by Beowulf
who is willing to say the sooth aright.
Footnotes
1 There is no horrible inconsistency here such as the critics strive and cry about. In spite of the ruin that Grendel and Beowulf had made within the hall, the framework and roof held firm, and swift repairs made the interior habitable. Tapestries were hung on the walls, and willing hands prepared the banquet.
2 The usual litotes for “impossible.” So, v. 1027, below, “few” means “none at all.” — As for the matter, a moral commonplace is not very happily forced into the narrative.
3 Uncle and nephew. It would seem that after a long period of amity (cf. Widsith, 45) they quarrelled and fought. See also below, v. 1164.
4 From its formal use in other places, this phrase, to take cup in hall, or “on the floor,” would seem to mean that Beowulf stood up to receive his gifts, drink to the donor, and say thanks.
5 The comitatus; the soldurii.
6 Kenning for sword. Charles Lamb (“On the Inconvenience Resulting from being Hanged”) calls a resuscitated man “the leavings of the rope.”
7 Hrothgar. He is also the “refuge of the friends of Ing,” of v. 1044. Ing belongs to myth.
8 Horses are frequently led or ridden into the hall where folk sit at banquet: so in Chaucer’s Squire’s Tale, in the ballad of King Estmere, and in the romances.
XVI
1050 And the lord of earls, to each that came
with Beowulf over the briny ways,
an heirloom there at the ale-bench gave,
precious gift; and the price1 bade pay
in gold for him whom Grendel erst
1055 murdered, — and fain of them more had killed,
had not wisest God their Wyrd averted,
and the man’s2 brave mood. The Maker then
ruled human kind, as here and now.
Therefore is insight always best,
1060 and forethought of mind. How much awaits him
of lief and of loath, who long time here,
through days of warfare this world endures!
Then song and music mingled sounds
in the presence of Healfdene’s head-of-armies3
1065 and harping was heard with the hero-lay4
as Hrothgar’s singer the hall-joy woke
along the mead-seats, making his song
of that sudden raid on the sons of Finn.5
Healfdene’s hero, Hnæf the Scylding,
1070 was fated to fall in the Frisian slaughter.6
Hildeburh needed not hold in value
her enemies’ honor!7 Innocent both
were the loved ones she lost at the linden-play,
bairn and brother; they bowed to fate,
1075 stricken by spears; ’twas a sorrowful woman!
None doubted why the daughter of Hoc
bewailed her doom when dawning came,
and under the sky she saw them lying,
kinsmen murdered, where most she had kenned
1080 of the sweets of the world! By war were swept, too,
Finn’s own liegemen, and few were left;
in the parleying-place8 he could ply no longer
weapon, nor war could he wage on Hengest,
and rescue his remnant by right of arms
1085 from the prince’s thane. A pact he offered:
another dwelling the Danes should have,
hall and high-seat, and half the power
should fall to them in Frisian land;
and at the fee-gifts, Folcwald’s son
1090 day by day the Danes should honor,
the folk of Hengest favor with rings,
even as truly, with treasure and jewels,
with fretted gold, as his Frisian kin
he meant to honor in ale-hall there.
1095 Pact of peace they plighted further
on both sides firmly. Finn to Hengest
with oath, upon honor, openly promised
that woful remnant, with wise-men’s aid,
nobly to govern, so none of the guests
1100 by word or work should warp the treaty,9
or with malice of mind bemoan themselves
as forced to follow their fee-giver’s slayer,
lordless men, as their lot ordained.
Should Frisian, moreover, with foeman’s taunt,
1105 that murderous hatred to mind recall.
then edge of the sword must seal his doom.
Oaths were given, and ancient gold
heaped from hoard. — The hardy Scylding,
battle-thane best,10 on his balefire lay.
1110 All on the pyre were plain to see
the gory sark, the gilded swine-crest,
boar of hard iron, and athelings many
slain by the sword: at the slaughter they fell.
It was Hildeburh’s hest, at Hnæf’s own pyre
1115 the bairn of her body on brands to lay,
his bones to burn, on the balefire placed,
at his uncle’s side.11 In sorrowful dirges
be wept them the woman: great wailing ascended.12
Then wound up to welkin the wildest of death-fires,
1120 roared o’er the hillock:13 heads all were melted,
gashes burst, and blood gushed out
from bites14 of the body. Balefire devoured,
greediest spirit, those spared not by war
out of either folk: their flower was gone.
Footnotes
1 Man-price, wergild.
2 Beowulf’s. The same combination of fate and courage as above, v. 573.
3 Hrothgar.
4 Literally, “glee-wood was greeted (stirred, touched) and lay was sung.”
5 There is no need to assume a gap in the Ms. As before about Sigemund and Heremod, so now, though at greater length, about Finn and his feud, a lay is chanted or recited; and the epic poet, counting on his readers’ familiarity with the story, — a fragment of it still exists, and is printed in this volume, — simply gives the headings.
6 The exact story to which this episode refers in summary is not to be determined, but the following account of it is reasonable and has good support among scholars. Finn, a Frisian chieftain, who nevertheless has a “castle” outside the Frisian border, marries Hildeburh, a Danish princess; and her brother, Hnæf, with many other Danes, pays Finn a visit. Relations between the two peoples have been strained before. Something starts the old feud anew; and the visitors are attacked in their quarters. Hnæf is killed; so is a son of Hildeburh. Many fall on both sides. Peace is patched up; a stately funeral is held; and the surviving visitors become in a way vassals or liegemen of Finn, going back with him to Frisia. So matters rest a while. Hengest is now leader of the Danes; but he is set upon revenge for his former lord, Hnæf. Probably he is killed in feud; but his clansmen, Guthlaf and Oslaf, gather at their home a force of sturdy Danes, come back to Frisia, storm Finn’s stronghold, kill him, and carry back their kinswoman Hildeburh. The Finnsburg fragment, translated below, describes (so Bugge puts it, conforming, as he says, “to the common view”) the fight in which Hnæf fell, “that is to say, an event which precedes the story told in the Beowulf,” and is noted in these introductory lines (vv. 1069 f.). — In the Widsith, Hnæf is called ruler of the Hocings. — In v. 1142 it is assumed that Hengest is killed by the sword “Lafing” of a Frisian named Hun. In Widsith, v. 33, Hun ruled the Hætweras, a tribe of Franks now apparently subject to Finn the Frisian. Another reading makes Finn slay Hengest with a sword “Hunlafing.” Two other interpretations make either Finn lay this sword “Hunlafing,” or Hun lay “Lafing,” on Hengest’s lap, as a gift and a sign of allegiance on the part of the receiver. Of course, in this case, Hengest dissembles his real feelings to gain time and opportunity for the subsequent invasion.
7 Usual litotes; she had good cause to complain. The “enemies” must be the Frisians; the original word is “eotens,” “ettins,” monsters; but it is elsewhere used in speaking of Frisian
men.
8 Battlefield. — Hengest is the “prince’s thane,” companion of Hnæf. “Folcwald’s son” is Finn.
9 That is, Finn would govern in all honor the few Danish warriors who were left, provided, of course, that none of them tried to renew the quarrel or avenge Hnæf their fallen lord. If, again, one of Finn’s Frisians began a quarrel, he should die by the sword. “With wise-men’s aid” is like the form familiar in Ælfred’s Laws. “With the advice of my Witan, I order. . . .”
10Hnæf.
11 This reading, which involves a very slight change, was proposed by Holthausen, and is followed by Gering in his German translation. The clash of kin-duties is the deep note in Germanic tragedy: to emphasize the fact that here lay the hero, and by him his sister’s son, — the dearest of relationships, — opposed in fight and united in death, was clear privilege for the poet; and the dirge of the mother and sister doubtless dwelt chiefly on the tragic intensity of the double loss.
12 Reading gūthrinc = gūthhring, “noise of battle,” with Grein. It could easily be used for the lamentation of a great multitude. — For the previous passage, if the old reading is retained, a period should follow “placed” (v. 1116), and the next line would be:
Sad by his shoulder sorrowed the woman,
wept him with dirges: great wailing ascended. . . .
This vocero or lament of the widow, as in the case of Beowulf, v. 3150, below, was accompanied by choral wailing of the throng. In the Iliad, at the funeral of Hector: “Thus spake she walling and therewith the great multitude of the people groaned.”— “Thus spake she wailing and stirred unending moan. . . .”
13 The high place chosen for the funeral: see description of Beowulf’s funeral-pile at the end of the poem.
14 Wounds.
XVII
1125 Then hastened those heroes their home to see,
friendless, to find the Frisian land,
houses and high burg. Hengest still
through the death-dyed winter dwelt with Finn,
holding pact, yet of home he minded,
1130 though powerless his ring-decked prow to drive
over the waters, now waves rolled fierce
lashed by the winds, or winter locked them
in icy fetters. Then fared1 another
year to men’s dwellings, as yet they do,
1135 the sunbright skies, that their season ever
duly await. Far off winter was driven;
fair lay earth’s breast; and fain was the rover,
the guest, to depart, though more gladly he pondered
on wreaking his vengeance than roaming the deep,
1140 and how to hasten the hot encounter
where sons of the Frisians were sure to be.
So he escaped not the common doom,2
when Hun with “Lafing,” the light-of-battle,
best of blades, his bosom pierced:
1145 its edge was famed with the Frisian earls.
On fierce-heart Finn there fell likewise,
on himself at home, the horrid sword-death;
for Guthlaf and Oslaf of grim attack
had sorrowing told, from sea-ways landed,
1150 mourning their woes.3 Finn’s wavering spirit
bode not in breast. The burg was reddened
with blood of foemen, and Finn was slain,
king amid clansmen; the queen was taken.
To their ship the Scylding warriors bore
1155 all the chattels the chieftain owned,
whatever they found in Finn’s domain
of gems and jewels. The gentle wife
o’er paths of the deep to the Danes they bore,
led to her land.
The lay was finished,
1160 the gleeman’s song. Then glad rose the revel;
bench-joy brightened. Bearers draw
from their “wonder-vats” wine. Comes Wealhtheow forth,
under gold-crown4 goes where the good pair sit,
uncle and nephew, true each to the other one,
1165 kindred in amity. Unferth the spokesman
at the Scylding lord’s feet sat: men had faith in his spirit,
his keenness of courage, though kinsmen had found him
unsure at the sword-play. The Scylding queen spoke:
“Quaff of this cup, my king and lord,
1170 breaker of rings, and blithe be thou,
gold-friend of men; to the Geats here speak
such words of mildness as man should use.
Be glad with thy Geats;5 of those gifts be mindful,
or near or far, which now thou hast.
1175 Men say to me, as son thou wishest
yon hero to hold. Thy Heorot purged,
jewel-hall brightest, enjoy while thou canst,
with many a largess; and leave to thy kin
folk and realm when forth thou goest
1180 to greet thy doom. For gracious I deem
my Hrothulf,6 willing to hold and rule
nobly our youths, if thou yield up first,
prince of Scyldings, thy part in the world.
I ween with good he will well requite
1185 offspring of ours, when all he minds
that for him we did in his helpless days
of gift and grace to gain him honor!”
Then she turned to the seat where her sons were placed,
Hrethric and Hrothmund, with heroes’ bairns,
1190 young men together: the Geat, too, sat there,
Beowulf brave, the brothers between.
Footnotes
1 A touch of myth lingers in this personification of the seasons. Compare the pretty lyric “Lenten is comen with love to toune,” where “toune,” like “men’s dwellings” in the text, means no definite place, but the whole district in question “where folk live.” Of course, spring then brought the new year.
2 See conclusion of note to v. 1070.
3 That is, these two Danes, escaping home, had told the story of the attack on Hnæf, the slaying of Hengest, and all the Danish woes. Collecting a force, they return to Frisia and kill Finn in his home. To this attack some writers refer the fragment of Finnsburg.
4 So men go “hardy under helmet.” — The following lines are of unusual length, and are so rendered. The uncle and nephew are Hrothgar and Hrothulf. See above, v. 1017, and below, vv. 1180 f.
5 Emended by some editors to “guests.” Neither reading combines satisfactorily with the context.
6 Nephew to Hrothgar, with whom he subsequently quarrels, and elder cousin to the two young sons of Hrothgar and Wealhtheow, — their natural guardian in the event of the king’s death. There is something finely feminine in this speech of Wealhtheow’s, apart from its somewhat irregular and irrelevant sequence of topics. Both she and her lord probably distrust Hrothulf; but she bids the king to be of good cheer, and, turning to the suspect, heaps affectionate assurances on his probity. “My own Hrothulf” will surely not forget those favors and benefits of the past, but will repay them to the orphaned boy.
XVIII
A cup she gave him, with kindly greeting
and winsome words. Of wounden gold,
she offered, to honor him, arm-jewels twain,
1195 corselet and rings, and of collars the noblest
that ever I knew the earth around.
Ne’er heard I so mighty, ‘neath heaven’s dome,
a hoard-gem of heroes, since Hama bore
to his bright-built burg the Brisings’ necklace,1
1200 jewel and gem casket. — Jealousy fled he,
Eormenric’s hate: chose help eternal.2
Hygelac Geat,3 grandson of Swerting,
on the last of his raids this ring bore with him,
under his banner the booty defending,
1205 the war-spoil warding; but Wyrd o’er whelmed him
what time, in his daring, dangers he sought,
feud with Frisians. Fairest of gems
he bo
re with him over the beaker-of-waves,
sovran strong: under shield he died.
1210 Fell the corpse of the king into keeping of Franks,
gear of the breast, and that gorgeous ring;
weaker warriors won the spoil,
after gripe of battle, from Geatland’s lord,4
and held the death-field.
Din rose in hall.
1215 Wealhtheow spake amid warriors, and said: —
“This jewel enjoy in thy jocund youth,
Beowulf lov’d, these battle-weeds wear,
a royal treasure, and richly thrive!
Preserve thy strength, and these striplings here
1220 counsel in kindness: requital be mine.
Hast done such deeds, that for days to come
thou art famed among folk both far and near,
so wide as washeth the wave of Ocean
his windy walls. Through the ways of life
1225 prosper, O prince! I pray for thee
rich possessions.5 To son of mine
be helpful in deed and uphold his joys!
Here every earl to the other is true,
mild of mood, to the master loyal!
1230 Thanes are friendly, the throng obedient,
liegemen are revelling: list and obey!”6
Went then to her place. — That was proudest of feasts;
flowed wine for the warriors. Wyrd they knew not,
destiny dire, and the doom to be seen
1235 by many an earl7 when eve should come,
and Hrothgar homeward hasten away,
royal, to rest. The room was guarded
by an army of earls, as erst was done.
They bared the bench-boards; abroad they spread
1240 beds and bolsters. — One beer-carouser
in danger of doom8 lay down in the hall. —
At their heads they set their shields of war,
bucklers bright; on the bench were there
over each atheling, easy to see,
1245 the high battle-helmet, the haughty spear,
the corselet of rings. ’Twas their custom so
ever to be for battle prepared,
at home, or harrying, which it were,
even as oft as evil threatened
1250 their sovran king. — They were clansmen good.9
Footnotes
1 Legend and myth are interwoven in this allusion, but the Brisings’ (Brosings’ in our Ms.) necklace by this time had probably sunk to a sort of celestial standard of value in jewelry, a traditional phrase, and the myth — preserved in part by Scandinavian stories — of the wonderful ornament of the goddess Freyja had quite lost its vitality in epic verse. For Eormanric, see the allusion in Deor’s Song, below. Hama is Heime in the Germanic legend.