The Oldest English Epic/Chapter 1/Beowulf 05

by unknown author

V

320Stone-bright the street:^[1] it showed the way
to the crowd of clansmen. Corselets glistened
hand-forged, hard; on their harness bright
the steel ring sang,^[2] as they strode along
in mail of battle, and marched to the hall.
325There, weary of ocean, the wall along
they set their bucklers, their broad shields, down,
and bowed them to bench: the breastplates clanged,
war-gear of men; their weapons stacked,
spears of the seafarers stood together,
330gray-tipped ash: that iron band
was worthily weaponed!—A warrior proud
asked of the heroes their home and kin.
“Whence, now, bear ye burnished shields,
harness gray and helmets grim,
335spears in multitude ? Messenger, I,
Hrothgar’s herald! Heroes so many
ne’er met I as strangers of mood so strong,
’Tis plain that for prowess, not plunged into exile,
for high-hearted valor, Hrothgar ye seek!”
340Him the sturdy-in-war bespake with words,
proud earl of the Weders answer made,
hardy ’neath helmet:—“Hygelac’s, we,
fellows at board; I am Beowulf named.
I am seeking to say to the son of Healfdene
345this mission of mine, to thy master-lord,
the doughty prince, if he deign at all
grace that we greet him, the good one, now.”
Wulfgar spake, the Wendles’ chieftain,
whose might of mind to many was known,
350his courage and counsel: “The king of Danes,
the Scyldings’ friend, I fain will tell,
the Breaker-of-Rings, as the boon thou askest,
the famed prince, of thy faring hither,
and, swiftly after, such answer bring
355as the doughty monarch may deign to give.”
Hied then in haste to where Hrothgar sat
white-haired and old, his earls about him,
till the stout thane stood at the shoulder^[3] there
of the Danish king: good courtier he!
360Wulfgar spake to his winsome lord:—
“Hither have fared to thee far-come men
o’er the paths of ocean, people of Geatland;
and the stateliest^[4] there by his sturdy band
is Beowulf named. This boon they seek,
365that they, my master, may with thee
have speech at will: nor spurn their prayer
to give them hearing, gracious Hrothgar!
In weeds of the warrior worthy they,
methinks, of our liking; their leader most surely,
370a hero that hither his henchmen has led.”

1. Either merely paved, the strata via of the Romans, or else thought of as a sort of mosaic, an extravagant touch like the reckless waste of gold on the walls and roofs of a hall.—Stone buildings, it will be noted, are for old English poetry a mystery, a legacy of the past and its demi-gods—“work of giants”; for prose they pass as fit only for kings. Asser in his Life of Alfred (ed. Stevenson, 91, 23, and p. 154) calls them villae regiae. The common Germanic hatred of cities and of stone houses is familiar from the rhetoric of Tacitus.
2. See Finnsburg, vv. 7 f . for a more striking personification.
3. “Before the shoulders,” whatever position this was. Gering: “at the left shoulder of the lord of the land.”
4. Literally, “oldest.” See above, v. 258.