XXII. The Pursuit

Beowulf spakes Ecgtheow’s son:

“Sorrow not, sage man, ‘tis better for each to avenge his friend than greatly to mourn.

Each of us must an end await of this world’s life; let him work who can high deeds ere death; that will be for the warrior when he is lifeless, afterwards best.

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Rise, lord of the realm, let us quickly go to see the course of Grendel’s parent. I promised thee, not to the sea shall she ‘scape, nor to earth’s embrace, not to mountain-wood, not to ocean’s ground, go whither she will.

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This day do thou endurance have in every woe, as I expect of thee.”

Up leapt the man then, thanked God, the mighty Lord, for what the man said.

For Hrothgar then a Horse was bridled, a steed with curled mane. The ruler wise in state went forth; a troop strode on, bearing their shields. Tracks there were along the forest path widely seen,

her course o’er the ground; she had thither gone

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o’er the murky moor. Of their fellow thanes she bore the best one, soul-bereft, of those that with Hrothgar defended their home.

Then overpassed these sons of nobles deep rocky gorges, a narrow road, strait lonely paths, an unknown way, precipitious nesses, monster-dens many.

He went in advance, he and a few of the wary men, to view the plain, till suddenly he found mountain - trees

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overhanging a hoary rock, a joyless wood; there was water beneath, gory and troubled. To all the Danes, friends of the Scyldings, ‘twas grievous in mind, a source of sorrow to many a thane,

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pain to each earl, when of Æschere, on the sea-shore, the head they found.

The flood boiled with blood, the people looked on at the hot glowing gore. The horn at times sang a ready war-song. The band all sat.

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they saw in the water a host of the worm-kind,

strange sea dragons sounding the deep;

in the headland-clefts also, nickers lying,

which in the morning oft-times keep

their sorrowful course upon the sail-road,

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worms and wild beasts; - they sped away,

bitter and rage-swollen; they heard the sound,

the war-horn singing. The lord of the Geats

with a bolt from his bow took one from life,

from his wave-strife, and left in his vitals

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the hard war-shaft; he in the sea was

the slower in swimming, when death took him off.

Quickly on the waves, with hunting spears

sharply hooked, he was strongly pressed,

felled by force, and drawn up on the headland,

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the wonderful swimmer. The men there gazed on the grislyguest.

Beowulf girt himself

in war-like weeds; for life he feared not;

his warrior-byrnie, woven by hands,

ample and inlaid, must tempt the deep;

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it could well his body protect

that battle-grip might not scathe his breast,

the fierce one’s way wily grasp injure his life.

But the flashing helm guarded his head,

(which with the sea-bottom was to mingle,

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and seek the sea-surge) with jewels adorned,

encircled with chains, as in days of yore

the weapon-smith wrought it, wondrously framed,

set with swine-figures so that thereafter no brand nor war-sword ever could bite it.

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Nor then was that least of powerful aids

which Hrothgar’s orator lent him at need:

Hrunting was named the hafted falchion.

‘Twas among the foremost of olden treasures;

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its edge was iron, tainted with poison,

harden’d with warrior-blood; ne’er in battle

had it failed any of those that brandished it,

who durst to travel the ways of terror,

the perilous trysts. ‘Twas not the first time

that it a valorous deed should perform.

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Surely Ecglaf’s son remembered not,

the mighty in power, what erst he had said,

drunken with wine, when the weapon he lent

to a better sword-warrior. He durst not himself

‘mid the strife of the waves adventure his life,

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a great deed perform, there lost he his credit

for valorous doing. Not so with the other

when he had prepared for battle¹ .

‘Ic þra frxtwa frēan ealles þanc,

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‘wuldurcyninZe wordum secZe,

‘ēcum dryhtne, þe ic hēr on starie,

‘þxs þe ic mōste mīnum lēodum

‘xr swyltdxZe swylc Zestrynan.

‘Nū ic on māþma hord mīnne bebohte

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‘frōde feorhleZe, fremmaþ Zē nū

‘lēoda þearfe. Ne mxZ ic hēr lenZ wesan.

‘Hātaþ heaþomxre hlxw Zewyrcean,

‘beorhtne xfter bxle xt brimes nōsan;

‘sē scel tō Zemyndum minum lēodum

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‘hēah hit sxlīþend syþþan hētan

‘Bīowulfes biorh, þā þe brentinZas

‘ofer floda Zenipu feorran drīfaþ.’

‘Dyde him of healse hrinZ Zyldenne,

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‘þīoden þrīsthydiZ, þeZne Zesealde,

‘ZeonZum ZārwiZan Zoldfāhne helm,

bēah ond byrnan, hēt hyne brūcan wēll:

þū eart endelāf ūsses cynnes,

‘WxZmundinZa; ealle wyrd forswēop

‘mīne māZas tō metodsceafte,

‘earlas on elne: ic him xfter sceal.

þxt wxs þām Zomelan ZinZxste word

brēostZehyZdum, xr hē bxl cure,

hāte heaþowylmas: him of hrxþre Zewāt

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sāwol sēcean sōþfxstra dēm.