Beowulf

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Beowulf
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Title: Beowulf
Author: Anonymous
Release Date: July, 1997 [EBook #981]
[This file was first posted on March 12, 2003]

[Most recently updated: March 12, 2003]
Edition: 11
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
0. START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, BEOWULF ***
Prepared by Robin Katsuya-Corbet ([email protected]
) from scanner output provided
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BEOWULF
Translated by Gummere
BEOWULF
PRELUDE OF THE FOUNDER OF THE DANISH HOUSE
LO, praise of the prowess of people-kings
of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,

we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!
Oft Scyld the Scefing from
squadroned foes,
from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore,
awing the earls. Since erst
he lay
friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him:
for he waxed under welkin, in wealth
he throve,
till before him the folk, both far and near,
who house by the whale-path,
heard his mandate,
gave him gifts: a good king he!
To him an heir was afterward born,


a son in his halls, whom heaven sent
to favor the folk, feeling their woe
that erst
they had lacked an earl for leader
so long a while; the Lord endowed him,
the Wielder
of Wonder, with world's renown.
Famed was this Beowulf: {0a} far flew the boast of
him,
son of Scyld, in the Scandian lands.
So becomes it a youth to quit him well

with his father's friends, by fee and gift,
that to aid him, aged, in after days,
come
warriors willing, should war draw nigh,
liegemen loyal: by lauded deeds
shall an earl
have honor in every clan.
Forth he fared at the fated moment,
sturdy Scyld to the shelter of God.
Then they bore
him over to ocean's billow,
loving clansmen, as late he charged them,
while wielded
words the winsome Scyld,
the leader beloved who long had ruled....
In the roadstead
rocked a ring-dight vessel,
ice-flecked, outbound, atheling's barge:
there laid they
down their darling lord
on the breast of the boat, the breaker-of-rings, {0b}
by the
mast the mighty one. Many a treasure
fetched from far was freighted with him.
No
ship have I known so nobly dight
with weapons of war and weeds of battle,
with
breastplate and blade: on his bosom lay
a heaped hoard that hence should go
far o'er
the flood with him floating away.
No less these loaded the lordly gifts,
thanes' huge
treasure, than those had done
who in former time forth had sent him
sole on the seas,
a suckling child.
High o'er his head they hoist the standard,
a gold-wove banner; let
billows take him,
gave him to ocean. Grave were their spirits,
mournful their mood.
No man is able
to say in sooth, no son of the halls,
no hero 'neath heaven, -- who
harbored that freight!
I
Now Beowulf bode in the burg of the Scyldings,

leader beloved, and long he ruled
in
fame with all folk, since his father had gone
away from the world, till awoke an heir,

haughty Healfdene, who held through life,
sage and sturdy, the Scyldings glad.
Then,
one after one, there woke to him,
to the chieftain of clansmen, children four:

Heorogar, then Hrothgar, then Halga brave;
and I heard that -- was -- 's queen,
the
Heathoscylfing's helpmate dear.
To Hrothgar was given such glory of war,
such
honor of combat, that all his kin
obeyed him gladly till great grew his band
of
youthful comrades. It came in his mind
to bid his henchmen a hall uprear,
ia master
mead-house, mightier far
than ever was seen by the sons of earth,
and within it, then,
to old and young
he would all allot that the Lord had sent him,
save only the land and
the lives of his men.
Wide, I heard, was the work commanded,
for many a tribe this
mid-earth round,
to fashion the folkstead. It fell, as he ordered,
in rapid achievement
that ready it stood there,
of halls the noblest: Heorot {1a} he named it
whose message
had might in many a land.
Not reckless of promise, the rings he dealt,
treasure at
banquet: there towered the hall,
high, gabled wide, the hot surge waiting
of furious
flame. {1b} Nor far was that day
when father and son-in-law stood in feud
for
warfare and hatred that woke again. {1c}
With envy and anger an evil spirit
endured

the dole in his dark abode,
that he heard each day the din of revel
high in the hall: