is based on ‘weras,’ adopted by H.-So.—K. and Th. read ‘wera’ and, arranging differently, render 119(2)–120: They knew not sorrow, the wretchedness of man, aught of misfortune.—For ‘unhælo’ (120) R. suggests ‘unfælo’: The uncanny creature, greedy and cruel, etc.

9 S. rearranges and translates: So he ruled and struggled unjustly, one against all, till the noblest of buildings stood useless (it was a long while) twelve years’ time: the friend of the Scyldings suffered distress, every woe, great sorrows, etc.

10 For ‘syððan,’ B. suggests ‘sárcwidum’: Hence in mournful words it became well known, etc. Various other words beginning with ‘s’ have been conjectured.

11 The H.-So. glossary is very inconsistent in referring to this passage.—‘Sibbe’ (154), which H.-So. regards as an instr., B. takes as accus., obj. of ‘wolde.’ Putting a comma after Deniga, he renders: He did not desire peace with any of the Danes, nor did he wish to remove their life-woe, nor to settle for money.

12 Of this difficult passage the following interpretations among others are given: (1) Though Grendel has frequented Heorot as a demon, he could not become ruler of the Danes, on account of his hostility to God. (2) Hrothgar was much grieved that Grendel had not appeared before his throne to receive presents. (3) He was not permitted to devastate the hall, on account of the Creator; i.e. God wished to make his visit fatal to him.—Ne … wisse (169) W. renders: Nor had he any desire to do so; ‘his’ being obj. gen. = danach

13 ‘From hám’ (194) is much disputed. One rendering is: Beowulf, being away from home, heard of Hrothgar’s troubles, etc. Another, that adopted by S. and endorsed in the H.-So. notes, is: B. heard from his neighborhood (neighbors), i.e. in his home, etc. A third is: B., being at home, heard this as occurring away from home. The H.-So. glossary and notes conflict.

14 ‘Eoletes’ (224) is marked with a (?) by H.-So.; our rendering simply follows his conjecture.—Other conjectures as to ‘eolet’ are: (1) voyage, (2) toil, labor, (3) hasty journey.

15 The lacuna of the MS at this point has been supplied by various conjectures. The reading adopted by H.-So. has been rendered in the above translation. W., like H.-So., makes ‘ic’ the beginning of a new sentence, but, for ‘helmas bæron,’ he reads ‘hringed stefnan.’ This has the advantage of giving a parallel to ‘brontne ceol’ instead of a kenning for ‘go.’—B puts the (?) after ‘holmas’, and begins a new sentence at the middle of the line. Translate: What warriors are ye, clad in armor, who have thus come bringing the foaming vessel over the water way, hither over the seas? For some time on the wall I have been coast guard, etc. S. endorses most of what B. says, but leaves out ‘on the wall’ in the last sentence. If W.’s ‘hringed stefnan’ be accepted, change line 51 above to, A ring-stemmed vessel hither o’ersea.

16 ‘Seld-guma’ (249) is variously rendered: (1) housecarle; (2) home-stayer; (3) common man. Dr. H. Wood suggests a man-at-arms in another’s house.

17 ‘Edwendan’ (280) B. takes to be the subs. ‘edwenden’ (cf. 1775); and ‘bisigu’ he takes as gen. sing., limiting ‘edwenden’: If reparation for sorrows is ever to come. This is supported by t.B.

18 Combining the emendations of B. and t.B., we may read: The boar-images glistened … brilliant, protected the life of the war-mooded man. They read ‘ferh-wearde’ (305) and ‘gúðmódgum men’ (306).

19 Instead of the punctuation given by H.-So, S. proposed to insert a comma after ‘scír’ (322), and to take ‘hring-íren’ as meaning ‘ring-mail’ and as parallel with ‘gúð-byrne.’ The passage would then read: The firm and hand-locked war-burnie shone, bright ring-mail, rang’mid the armor, etc...