{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/beo/beo02.htm","path":"neu/beo/beo02.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/beo/beo02.htm","text":"Now Beowulf bode in the burg of the Scyldings,\nleader beloved, and long he ruled\nin fame with all folk, since his father had gone\naway from the world, till awoke an heir,\nhaughty Healfdene, who held through life,\nsage and sturdy, the Scyldings glad.\nThen, one after one, there woke to him,\nto the chieftain of clansmen, children four:\nHeorogar, then Hrothgar, then Halga brave;\nand I heard that -- was --'s queen,\nthe Heathoscylfing's helpmate dear.\nTo Hrothgar was given such glory of war,\nsuch honor of combat, that all his kin\nobeyed him gladly till great grew his band\nof youthful comrades. It came in his mind\nto bid his henchmen a hall uprear,\na master mead-house, mightier far\nthan ever was seen by the sons of earth,\nand within it, then, to old and young\nhe would all allot that the Lord had sent him,\nsave only the land and the lives of his men.\nWide, I heard, was the work commanded,\nfor many a tribe this mid-earth round,\nto fashion the folkstead. It fell, as he ordered,\nin rapid achievement that ready it stood there,\nof halls the noblest: Heorot[1] he named it\nwhose message had might in many a land.\nNot reckless of promise, the rings he dealt,\ntreasure at banquet: there towered the hall,\nhigh, gabled wide, the hot surge waiting\nof furious flame.[2] Nor far was that day\nwhen father and son-in-law stood in feud\nfor warfare and hatred that woke again.[3]\nWith envy and anger an evil spirit\nendured the dole in his dark abode,\nthat he heard each day the din of revel\nhigh in the hall: there harps rang out,\nclear song of the singer. He sang who knew[4]\ntales of the early time of man,\nhow the Almighty made the earth,\nfairest fields enfolded by water,\nset, triumphant, sun and moon\nfor a light to lighten the land-dwellers,\nand braided bright the breast of earth\nwith limbs and leaves, made life for all\nof mortal beings that breathe and move.\nSo lived the clansmen in cheer and revel\na winsome life, till one began\nto fashion evils, that field of hell.\nGrendel this monster grim was called,\nmarch-riever[5] mighty, in moorland living,\nin fen and fastness; fief of the giants\nthe hapless wight a while had kept\nsince the Creator his exile doomed.\nOn kin of Cain was the killing avenged\nby sovran God for slaughtered Abel.\nIll fared his feud,[6] and far was he driven,\nfor the slaughter's sake, from sight of men.\nOf Cain awoke all that woful breed,\nEtins[7] and elves and evil-spirits,\nas well as the giants that warred with God\nweary while: but their wage was paid them!\n[1] That is, \"The Hart,\" or \"Stag,\" so called from decorations in the\ngables that resembled the antlers of a deer. This hall has been carefully\ndescribed in a pamphlet by Heyne. The building was rectangular, with\nopposite doors -- mainly west and east -- and a hearth in the middle of the\nsingle room. A row of pillars down each side, at some distance from\nthe walls, made a space which was raised a little above the main floor,\nand was furnished with two rows of seats. On one side, usually south,\nwas the high-seat midway between the doors. Opposite this, on the other\nraised space, was another seat of honor. At the banquet soon to be\ndescribed, Hrothgar sat in the south or chief high-seat, and Beowulf oppo-\nsite to him. The scene for a flying (see below, v.499) was thus very\neffectively set. Planks on trestles -- the \"board\" of later English litera-\nture -- formed the tables just in front of the long rows of seats, and were\ntaken away after banquets, when the retainers were ready to stretch them-\nselves out for sleep on the benches.\n[2] Fire was the usual end of these halls. See v. 781 below. One thinks\nof the splendid scene at the end of the Nibelungen, of the Nialssaga, of\nSaxo's story of Amlethus, and many a less famous instance.\n[3] It is to be supposed that all hearers of this poem knew how Hrothgar's\nhall was burnt, -- perhaps in the unsuccessful attack made on him by his\nson-in-law Ingeld.\n[4] A skilled minstrel. The Danes are heathens, as one is told presently;\nbut this lay of beginnings is taken from Genesis.\n[5] A disturber of the border, one who sallies from his haunt in the fen\nand roams over the country near by. This probably pagan nuisance is now\nfurnished with biblical credentials as a fiend or devil in good standing, so\nthat all Christian Englishmen might read about him. \"Grendel\" may\nmean one who grinds and crushes.\n[6] Cain's.\n[7] Giants.","title":"Beowulf: Part I","type":"page"}