BEOWULF

::.1,*,

,y marrying his daughter Freawaru to ','i..,:.'{

The Otd English spellings of names are mostly preserved in the translation. A few
<ed Heorot. The attack was repulsed, rules of pronunciation are"worth keeping in mind. Initial H before r was sounded,
and so Firothgar's name alliterates wiih that of his brother Heorogar. The
combina-
tion cg has tfr'e value of d.g in words like "edge." The first element in the name of
Beowulf's father "Ecgtheoi," is the same word as "edger" ?rd, by the figure
of speech
l',,'
for sword and
n Heorot .":,
.'l::

::r':'ij
called synecdoche (a part of something stands for the whole), ecg stands
Ecgtheow means "sword-servant."
style, and texture of Beowwlf in the "The Linguistic and Literary Contexts
For more information about Beowulf, see
0-98, in Old English with inrerlinear
of Beowilf," in the supplemental ebook'
lmon's Hyrnn (pp. 29*32) on the same
ation of Old English characters,
egde se pe cupe
rid he who knew [how] Beowulf
fnnorocuE: THE DANISH NATION]
reccan,
ime] [to]recount, So. The Spear-Danetl il 4uyt gone by
and the kings r,r,ho ruled them had courage and greatness.
lrdan ,inorhte , We have heard of those princes' heroic campaigns' -
earth wrought There was shield Sheafsoil,2 scourge of many tribes,
5 awrecker of mead-benches, rampaging among foes'
:ter bebuge6, This terror of the hall-trooPs had come far.
er surrounds[it] A foundling to start with, he would flourish later on
as his powers waxed and his worth u,as proved.
1an ond monan, In the tnd each clan on the outlying coasts
and moon r0 beyond the whale-road had to yield to him
urd begin to pay tribute. That was one good king.
:ndum, Afteiward u boy-.hild was born to Shield,
lwellers a cub in the Yard, a comfort sent
ily God to that nation. He knew what they had tholed,3
eatas 15 the long times and troubles they'd come through
lunds without a leader; so the Lord of Life,
the glorious Almighty, made this man renowned'
: gesceop Shield had fathered a famous son:
so Ihe]created Beow's name was known through the north.
20 And a young prince must be prudent like that,
cwice hwyrfap. giving freely while his father lives
,rrho living move about io thut afterward in age when fighting starts
steadfast companions will stand by him
and hold the lirr". Behavior that's admired
.IAMES 25 is the path to power among people everywhere'
Shi;ld was still thriving when his time came
,d many compound words, most of and he crossed over into the Lord's keeping.
;t of the names in Beowwlf are com- His warrior band did what he bade them
eaning "glory" and "spear"; the name when he laid down the law among the Danes:
army" and "spear"; Hrothgar's sons r0 they shouldered him out to the sea's flood,
ements of their father's name com- the chief they revered who had long ruled them.
; Modern German Reich) and mund.
r dynasty, family names often alliter-
,re military associations. The impor- l. There are different compound names for tribes, 2. Shielcl is the name of the founder of the Danish
ul'ten determined by alliteration in Old English royal line. Sheafson-translate s Scefingr.i'e',^sh'eaf +
frequently lead to the designation of thl patronymic suffix-ing.'Because Sheaf was a
poetry. Line I reads, "Hw&t, -ute Gar-dena in gear-
ns of relationships. Thus Beowulf is iloruk." where alliteration falls onGar (spear) and "fouirdling' 1lit" 7: feasieaft funden, i.e., .found
rf Hygelac" (his uncle and lord). gr7r, $,'*^r). OId English hard and soft g (spelled 7 destitute)'wleo arrived by sea (lines 45*46), it is
In Mod"i.r EnghJh) alliterate. The c,ompound likely that as a child Shield brought with him only
in the special a sheaf, a symbol of fruitfulness.
Slrordoguru deriies from "year,'' used
rglish, the endings -a and -urn indicate that and "days" and survives in the
**rrr" 3f "lot g ago,"*'days 3. Suffered, endured.
ral. irrchaic expression of yore'"
 42 i NEO\^/ULF

A ring-whorled prow rode in the harbor.

ice-clad, outbound, a craft firr a prince.
They strerched their belor.,ed lord in his boar,
35 laid our by the mast, amidsh ips,
the great ring-gi\rer. Far-fetched treasures
ffi iJ'fg:5 a AH ;? :" il
with battle-tackle, bladed weapons
4o and coats of mail. The
-rrr"d treasure
was loaded on top of him: it would travel far
on out into the ocean's swav.
rhgr decked his body no r"ss bountifuily
with offerings than those first ones did
45 who cast him away when he was a child
and launched him alone out over the waves.a
And ,l"y
sej a gold srandard up
high above his head and ret him drift
to wind and tide, bewaili.g him
so and mourning their loss. N; man can tell,
no wise man in hall or weathered veteran
knows for certain who salvaged that trua.
Then it fell to Beow to keJp rhe forts.
He was well regarded and rufed the Danes
55 fcr a long time Lft"r his father took leave
of his life on earth. And then hi, h*ir,
lh" grear Halfdane,S held sway
frr as long as he lived, their .id*, and warlord.
He was four times a father, this fighter prince:
60 one by one they entered the *orldl I
Heoro$"., Hrothgar, the good Halga,
and a daughter, I harre heard, *ho'*as onela,s
queen,
a balm in bed to the battle-scarred swede.
The fortunes of.war favored Hrothgar.
65 Friends and kinsmen flocked to his rinkr,
yoyng followers, a force that grew
to be a mightv armv. So his #i"d turned
to hall-building: he- handed down orders
for men to *ot on a great mead_hall
he had settled on it, whc
:i{} l,Jor did he renege, but d
and torques at the ,table.
its gables wide and high
a barbarous burning.* Tl
[ :T T*?ri,l,b i, h d lii
but in time it would com
unleashed among in-law
"
fnEt
Then a powerful demr
nursed a hard grievance,
to hear the din of the lor
every dry in the hall, the
iro and the clear song of a s
telling with mastery of n
how the Almighty had m
a gleami^g plain girdled
in His splendor He set tt
!i to be earth's lamplight, I
and filled the broad lap r
rvith branches and leave:
in every other thing that
So times were pleasan
ru{) . until finally one, a fiend
' began to work his evil in
Grendel vr,,as the name oJ
haunting the marches, n
and the desolate fens; he
Iti; ' in miserY among the ban
"
Cain's clan, whom the C
and condemned as outca
.the Eternal Lord had exe
Cain got no good from c,
nr) because the Almighty mr
and out of the cur$e of h
ogres and elves and evil
and the giants too who sr
1

70 meant to be a w'onder of the world forever; time and again until H.

it would be his throne-room and there he would dispense r ri So, after nightfall, Gre
;

his God-given g.ods to voung and ord- for the lofty house, to set
but not the .om*on land o, were settling into it after
[*ople,s lives.6
Far and wide througl the *oild,'l have h*rrd, and there he came upon
75 orders for work to udo.r, that u,allstead asleep from their feastinl
were sent to_ many peoples. And so0n it stood there r,r() and human sorrow. Sudd
finished and readlr,^in iull view, the God-cursed brute wa
the hall of hallr. H"orot was the nameT greedy and grim, he grab
from their resting places
41. since shield was f'und desti- source, his
mother was a Sv'edish princess.
tifullv"
is litotes nr understate- 6. Th; riirg
.o;i; ,r;, aili"r* of I"irJ urLJuy o1,
mcn [. .u-," li r\n allusion to the future destruction of I
nothing : ::Ti:*::tl^the l:reversat ofIi,.h :,.h;; ;-.1**o,, pasrure, or of sraves.
fortunes.
43) emphasizes his t. l.;;'i,;rr.lj:r*;Iffiffi;:l;j:i,"jthe gables
f ,r lire, probably in a raid bv the Heatho-Ba
"{s told later (lines 2A20*69), Hrothgar pl
or because the crossed gabre-ends resembred 't.
5. Probablv named so because, according t. .ne a iltnrry a daughter to Ingeld, chief of the H,
srag,s orrrl..riir,_ trl, *r;;r;;;l;r, o[ royalty. llrrrtls. in hopes o{ resolving a long-standinp