The Tale of Beowulf/Chapter 23
XXIII. BEOWULF REACHETH THE MERE-BOTTOM IN A DAY'S WHILE, AND CONTENDS WITH GRENDEL'S DAM.
OUT then spake Beowulf, Ecgtheow's bairn:Forsooth be thou mindful, O great son of Healfdene,O praise of the princes, now way-fain am I, O gold-friend of men, what we twain spake aforetime:If to me for thy need it might so befallThat I cease from my life-days, thou shouldest be everTo me, forth away wended, in the stead of a father.Do thou then bear in hand these thanes of my kindred,1480My hand-fellows, if so be battle shall have me;Those same treasures withal, which thou gavest me erst,O Hrothgar the lief, unto Hygelac send thou;By that gold then shall wot the lord of the Geat-folk,Shall Hrethel's son see, when he stares on the treasure,That I in fair man-deeds a good one have found me,A ring-giver; while I might, joy made I thereof.And let thou then Unferth the ancient loom have,The wave-sword adorned, that man kenned widely,The blade of hard edges; for I now with Hrunting1490Will work me the glory, or else shall death get me.So after these words the Weder-Geats' chieftainWith might of heart hasten'd; nor for answer then would he Aught tarry; the sea-welter straightway took hold onThe warrior of men: wore the while of a daytideOr ever the ground-plain might he set eyes on.Soon did she find, she who the flood-ringSword-ravening had held for an hundred of seasons,Greedy and grim, that there one man of groomsThe abode of the alien-wights sought from above;Then toward him she grasp'd and gat hold on the warrior1501With fell clutch, but no sooner she scathed withinwardThe hale body; rings from without-ward it warded,That she could in no wise the war-skin clutch through,The fast locked limb-sark, with fingers all loathly.So bare then that sea-wolf when she came unto bottomThe king of the rings to the court-hall adownIn such wise that he might not, though hard-moody was he,Be wielding of weapons. But a many of wondersIn sea-swimming swink'd him, and many a sea-deerWith his war-tusks was breaking his sark of the battle;1511The fell wights him follow'd. 'Twas then the earl found it That in foe-hall there was he, I wot not of which,Where never the water might scathe him a whit,Nor because of the roof-hall might reach to him thereThe fear-grip of the flood. Now fire-light he saw,The bleak beam forsooth all brightly a-shining.Then the good one, he saw the wolf of the ground,The mere-wife the mighty, and main onset made heWith his battle-bill; never his hand withheld sword-swing,1520So that there on her head sang the ring-sword forsoothThe song of war greedy. But then found the guestThat the beam of the battle would bite not therewith,Or scathe life at all, but there failed the edgeThe king in his need. It had ere thol'd a manyOf meetings of hand; oft it sheared the helm,The host-rail of the fey one; and then was the first timeFor that treasure dear lov'd that its might lay a-low.But therewithal steadfast, naught sluggish of valour,All mindful of high deeds was Hygelac's kinsman.Cast then the wounden blade bound with the gem-stones1531 The warrior all angry, that it lay on the earth there,Stiff-wrought and steel-edged. In strength now he trusted,The hard hand-grip of might and main; so shall a man doWhen he in the war-tide yet looketh to winningThe praise that is longsome, nor aught for life careth.Then fast by the shoulder, of the feud nothing recking,The lord of the War-Geats clutch'd Grendel's mother,Cast down the battle-hard, bollen with anger,That foe of the life, till she bow'd to the floor;1540But swiftly to him gave she back the hand-guerdonWith hand-graspings grim, and griped against him;Then mood-weary stumbled the strongest of warriors,The foot-kemp, until that adown there he fell.Then she sat on the hall-guest and tugg'd out her sax,The broad and brown-edged, to wreak her her son,Her offspring her own. But lay yet on his shoulderThe breast-net well braided, the berg of his life, That 'gainst point and 'gainst edge the entrance withstood.Gone amiss then forsooth had been Ecgtheow's son1550Underneath the wide ground there, the kemp of the Geats,Save to him his war-byrny had fram'd him a help,The hard host-net; and save that the Lord God the HolyHad wielded the war-gain, the Lord the All-wise;Save that the skies' Ruler had rightwisely doom'd itAll easily. Sithence he stood up again.