Beowulf 3: Beowulf and Grendel engage in mortal combat.

ALL SLEEP SAVE ONE.

[Hrothgar retires.]

Then Hrothgar departed, his earl-throng attending him,

Folk-lord of Scyldings, forth from the building;

The war-chieftain wished then Wealhtheow to look for,

The queen for a bedmate. To keep away Grendel

God has provided a watch for the hall.

The Glory of Kings had given a hall-watch,

As men heard recounted: for the king of the Danemen

He did special service, gave the giant a watcher:

And the prince of the Geatmen implicitly trusted

[Beowulf is self-confident]

His warlike strength and the Wielder’s protection.

[He prepares for rest.]

His armor of iron off him he did then,

His helmet from his head, to his henchman committed

His chased-handled chain-sword, choicest of weapons,

And bade him bide with his battle-equipments.

The good one then uttered words of defiance,

Beowulf Geatman, ere his bed he upmounted:

[Beowulf boasts of his ability to cope with Grendel.]

“I hold me no meaner in matters of prowess,

In warlike achievements, than Grendel does himself;

Hence I seek not with sword-edge to sooth him to slumber,

Of life to bereave him, though well I am able.

We will fight with nature’s weapons only.20

No battle-skill has he, that blows he should strike me,

To shatter my shield, though sure he is mighty

In strife and destruction; but struggling by night we

Shall do without edges, dare he to look for

Weaponless warfare, and wise-mooded Father

The glory apportion, God ever-holy,

God may decide who shall conquer

On which hand soever to him seemeth proper.”

Then the brave-mooded hero bent to his slumber,

The pillow received the cheek of the noble;

[The Geatish warriors lie down.]

And many a martial mere-thane attending

Sank to his slumber. Seemed it unlikely

[They thought it very unlikely that they should ever see their homes again.]

That ever thereafter any should hope to

Be happy at home, hero-friends visit

Or the lordly troop-castle where he lived from his childhood;

They had heard how slaughter had snatched from the wine-hall,

Had recently ravished, of the race of the Scyldings

But God raised up a deliverer.

Too many by far. But the Lord to them granted

The weaving of war-speed, to Wederish heroes

Aid and comfort, that every opponent

By one man’s war-might they worsted and vanquished,

[God rules the world.]

By the might of himself; the truth is established

That God Almighty hath governed for ages

Kindreds and nations. A night very lurid

[Grendel comes to Heorot.]

The trav’ler-at-twilight came tramping and striding.

The warriors were sleeping who should watch the horned-building,

[Only one warrior is awake.]

One only excepted. ’Mid earthmen ’twas ’stablished,

Th’ implacable foeman was powerless to hurl them

To the land of shadows, if the Lord were unwilling;

But serving as warder, in terror to foemen,

He angrily bided the issue of battle.

XII. GRENDEL AND BEOWULF.

[Grendel comes from the fens.]

’Neath the cloudy cliffs came from the moor then

Grendel going, God’s anger bare he.

The monster intended some one of earthmen

In the hall-building grand to entrap and make way with:

[He goes towards the joyous building.]

He went under welkin where well he knew of

The wine-joyous building, brilliant with plating,

Gold-hall of earthmen. Not the earliest occasion

[This was not his first visit there.]

He the home and manor of Hrothgar had sought:

Ne’er found he in life-days later nor earlier

Hardier hero, hall-thanes more sturdy!

Then came to the building the warrior marching,

[His horrid fingers tear the door open.]

Bereft of his joyance. The door quickly opened

On fire-hinges fastened, when his fingers had touched it;

The fell one had flung then—his fury so bitter—

Open the entrance. Early thereafter

The foeman trod the shining hall-pavement,

[He strides furiously into the hall.]

Strode he angrily; from the eyes of him glimmered

A lustre unlovely likest to fire.

He beheld in the hall the heroes in numbers,

A circle of kinsmen sleeping together,

[He exults over his supposed prey.]

A throng of thanemen: then his thoughts were exultant,

He minded to sunder from each of the thanemen

The life from his body, horrible demon,

Ere morning came, since fate had allowed him

[Fate has decreed that he shall devour no more heroes. Beowulf suffers from suspense.]

The prospect of plenty. Providence willed not

To permit him any more of men under heaven

To eat in the night-time. Higelac’s kinsman

Great sorrow endured how the dire-mooded creature

In unlooked-for assaults were likely to bear him.

No thought had the monster of deferring the matter,

[Grendel immediately seizes a sleeping warrior, and devours him.]

But on earliest occasion he quickly laid hold of

A soldier asleep, suddenly tore him,

Bit his bone-prison, the blood drank in currents,

Swallowed in mouthfuls: he soon had the dead man’s

Feet and hands, too, eaten entirely.

Nearer he strode then, the stout-hearted warrior

[Beowulf and Grendel grapple.]

Snatched as he slumbered, seizing with hand-grip,

Forward the foeman foined with his hand;

Caught he quickly the cunning deviser,

On his elbow he rested. This early discovered

The master of malice, that in middle-earth’s regions,

’Neath the whole of the heavens, no hand-grapple greater

[The monster is amazed at Beowulf’s strength.]

In any man else had he ever encountered:

Fearful in spirit, faint-mooded waxed he,

Not off could betake him; death he was pondering,

[He is anxious to flee.]

Would fly to his covert, seek the devil’s assembly:

His calling no more was the same he had followed

Long in his lifetime. The liege-kinsman worthy

[Beowulf recalls his boast of the evening, and determines to fulfil it.]

Of Higelac minded his speech of the evening,

Stood he up straight and stoutly did seize him.

His fingers crackled; the giant was outward,

The earl stepped farther. The famous one minded

To flee away farther, if he found an occasion,

And off and away, avoiding delay,

To fly to the fen-moors; he fully was ware of

The strength of his grapple in the grip of the foeman.

’Twas a luckless day for Grendel.

’Twas an ill-taken journey that the injury-bringing,

Harrying harmer to Heorot wandered:

[The hall groans.]

The palace re-echoed; to all of the Danemen,

Dwellers in castles, to each of the bold ones,

Earlmen, was terror. Angry they both were,

Archwarders raging. Rattled the building;

’Twas a marvellous wonder that the wine-hall withstood then

The bold-in-battle, bent not to earthward,

Excellent earth-hall; but within and without it

Was fastened so firmly in fetters of iron,

By the art of the armorer. Off from the sill there

Bent mead-benches many, as men have informed me,

Adorned with gold-work, where the grim ones did struggle.

The Scylding wise men weened ne’er before

That by might and main-strength a man under heaven

Might break it in pieces, bone-decked, resplendent,

Crush it by cunning, unless clutch of the fire

In smoke should consume it. The sound mounted upward

[Grendel’s cries terrify the Danes.]

Novel enough; on the North Danes fastened

A terror of anguish, on all of the men there

Who heard from the wall the weeping and plaining,

The song of defeat from the foeman of heaven,

Heard him hymns of horror howl, and his sorrow

Hell-bound bewailing. He held him too firmly

Who was strongest of main-strength of men of that era.

XIII. GRENDEL IS VANQUISHED.

[Beowulf has no idea of letting Grendel live.]

For no cause whatever would the earlmen’s defender

Leave in life-joys the loathsome newcomer,

He deemed his existence utterly useless

To men under heaven. Many a noble

Of Beowulf brandished his battle-sword old,

Would guard the life of his lord and protector,

The far-famous chieftain, if able to do so;

While waging the warfare, this wist they but little,

Brave battle-thanes, while his body intending

[No weapon would harm Grendel; he bore a charmed life.]

To slit into slivers, and seeking his spirit:

That the relentless foeman nor finest of weapons

Of all on the earth, nor any of war-bills

Was willing to injure; but weapons of victory

Swords and suchlike he had sworn to dispense with.

His death at that time must prove to be wretched,

And the far-away spirit widely should journey

Into enemies’ power. This plainly he saw then

Who with mirth of mood malice no little

Had wrought in the past on the race of the earthmen

(To God he was hostile), that his body would fail him,

But Higelac’s hardy henchman and kinsman

Held him by the hand; hateful to other

[Grendel is sorely wounded.]

Was each one if living. A body-wound suffered

The direful demon, damage incurable

[His body bursts.]

Was seen on his shoulder, his sinews were shivered,

His body did burst. To Beowulf was given

Glory in battle; Grendel from thenceward

Must flee and hide him in the fen-cliffs and marshes,

Sick unto death, his dwelling must look for

Unwinsome and woeful; he wist the more fully

[The monster flees away to hide in the moors.]

The end of his earthly existence was nearing,

His life-days’ limits. At last for the Danemen,

When the slaughter was over, their wish was accomplished.

The comer-from-far-land had cleansed then of evil,

Wise and valiant, the war-hall of Hrothgar,

Saved it from violence. He joyed in the night-work,

In repute for prowess; the prince of the Geatmen

For the East-Danish people his boast had accomplished,

Bettered their burdensome bale-sorrows fully,

The craft-begot evil they erstwhile had suffered

And were forced to endure from crushing oppression,

Their manifold misery. ’Twas a manifest token,

[Beowulf suspends Grendel’s hand and arm in Heorot.]

When the hero-in-battle the hand suspended,

The arm and the shoulder (there was all of the claw

Of Grendel together) ’neath great-stretching hall-roof.