An short excerpt from the prologue.
Hwæt. We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,
monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,
egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð
feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad,
weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah,
oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra
ofer hronrade hyran scolde,
gomban gyldan. þæt wæs god cyning.
Lo! the glory of the kings of the people of the Spear-Danes
in days of old we have heard tell, how those princes did deeds of valour.
Oft Scyld Scefing robbed the hosts of foemen, many peoples,
of the seats where they drank their mead,
laid fear upon men, he who first was found forlorn;
comfort for that he lived to know, mighty grew under heaven,
throve in honour, until all that dwelt nigh about,
over the sea where the whale rides,
must hearken to him and yield him tribute
– a good king was he!
Beowulf is an famous early saga written in old English. J.R.R. Tokien, of Lord of the Rings fame and a scholar of old English, translated this and other Anglo-Saxon sagas and poems into modern English. It is said that Lord of the rings is based on another Anglo-Saxon poem The Wanderer. Tolkien died on this day 40 years ago, 2 September 1973.
The protagonist Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hrothgar, king of the Danes, whose great hall, Herot, is plagued by the monster Grendel. Beowulf kills Grendel with his bare hands, then kills Grendel’s mother with a giant’s sword that he found in her lair.
Later in his life, Beowulf becomes king of the Geats, and finds his realm terrorized by a dragon, some of whose treasure had been stolen from his hoard in a burial mound. He attacks the dragon with the help of his thegns or servants, but they do not succeed. Beowulf decides to follow the dragon to its lair at Earnanaes, but only his young Swedish relative Wiglaf, whose name means “remnant of valour”, dares to join him. Beowulf finally slays the dragon, but is mortally wounded in the struggle. He is cremated and a burial mound by the sea is erected in his honour.
