{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/beo/beo20.htm","path":"neu/beo/beo20.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/beo/beo20.htm","text":"THEN sank they to sleep. With sorrow one bought\nhis rest of the evening, -- as ofttime had happened\nwhen Grendel guarded that golden hall,\nevil wrought, till his end drew nigh,\nslaughter for sins. 'Twas seen and told\nhow an avenger survived the fiend,\nas was learned afar. The livelong time\nafter that grim fight, Grendel's mother,\nmonster of women, mourned her woe.\nShe was doomed to dwell in the dreary waters,\ncold sea-courses, since Cain cut down\nwith edge of the sword his only brother,\nhis father's offspring: outlawed he fled,\nmarked with murder, from men's delights\nwarded the wilds. -- There woke from him\nsuch fate-sent ghosts as Grendel, who,\nwar-wolf horrid, at Heorot found\na warrior watching and waiting the fray,\nwith whom the grisly one grappled amain.\nBut the man remembered his mighty power,\nthe glorious gift that God had sent him,\nin his Maker's mercy put his trust\nfor comfort and help: so he conquered the foe,\nfelled the fiend, who fled abject,\nreft of joy, to the realms of death,\nmankind's foe. And his mother now,\ngloomy and grim, would go that quest\nof sorrow, the death of her son to avenge.\nTo Heorot came she, where helmeted Danes\nslept in the hall. Too soon came back\nold ills of the earls, when in she burst,\nthe mother of Grendel. Less grim, though, that terror,\ne'en as terror of woman in war is less,\nmight of maid, than of men in arms\nwhen, hammer-forged, the falchion hard,\nsword gore-stained, through swine of the helm,\ncrested, with keen blade carves amain.\nThen was in hall the hard-edge drawn,\nthe swords on the settles,[1] and shields a-many\nfirm held in hand: nor helmet minded\nnor harness of mail, whom that horror seized.\nHaste was hers; she would hie afar\nand save her life when the liegemen saw her.\nYet a single atheling up she seized\nfast and firm, as she fled to the moor.\nHe was for Hrothgar of heroes the dearest,\nof trusty vassals betwixt the seas,\nwhom she killed on his couch, a clansman famous,\nin battle brave. -- Nor was Beowulf there;\nanother house had been held apart,\nafter giving of gold, for the Geat renowned. --\nUproar filled Heorot; the hand all had viewed,\nblood-flecked, she bore with her; bale was returned,\ndole in the dwellings: 'twas dire exchange\nwhere Dane and Geat were doomed to give\nthe lives of loved ones. Long-tried king,\nthe hoary hero, at heart was sad\nwhen he knew his noble no more lived,\nand dead indeed was his dearest thane.\nTo his bower was Beowulf brought in haste,\ndauntless victor. As daylight broke,\nalong with his earls the atheling lord,\nwith his clansmen, came where the king abode\nwaiting to see if the Wielder-of-All\nwould turn this tale of trouble and woe.\nStrode o'er floor the famed-in-strife,\nwith his hand-companions, -- the hall resounded, --\nwishing to greet the wise old king,\nIngwines' lord; he asked if the night\nhad passed in peace to the prince's mind.\n[1] They had laid their arms on the benches near where they slept.","title":"Beowulf: Part XIX","type":"page"}