Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, together with Sellic Spell

by J. R. R. Tolkien

  So they came at last to the doors. Then Grinder wrenched himself away, but only one arm could he free: Beewolf still held him by the other. So hard then did the ogre drag one way, and Beewolf the other, that with a great crack bone and sinews burst asunder at the shoulder, and Grinder’s arm, claw and all, was left in Beewolf’s hands. Grinder fell backwards out of the door and vanished into the night with a howl; but Beewolf laughed, and was glad. He set up the great arm high above the doorway in token of victory. When morning came, there it stood, huge and hideous, with hide like dragon-fell, and five great fingers, each with a nail like a spike of steel. Men looked at it in amazement and shuddered.

  ‘That was a strong pull!’ they said. ‘Never sword nor axe could have hewn off such a bough!’ They were loud now in the praises of Beewolf, accounting him the strongest of men. Unfriend was there: he looked at the arm and found nothing yet to say.

  The King came when he heard the news, and he stood before the doors of the hall and rejoiced. ‘Here is a sight that I never hoped to see,’ he said. ‘Wonders will never end! A young man with his naked hands has done what none of us could do with weapon or with craft. What mother’s son may this Beewolf be? For he seems to have the strength of bears, not of men.’

  But Beewolf made light of his deed. ‘It has not fallen out as I should have wished, Lord,” said he. ‘No more than an arm is there to show. I would rather have given you the whole carcase, head, hide, and all. And maybe I would, if Grinder had been tougher, but he tricked me by breaking in two.’

  ‘Yes, the task is, alas! only half done!’ said Unfriend. ‘For I fear that a monster so strong will not die of a wound, grievous though it may seem. When Grinder is healed, he may still do much harm with only one hand; and it may prove that his wrath and desire for revenge will make up for the loss of the other.’

  The joy of the King and his men was much lessened by these words. ‘What then do you think should be done, my good Unfriend?’ said the King.

  ‘I should ask Beewolf what he proposes, for he is now the great man here,’ said Unfriend, louting4 low.

  ‘If you ask me that, Lord,’ said Beewolf, ‘I think that Grinder should be tracked to his lair, while he is still somewhat weary, perhaps, from the wrestling that we had together.’

  ‘But who will dare to do that?’ said the King.

  ‘I would dare,’ said Beewolf, ‘if I knew where Grinder might be found.’

  ‘As for that,’ said the King,’ there is not much doubt. Men that walk in the wild have often brought tidings of his haunts; for they have seen him from afar, stalking in the wilderness alone. His den lies many miles away in a hidden mere, behind a waterfall that tumbles from a black cliff into shadows far beneath. Wind blows there, and wolves howl in the hills. Dead trees hang by the roots over the pool. At night fire flickers on the water. No man knows the depth of that lake.’

  ‘It is no pleasant spot, that you tell of,’ said Beewolf. ‘But cleansed it must be, and that soon, if this trouble is to be ended. I will go thither. I will visit Grinder in his own home, and however many doors there may be to his house, he will not escape me!’

  The King was delighted with these words, and promised to give Beewolf thrice the gifts that he had already earned, if he performed this new task. ‘The gifts must wait until I return’, said Beewolf. ‘All that I ask now is a companion that knows the ways of your land to guide me to the spot. If it were my part to choose, I should look to Unfriend for help; for here he seems to be accounted a man of good wits.’

  ‘Indeed Unfriend shall go with you,’ said the King. ‘Your choice is good; for he has travelled much, and no man knows more of the ways and secrets of this land than he.’

  When Unfriend heard this, it did not seem to him that things had turned out altogether as he had wished; but he did not dare to refuse, lest he lose the King’s favour and all honour in the hall. ‘It will be a pleasure to show my friend Beewolf the marvels of this land,’ he said; and he grinned, thinking that his wits might indeed prove of service in this venture.

  The King now ordered men to bring meat and drink for the travellers; and from his hoard was brought forth a shining corslet woven of rings of steel. ‘This at least you shall have,’ said the King to Beewolf, as earnest of many gifts to come. Wear it now with good luck.’

  It was early in the day, and the shadows were still long from the East, when Unfriend and Beewolf set off. Beewolf took with him Handshoe’s gloves, and Unfriend carried Ashwood’s spear; but it was so heavy that he quickly grew weary of it, and Beewolf took that too. They soon came upon the trail of Grinder, for he had spilled much blood as he went. They followed the tracks up and down dale, and left the homes of men far behind, and journeyed on over the misty moors towards the high mountains. At last they came to a path, steep and narrow, that wound among the rocks. It passed the dark doors of many caves, the houses of nixes that hunted in pools far below. Up the path they climbed, until they came to the wood of dead trees hanging by their roots, and they looked over the brink of the cliff and saw a waterfall plunging down into the black water. Far beneath them the lake seethed and eddied. There at the top of the fall they found the head of Ashwood staring at the sky.

  ‘It seems that you have brought me to the right spot,’ said Beewolf. Then he blew on a horn, and the blast of it echoed in the rocks. The nixes were aroused, and they plunged into the lake, blowing with rage. ‘There are many unfriendly things here,’ said Beewolf.

  ‘Let sleeping dogs lie!’ said Unfriend. ‘I see no need to tell Grinder that we are come near to his doors.’

  ‘I do not heed the nixes,’ said Beewolf. ‘I have dealt with others greater in the sea.’

  ‘Yet it may prove hard to deal with many foes at a time,’ said Unfriend.

  ‘Many foes can give a man but one death,’ answered Beewolf; then he stood up and made himself ready. He had on him the shirt of mail that he got from the King, and at his belt hung the gloves that Handshoe had left behind; in his right hand he held the spear of Ashwood.

  ‘How will you get down, my friend?’ asked Unfriend.

  ‘It will not be the first time that I have dived into deep water,’ answered Beewolf. ‘And though this cliff be ten fathoms tall, I have seen taller.’

  ‘And how will you get back, my friend, when all your foes are vanquished?’ said Unfriend; and he smiled to himself, thinking that Beewolf was as much behind himself in wit, as he was greater in strength. ‘See here, my friend,’ said he. ‘I have taken thought for you, and I have brought a long rope. I will make it fast at this end, and cast it over the cliff down to the water. You may trust me to wait; and when you return (as indeed I hope you will) I will draw you up.’

  Beewolf thanked him. ‘Your will is good,’ said he, ‘whatever your strength may be. If I prove somewhat heavy to draw, no doubt I can make shift to climb.’ Then without more ado he dived from the cliff, and the last that Unfriend saw of him was the soles of his feet, as he clove the water.

  Down went Beewolf for a long while, and found no bottom. The nixes gathered about him, and tore at him with their tusks; but the corslet of mail was cunningly forged, and they did no hurt to his body. Now Grinder had a dam, an ogress old beyond the count of years, fiercer than a she-wolf; and if her strength of limb was great, yet greater was the strength of her spells. The mere and all the lands about were under their power. There she had dwelt many ages in her cave behind the falls, and no man had dared to trouble her. There now she sat and grieved over the hurts of her son, and her heart was filled with rage. Quickly she learned that some stranger from the world above had entered her realm. In anger she came forth from her house.

  When at last Beewolf came to the bottom of the lake she was ready for him. Before he could stand on his feet, she grasped him from behind, and the nixes came to her aid. Beewolf could do little against them all, being under deep water; and they dragged him away to the den of the ogress. He was tossed and battered, and well nigh all the breath was beaten out
of him; for his enemies dragged him through the midst of the great eddy that boiled under the falls. The mouth of Grinder’s cave was in the cliff behind the waterfall, and was only a little way under water. They dragged him inside, and then up a sloping passage that led from the door. Then suddenly the nixes fell back, and Beewolf found that he was no longer in water, and a roof of stone was high above his head. The cave was very large, and a fire burned within.

  Quickly Beewolf wrenched himself free and turned and beheld Grinder’s dam, the old ogress with fangs like a wolf. He thrust at her with the spear, but she was in no way dismayed, for it had no virtue in that place. With a blow of her hand she snapped the haft in two. Beewolf cast away the truncheon,5 but she was quicker than he. Very strong she was, there in her own house over which many spells were woven. She seized him by the shoulders and flung him on the floor beside the wall, and straightway she sat upon his breast, and drew a bright knife from her belt, and set it at his throat. Very near she came to avenging her son. But for the King’s mail upon his neck that would have been the end of Beewolf.

  ‘Heavy is this hag!’ said Beewolf, and he tried to heave her off his breast. Then he gripped her by the arms as he had gripped Grinder before, and drew her suddenly towards him; and she cried out when she felt the strength of his embrace. But Beewolf rolled over, and threw her under, and thrust her to the floor; and then he sprang to his feet. Even as he did so, he saw, hanging on the wall near by, a great sword. It was old and heavy, the work of giants long ago, and no mortal man in that day, save Beewolf, could have wielded it. Swiftly he seized it, and smote the ogress such a blow upon the neck that the hide split, and the bones burst, and her head rolled off down the passage into the water below, dripping with blood. Dead she lay upon the floor, and Beewolf did not mourn for her.

  As the sword fell, a light flashed up under the roof like lightning, and all the cave was brighter than day; and it seemed to Beewolf that the light came from the sword, and that the blade was on fire. He saw now that there was another chamber further in. He strode towards it, but he found that the entrance was barred by a huge stone that stood up far above his head. In no way could he stir the stone though he heaved with all the strength that he had. Then he thought of the gloves that hung at his belt, and he drew them on; and when he set his hands to the stone he flung it aside, as if it were a hurdle.

  He entered the chamber, and there he saw great wealth of gold and gems that Grinder had gathered through the years. In the innermost corner there was a bed, and upon it lay Grinder. He made no movement, but if he was dead, still his eyes glared so balefully that Beewolf took a step backward. Then Beewolf raised the sword aloft and hewed off Grinder’s head, and it rolled from the bed and the fire of its eyes was quenched. At the same moment the light of the sword went out.

  In the meanwhile up on the cliff Unfriend waited. The time seemed long to him, and he had no wish to remain in that perilous place longer than was needful. At last it seemed to him, as he peered down, that the mist and shadows were lifted from the mere, and in a ray of sun he saw the water of the eddy far below, and it was stained red, as if with blood. He thought that maybe it was the blood of Beewolf; and the thought did not displease him, for he had not forgotten the hug. In any case it seemed to him that it was now high time to be gone. Noon of the day was past. He rose, and going to the rope he loosened the knots, so that it would slip and fall, if anyone pulled from below. Then he made off, well pleased; for he thought that, even if Beewolf escaped from the monsters, he would be wounded and weary, and if the rope failed him, he would certainly perish in the pool. In this way he hoped to be rid of the troublesome stranger who had put him to shame in the hall.

  In the dark, Beewolf groped his way out from the inner chamber, and returned to the fire in the cave, and took up a burning brand. Then he saw a strange sight. The great sword that he held in his right hand was melting like an icicle in the sun. It dripped away, until nothing was left but the hilts, so hot and venomous was the blood of Grinder and his dam. The hilts Beewolf kept, and he took such treasure beside of gold and gems as he could pack in Grinder’s bag; and he took also Grinder’s head: and that was no light burden. Four other men would have found it all that they could carry between them.

  At last Beewolf turned from the cave, and went down a passage to the doors, and plunged back into the pool. It was a long, strong swim, for Beewolf was heavily laden, and he had much ado to get under the eddy where the water fell down from the cliff. But not a nixy was to be seen in the lake. The shadows were lifted from the water, and the sun shone on it, and it looked as clear and bright as it had been gloomy before.

  Beewolf came to the rope, and called; but Unfriend gave no answer. Then Beewolf caught hold of the rope-end, and began to heave himself out of the water. He had climbed only a few hands, when the rope slipped, and he fell back into the pool with a great splash. Very strange he thought it, and not at all as he had hoped.

  ‘That fellow Unfriend,’ he said, ‘may boast of his skill, but for all that it does not seem that he can make fast the end of a rope. And now either a wild beast has taken him; or his heart has failed him and he has deserted me: and that is more likely.’

  Beewolf swam round for a while, but there was no way up the cliff on either side of the falls, save for birds. So he turned away, and swam far along the shores of the lake; and he became so weary that he had to let go some of the treasure that he had brought from the cave; and that grieved him greatly. At last he came to a place where the banks were lower and less steep, and with great labour he dragged himself out of the water onto the flat rocks where the nixes had been used to lie in the moonlight. But the sun still shone warm from the West, and he rested there for a while.

  At length he gathered up his burdens and made his way along the shore, and so climbed back to the head of the falls, and found the path by which he had come. It was a long, hard journey that he made over moor and hill back to the homes of men, and morning was on the land when he came to the tilled fields and found again the road to the Golden Hall.

  The King was within, and many folk were about him, and Unfriend was telling again the tale that he had told the night before. Many would have been better pleased, if Unfriend had reported that Grinder was certainly destroyed; but there were some that did not grieve overmuch for the stranger. In the midst of the tale, and even as Unfriend was telling of the blood that boiled in the pool, the doors opened, and in strode Beewolf down the length of the hall, and the floor trembled under his feet.

  No one spoke, and all sat silent in astonishment. As for Unfriend, he left his place before the King’s seat and slipped away. Beewolf greeted the King, and held up by the hair the huge head of Grinder. Men gazed in fear at the sight of it, and the Queen shuddered and hid her face.

  ‘See, Lord, what I have brought back from the deep waters!’ said Beewolf. ‘Here is good hunting - and not easily got! I came near my end under the waves. For Grinder had a dam, very old and wicked, the guardian of his den. The hag was not easy to master, for her spells were strong, and the spear that I took with me she broke in two. Yet I found a mighty sword hanging on the wall, and with that I made an end of Grinder and his dam. You need fear them no more. Their life is over. All who wish may sleep quiet in this house tonight and all nights after. Here are the hilts of the sword! No more remains of it, so bitter was the blood of those masters of the cave, and so unfriendly to iron.’

  Then the King took the hilts and looked long at them; for they were marvellously wrought with cunning smith-craft, bound with fine wire of gold, and set with many bright gems; and upon them was written in runes the name of the great one of old for whom that sword had first been made.

  ‘These hilts are worthy of a new blade,’ said the King. ‘Unfriend might perhaps fashion one that is not unfitting; for he is a cunning smith, and knows many runes beside.’

  ‘And where is my faithful friend?’ said Beewolf. ‘I thought I heard his voice as I entered, but I do not see him her
e to welcome me. I have a mind to teach him the tying of knots.’

  Then some went and dragged Unfriend out of a corner. ‘Well, mannikin!’ said Beewolf. ‘So you got home before me? Neither heart nor wit have you, for you cannot wait for a friend, nor fasten a rope. Or if you can, then you are a treacherous knave.’

  He lifted Unfriend up, and Unfriend cried out in fear, for he thought for certain that Beewolf would hug him to death. ‘No, I will not kill you,’ said Beewolf, ‘for you are the King’s man. But if I were the King I would not have you crawling in my house.’ Then he beat him soundly, and let him go, and Unfriend crept out and did not enter the hall again for many a day; and there was more friendship and less strife there ever after. For Unfriend was humbled, and from thenceforth was a man of fewer words. As for Grinder’s head, they took it and burned it to ashes, and scattered the ashes on the wind far from the dwellings of men.

  Merry indeed was the feast that they made in the Golden Hall that night. All day the wrights and builders were busy repairing the damage: boards and wainscotes were mended, the benches were polished and set in order, and broidered cloths of many colours were hung upon the walls; and many lights were lit. When all was ready, Beewolf sat in high honour beside the King himself, and rich gifts were given to him: an axe and a fair shield; and a banner of golden cloth; and a helmet made by smiths of old, in whose work was such a craft that no blade could cleave it: a golden boar was set upon it as a crest; and a horse with a fair saddle and bright harness the King gave to Beewolf. And the Queen added gifts of her own: a golden ring of great weight she gave him, and fair raiment, and she set about his neck a necklace bright with gems. All the gold that he had got in Grinder’s cave the King returned to him, in recompense for his companions, Handshoe and Ashwood, whom the ogre had slain. Twelve good men, well-armed, the King appointed to be his followers and to serve him.