Outlines of English and American Literature | Page 9

can harm the monster, that it is death
to sleep in the hall; then the Spear Danes retire, leaving Beowulf and
his companions to keep watch and ward. With the careless confidence
of brave men, forthwith they all fall asleep:
Forth from the fens, from the misty moorlands, Grendel came
gliding--God's wrath he bore-- Came under clouds until he saw clearly,
Glittering with gold plates, the mead-hall of men. Down fell the door,
though hardened with fire-bands, Open it sprang at the stroke of his
paw. Swollen with rage burst in the bale-bringer, Flamed in his eyes a
fierce light, likest fire.
[Sidenote: THE FIGHT WITH GRENDEL]
Throwing himself upon the nearest sleeper Grendel crushes and
swallows him; then he stretches out a paw towards Beowulf, only to
find it "seized in such a grip as the fiend had never felt before." A
desperate conflict begins, and a mighty uproar,--crashing of benches,
shoutings of men, the "war-song" of Grendel, who is trying to break the
grip of his foe. As the monster struggles toward the door, dragging the
hero with him, a wide wound opens on his shoulder; the sinews snap,
and with a mighty wrench Beowulf tears off the whole limb. While
Grendel rushes howling across the fens, Beowulf hangs the grisly arm
with its iron claws, "the whole grapple of Grendel," over the door
where all may see it.

Once more there is joy in Heorot, songs, speeches, the liberal giving of
gifts. Thinking all danger past, the Danes sleep in the hall; but at
midnight comes the mother of Grendel, raging to avenge her son.
Seizing the king's bravest companion she carries him away, and he is
never seen again.
Here is another adventure for Beowulf. To old Hrothgar, lamenting his
lost earl, the hero says simply:
Wise chief, sorrow not. For a man it is meet His friend to avenge, not to
mourn for his loss; For death comes to all, but honor endures: Let him
win it who will, ere Wyrd to him calls, And fame be the fee of a
warrior dead!
Following the trail of the Brimwylf or Merewif (sea-wolf or sea-woman)
Beowulf and his companions pass through desolate regions to a wild
cliff on the shore. There a friend offers his good sword Hrunting for the
combat, and Beowulf accepts the weapon, saying:
ic me mid Hruntinge Dom gewyrce, oththe mec death nimeth. I with
Hrunting Honor will win, or death shall me take.
[Sidenote: THE DRAGON'S CAVE]
Then he plunges into the black water, is attacked on all sides by the
Grundwrygen or bottom monsters, and as he stops to fight them is
seized by the Merewif and dragged into a cave, a mighty "sea-hall" free
from water and filled with a strange light. On its floor are vast treasures;
its walls are adorned with weapons; in a corner huddles the wounded
Grendel. All this Beowulf sees in a glance as he turns to fight his new
foe.
Follows then another terrific combat, in which the brand Hrunting
proves useless. Though it rings out its "clanging war-song" on the
monster's scales, it will not "bite" on the charmed body. Beowulf is
down, and at the point of death, when his eye lights on a huge sword
forged by the jotuns of old. Struggling to his feet he seizes the weapon,
whirls it around his head for a mighty blow, and the fight is won.

Another blow cuts off the head of Grendel, but at the touch of the
poisonous blood the steel blade melts like ice before the fire.
Leaving all the treasures, Beowulf takes only the golden hilt of the
magic sword and the head of Grendel, reënters the sea and mounts up
to his companions. They welcome him as one returned from the dead.
They relieve him of helmet and byrnie, and swing away in a triumphal
procession to Heorot. The hero towers among them, a conspicuous
figure, and next to him comes the enormous head of Grendel carried on
a spear-shaft by four of the stoutest thanes.
[Sidenote: THE FIREDRAKE]
More feasting, gifts, noble speeches follow before the hero returns to
his own land, laden with treasures. So ends the first part of the epic. In
the second part Beowulf succeeds Hygelac as chief of the Geats, and
rules them well for fifty years. Then a "firedrake," guarding an
immense hoard of treasure (as in most of the old dragon stories), begins
to ravage the land. Once more the aged Beowulf goes forth to
champion his people; but he feels that "Wyrd is close to hand," and the
fatalism which pervades all the poem is finely expressed in his speech
to his companions. In his last fight he kills the dragon, winning the
dragon's treasure for his people; but as