Hero-Myths & Legends of the British Race
Dangerous marshy paths, where the dark moorland stream
'Neath the o'erhanging cliffs downwards departeth,
Sinks in the sombre earth. Not far remote from us
Standeth the gloomy mere, round whose shores cluster
Groves with their branches mossed, hoary with lichens grey
A wood firmly rooted o'ershadows the water.
There is a wonder seen nightly by wanderers,
Flame in the waterflood: liveth there none of men
Ancient or wise enough to know its bottom.
Though the poor stag may be hard by the hounds pursued,
Though he may seek the wood, chased by his cruel foes,
Yet will he yield his life to hunters on the brink
Ere he will hide his head in the dark waters.
'Tis an uncanny place. Thence the surge swelleth up
Dark to the heavens above, when the wind stirreth oft
Terrible driving storms, till the air darkens,
The skies fall to weeping."
Then Hrothgar burst forth in uncontrollable emotion: "O Beowulf, help
us if thou canst! Help is only to be found in thee. But yet thou
knowest not the dangerous place thou must needs explore if thou seek
the fiend in her den. I will richly reward thy valour if thou
returnest alive from this hazardous journey."
Beowulf was touched by the sorrow of the grey-haired king, and
replied:
"Grieve not, O prudent King! Better it is for each
That he avenge his friend, than that he mourn him much.
Each man must undergo death at the end of life.
Let him win while he may warlike fame in the world!
That is best after death for the slain warrior."
"Arise, my lord; let us scan the track left by the monster, for I
promise thee I will never lose it, wheresoever it may lead me. Only
have patience yet for this one day of misery, as I am sure thou wilt."
Hrothgar sprang up joyously, almost youthfully, and ordered his horse
to be saddled; then, with Beowulf beside him, and a mixed throng of
Geats and Danes following, he rode away towards the home of the
monsters, the dread lake which all men shunned. The blood-stained
tracks were easy to see, and the avengers moved on swiftly till they
came to the edge of the mere, and there, with grief and horror, saw
the head of Aschere lying on the bank.
"The lake boiled with blood, with hot welling gore;
The warriors gazed awe-struck, and the dread horn sang
From time to time fiercely eager defiance.
The warriors sat down there, and saw on the water
The sea-dragons swimming to search the abysses.
They saw on the steep nesses sea-monsters lying,
Snakes and weird creatures: these madly shot away
Wrathful and venomous when the sound smote their ears,
The blast of the war-horn."
As Beowulf stood on the shore and watched the uncouth sea-creatures,
serpents, nicors, monstrous beasts of all kinds, he suddenly drew his
bow and shot one of them to the heart. The rest darted furiously away,
and the thanes were able to drag the carcase of the slain beast on
shore, where they surveyed it with wonder.
The Fight with Grendel's Mother
Meanwhile Beowulf had made ready for his task. He trusted to his
well-woven mail, the corslet fitting closely to his body and
protecting his breast, the shining helm guarding his head, bright with
the boar-image on the crest, and the mighty sword Hrunting, which
Hunferth, his jealousy forgotten in admiration, pressed on the
adventurous hero.
"That sword was called Hrunting, an ancient heritage.
Steel was the blade itself, tempered with poison-twigs,
Hardened with battle-blood: never in fight it failed
Any who wielded it, when he would wage a strife
In the dire battlefield, folk-moot of enemies."
When Beowulf stood ready with naked sword in hand, he turned and
looked at his loyal followers, his friendly hosts, the grey old King
Hrothgar, the sun and the green earth, which he might never see again;
but it was with no trace of weakness or fear that he spoke:
"Forget not, O noble kinsman of Healfdene,
Illustrious ruler, gold-friend of warriors,
What we two settled when we spake together,
If I for thy safety should end here my life-days,
That thou wouldst be to me, though dead, as a father.
Be to my kindred thanes, my battle-comrades,
A worthy protector should death o'ertake me.
Do thou, dear Hrothgar, send all these treasures here
Which thou hast given me, to my king, Hygelac.
Then may the Geat king, brave son of Hrethel dead,
See by the gold and gems, know by the treasures there,
That I found a generous lord, whom I loved in my life.
Give thou to Hunferth too my wondrous old weapon,
The sword with its graven blade; let the right valiant man
Have the keen war-blade: I will win fame with his,
With Hrunting, noble brand, or death shall take me."
Beowulf dived downward, as it seemed to him, for the space of a day
ere he could perceive the floor of that sinister lake, and all that
time he had to fight the sea-beasts, for they, attacking him with tusk
and horn, strove to break his ring-mail, but in vain. As Beowulf came
near the bottom he felt himself seized in long, scaly arms of gigantic
strength. The fierce claws of the wolfish sea-woman strove eagerly to
reach his heart through his mail, but in vain; so the she-wolf of the
waters, a being awful and loathsome, bore him to her abode, rushing
through thick clusters of horrible sea-beasts.
"The hero now noticed he was in some hostile hall,
Where him the water-stream no whit might injure,
Nor for the sheltering roof the rush of the raging flood
Ever could touch him. He saw the strange flickering flame,
Weird lights in the water, shining with livid sheen:
He saw, too, the ocean-wolf, the hateful sea-woman."
Terrible and almost superhuman was the contest which now followed: the
awful sea-woman flung Beowulf down on his back and stabbed at him with
point and edge of her broad knife, seeking some vulnerable point; but
the good corslet resisted all her efforts, and Beowulf, exerting his
mighty force, overthrew her and sprang to his feet. Angered beyond
measure, he brandished the flaming sword Hrunting, and flashed one
great blow at her head which would have killed her had her scales and
hair been vulnerable; but alas! the edge of the blade turned on her
scaly hide, and the blow failed. Wrathfully Beowulf cast aside the
useless sword, and determined to trust once again to his hand-grip.
Grendel's mother now felt, in her turn, the deadly power of Beowulf's
grasp, and was borne to the ground; but the struggle continued long,
for Beowulf was weaponless, since the sword failed in its work. Yet
some weapon he must have.
"So he gazed at the walls, saw there a glorious sword,
An old brand gigantic, trusty in point and edge,
An heirloom of heroes; that was the best of blades,
Splendid and stately, the forging of giants;
But it was huger than any of human race
Could bear to battle-strife, save Beowulf only."
This mighty sword, a relic of earlier and greater races, brought new
hope to Beowulf. Springing up, he snatched it from the wall and swung
it fiercely round his head. The blow fell with crushing force on the
neck of the sea-woman, the dread wolf of the abyss, and broke the
bones. Dead the monster sank to the ground, and Beowulf, standing
erect, saw at his feet the lifeless carcase of his foe. The hero still
grasped his sword and looked warily along the walls of the
water-dwelling, lest some other foe should emerge from its recesses;
but as he gazed Beowulf saw his former foe, Grendel, lying dead on a
bed in some inner hall. He strode thither, and, seizing the corpse by
the hideous coiled locks, shore off the head to carry to earth again.
The poisonous hot blood of the monster melted the blade of the mighty
sword, and nothing remained but the hilt, wrought with curious
ornaments and signs of old time. This hilt and Grendel's head were all
that Beowulf carried off from the water-fiends' dwelling; and laden
with these the hero sprang up through the now clear and sparkling
water.
Meanwhile the Danes and Geats had waited long for his reappearance.
When the afternoon was well advanced the Danes departed sadly,
lamenting the hero's death, for they concluded no man could have
survived so long beneath the waters; but his loyal Geats sat there
still gazing sadly at the waves, and hoping against all hope that
Beowulf would reappear. At length they saw changes in the mere--the
blood boiling upwards in the lake, the quenching of the unholy light,
then the flight of the sea-monsters and a gradual clearing of the
waters, through which at last they could see their lord uprising. How
gladly they greeted him! What awe and wonder seized them as they
surveyed his dreadful booty, the ghastly head of Grendel and the
massive hilt of the gigantic sword! How eagerly they listened to his
story, and how they vied with one another for the glory of bearing his
armour, his spoils, and his weapons back over the moorlands and the
fens to Heorot. It was a proud and glad troop that followed Beowulf
into the hall, and up through the startled throng until they laid down
before the feet of King Hrothgar the hideous head of his dead foe, and
Beowulf, raising his voice that all might hear above the buzz and hum
of the great banquet-hall, thus addressed the king:
"Lo! we this sea-booty, O wise son of Healfdene,
Lord of the Scyldings, have brought for thy pleasure,
In token of triumph, as thou here seest.
From harm have I hardly escaped with my life,
The war under water sustained I with trouble,
The conflict was almost decided against me,
If God had not guarded me! Nought could I conquer
With Hrunting in battle, though 'tis a doughty blade.
But the gods granted me that I saw suddenly
Hanging high in the hall a bright brand gigantic:
So seized I and swung it that in the strife I slew
The lords of the dwelling. The mighty blade melted fast
In the hot boiling blood, the poisonous battle-gore;
But the hilt have I here borne from the hostile hall.
I have avenged the crime, the death of the Danish folk,
As it behoved me. Now can I promise thee
That thou in Heorot care-free mayest slumber
With all thy warrior-troop and all thy kindred thanes,
The young and the aged: thou needst not fear for them
Death from these mortal foes, as thou of yore hast done."
King Hrothgar was now more delighted than ever at the return of his
friend and the slaughter of his foes. He gazed in delight and wonder
at the gory head of the monster, and the gigantic hilt of the weapon
which struck it off. Then, taking the glorious hilt, and scanning
eagerly the runes which showed its history, as the tumult stilled in
the hall, and all men listened for his speech, he broke out: "Lo! this
may any man say, who maintains truth and right among his people, that
good though he may be this hero is even better! Thy glory is
widespread, Beowulf my friend, among thine own and many other nations,
for thou hast fulfilled all things by patience and prudence. I will
surely perform what I promised thee, as we agreed before; and I
foretell of thee that thou wilt be long a help and protection to thy
people."
King Hrothgar spoke long and eloquently while all men listened, for he
reminded them of mighty warriors of old who had not won such glorious