| |
| THE FALL of his lord he was fain to requite | |
| in after days; and to Eadgils he proved | |
| friend to the friendless, and forces sent | |
| over the sea to the son of Ohtere, | |
| weapons and warriors: well repaid he | 5 |
| those care-paths cold when the king he slew. 1 | |
| Thus safe through struggles the son of Ecgtheow | |
| had passed a plenty, through perils dire, | |
| with daring deeds, till this day was come | |
| that doomed him now with the dragon to strive. | 10 |
| With comrades eleven the lord of Geats | |
| swollen in rage went seeking the dragon. | |
| He had heard whence all the harm arose | |
| and the killing of clansmen; that cup of price | |
| on the lap of the lord had been laid by the finder. | 15 |
| In the throng was this one thirteenth man, | |
| starter of all the strife and ill, | |
| care-laden captive; cringing thence | |
| forced and reluctant, he led them on | |
| till he came in ken of that cavern-hall, | 20 |
| the barrow delved near billowy surges, | |
| flood of ocean. Within ’twas full | |
| of wire-gold and jewels; a jealous warden, | |
| warrior trusty, the treasures held, | |
| lurked in his lair. Not light the task | 25 |
| of entrance for any of earth-born men! | |
| Sat on the headland the hero king, | |
| spake words of hail to his hearth-companions, | |
| gold-friend of Geats. All gloomy his soul, | |
| wavering, death-bound. Wyrd full nigh | 30 |
| stood ready to greet the gray-haired man, | |
| to seize his soul-hoard, sunder apart | |
| life and body. Not long would be | |
| the warrior’s spirit enwound with flesh. | |
| Beowulf spake, the bairn of Ecgtheow:— | 35 |
| “Through store of struggles I strove in youth, | |
| mighty feuds; I mind them all. | |
| I was seven years old when the sovran of rings, | |
| friend-of-his-folk, from my father took me, | |
| had me, and held me, Hrethel the king, | 40 |
| with food and fee, faithful in kinship. | |
| Ne’er, while I lived there, he loathlier found me, | |
| bairn in the burg, than his birthright sons, | |
| Herebeald and Hæthcyn and Hygelac mine. | |
| For the eldest of these, by unmeet chance, | 45 |
| by kinsman’s deed, was the death-bed strewn, | |
| when Hæthcyn killed him with horny bow, | |
| his own dear liege laid low with an arrow, | |
| missed the mark and his mate shot down, | |
| one brother the other, with bloody shaft. | 50 |
| A feeless fight 2 and a fearful sin, | |
| horror to Hrethel; yet, hard as it was, | |
| unavenged must the atheling die! | |
| Too awful it is for an agéd man | |
| to bide and bear, that his bairn so young | 55 |
| rides on the gallows. A rime he makes, | |
| sorrow-song for his son there hanging | |
| as rapture of ravens; no rescue now | |
| can come from the old, disabled man! | |
| Still is he minded, as morning breaks, | 60 |
| of the heir gone elsewhere; 3 another he hopes not | |
| he will bide to see his burg within | |
| as ward for his wealth, now the one has found | |
| doom of death that the deed incurred. | |
| Forlorn he looks on the lodge of his son, | 65 |
| wine-hall waste and wind-swept chambers | |
| reft of revel. The rider sleepeth, | |
| the hero, far-hidden; 4 no harp resounds, | |
| in the courts no wassail, as once was heard. | |
