Beowulf

by Unknown

Shield had fathered a famous son: Beow’s name was known through the north.

Behaviour that’s admired is the path to power among people everywhere.

Grendel, a monster descended from “Cain’s clan,” begins to prowl

Grendel was the name of this grim demon haunting the marches, marauding

round the heath and the desolate fens; he had dwelt for a time in misery among the banished monsters, Cain’s clan, whom the Creator had outlawed and condemned as outcasts.

merciless Grendel struck again with more gruesome murders.

Malignant by nature, he never showed remorse.

So Grendel ruled in defiance of right, one against all, until the greatest house in the world stood empty, a deserted wallstead.

how he would never parley or make peace with any Dane nor stop his death-dealing nor pay the death-price.

dark death-shadow who lurked and swooped in the long nights on the misty moors;

but the throne itself, the treasure-seat, he was kept from approaching; he was the Lord’s outcast.

“We are retainers from Hygelac’s band. Beowulf is my name.

They had seen me boltered in the blood of enemies 420 when I battled and bound five beasts, raided a troll-nest and in the night-sea slaughtered sea-brutes. I have suffered extremes and avenged the Geats (their enemies brought it upon themselves, I devastated them).

I hereby renounce sword and the shelter of the broad shield, the heavy war-board: hand-to-hand is how it will be, a life-and-death 440 fight with the fiend. Whichever one death fells must deem it a just judgement by God.

If Grendel wins, it will be a gruesome day; he will glut himself on the Geats in the war-hall, swoop without fear on that flower of manhood as on others before. Then my face won’t be there

to be covered in death: he will carry me away as he goes to ground, gorged and bloodied; he will run gloating with my raw corpse and feed on it alone, in a cruel frenzy, 450 fouling his moor-nest.

would be slick with slaughter.

“Are you the Beowulf who took on Breca in a swimming match on the open sea, risking the water just to prove that you could win? It was sheer vanity made you venture out 510 on the main deep.

We’d been children together and we grew up daring ourselves to outdo each other, boasting and urging each other to risk our lives on the sea.

You killed your own kith and kin, so for all your cleverness and quick tongue, you will suffer damnation in the depths of hell.

He knows he can trample down you Danes 600 to his heart’s content, humiliate and murder without fear of reprisal. But he will find me different. I will show him how Geats shape to kill in the heat of battle.

prove myself with a proud deed or meet my death here in the mead-hall.”

“When it comes to fighting, I count myself as dangerous any day as Grendel.

He has no idea of the arts of war, of shield or sword-play, although he does possess a wild strength.

Then his rage boiled over, he ripped open the mouth of the building, maddening for blood, pacing the length of the patterned floor

with his loathsome tread, while a baleful light, flame more than light, flared from his eyes.

And his glee was demonic, picturing the mayhem: before morning he would rip life from limb and devour them, feed on their flesh; but his fate that night was due to change, his days of ravening had come to an end.

he grabbed and mauled a man on his bench, bit into his bone-lappings, bolted down his blood and gorged on him in lumps, leaving the body utterly lifeless, eaten up hand and foot.

that no blade on earth, no blacksmith’s art could ever damage their demon opponent.

My plan was to pounce, pin him down in a tight grip and grapple him to death— have him panting for life, powerless and clasped in my bare hands, his body in thrall.

He has done his worst but the wound will end him. He is hasped and hooped and hirpling with pain, limping and looped in it. Like a man outlawed for wickedness, he must await the mighty judgement of God in majesty.”

an avenger lurked and was still alive, grimly biding time. Grendel’s mother, monstrous hell-bride, brooded on her wrongs. 1260 She had been forced down into fearful waters, the cold depths, after Cain had killed his father’s son, felled his own brother with a sword. Branded an outlaw, marked by having murdered, he moved into the wilds, shunned company and joy.

sallied forth on a savage journey, grief-racked and ravenous, desperate for revenge.

the winner of fights, the arch-warrior, came first-footing in with his fellow troops

wooden floor-boards banged and rang as he advanced,

Then this roaming killer came in a fury and slaughtered him in Heorot. Where she is hiding, glutting on the corpse and glorying in her escape,

this force for evil 1340 driven to avenge her kinsman’s death.

seen two such creatures prowling the moors, huge marauders from some other world.

looks like a woman; the other, warped in the shape of a man, moves beyond the pale bigger than any man, an unnatural birth

They are fatherless creatures, and their whole ancestry is hidden in a past of demons and ghosts.

“Wise sir, do not grieve. It is always better to avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning. For every one of us, living in this world means waiting for our end. Let whoever can win glory before death.

Endure your troubles to-day. Bear up and be the man I expect you to be.”

With Hrunting I shall gain glory or die.”

who haunted those waters, who had scavenged and gone her gluttonous rounds for a hundred seasons, sensed a human 1500 observing her outlandish lair from above.

So she lunged and clutched and managed to catch him in her brutal grip; but his body, for all that, remained unscathed: the mesh of the chain-mail saved him on the outside.

Her savage talons failed to rip the web of his warshirt.

slick-skinned dragon, threatening the night sky with streamers of fire.

fierce impatience;

his pent-up fury at the loss of the vessel made him long to hit back and lash out in flames.

his own home, the best of buildings, had been burnt to a cinder, the throne-room of the Geats. It threw the hero into deep anguish and darkened his mood: