BEOWULF (Raffel translation)

[Pages:26]Beowulf

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Nationalmuseel, ( opcnhagen.

\eowulf is to England what Hcmer's ///ac/ and Odyssey are to ancient Greece: it is t^e first great work of a nationai literature. Becwulf is the mythical and literary record of a formative stage of English civilization; it is also an epic of the heroic sources of English cuitu-e. As such, it uses a host of traditional motifs associated with heroic literature all over the world. Liks most early heroic literature. Beowulf is oral art. it was hanaes down, with changes, and embe'lishrnents. from one minstrel to another. The stories of Beowulf, like those of all oral epics, are traditional ones, familiar to tne audiences who crowded around the harp:st-bards in the communal halls at night. The tales in the Beowulf epic are the stories of dream and legend, of monsters and of god-fashioned weapons, of descents to the underworld and of fights with dragons, of the hero's quest and of a community threatened by the powers of evil. Beowulf was composed in Old English, probably in Northumbria in northeast England, sometime between the years 700 and 750. The world it depicts, however, is much older, that of the early sixth century. Much of the material of the poem is based on early folk legends--some Celtic, some Scandinavian. Since the scenery describes tne coast of Northumbna. not of Scandinavia, it has been assumed that the poet who wrote the version that has come down to us was Northumbrian. Given the Cnristian elements in the epic, this poet may also have been a monk.

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]2 The Anglo-Saxons

The only manuscript we have of Beowulf dates from the year 1000 and is now in the British Museum in London. Burned and stained, it was discovered in the eighteenth century: Somehow it had survived Henry Vlll's destruction of the monasteries two hundred years earlier.

By the standards of Homer, whose epics run to nearly 15,000 lines, Beowulf, with approximately 3,200 lines, is relatively short. The epic tells the story of Beowulf (his name may mean "bear"), a Geat from Sweden who crosses the sea to Denmark in a quest to rescue King Hrothgar from the demonic monster Grendel. This epic hero, who emerges from the misty reaches of the English past, is a far-Northern mask of a national hero "type," who in other stories wears the mask of St. George or King Arthur. This herotype is the dragon slayer, the representative of a beseiged community that stands in precarious unity against the satanic forces that lurk everywhere in the cold darkness. When Grendel appeared to the Anglo-Saxon listener, he was not viewed as a legend; he was the embodiment of an all-too-present reality.

A List of Characters and Places

Here are some of the important people, monsters, and places that appear in Beowulf or are mentioned in the story:

Beowulf: a Geat, son of Edgetho and nephew of Higlac, king of the Geats. Higlac is Beowulf's feudal lord, as well as his uncle.

Brecca: chief of a tribe called Brondings and a friend of Beowulf.

Grendel: a man-eating monster who lives at the bottom of a foul mere, or mountain lake. His name might be related to the old Norse grindill, meaning "storm," or grenja, "to bellow."

Herot: the golden guest-hall built by King Hrothgar, the Danish ruler. It was decorated with the antlers of stags; the name means "hart [stag] hall." Scholars think Herot might have been built near Lejre on the coast of Zealand, in Denmark.

Hrothgar: king of the Danes, builder of Herot. He had once befriended Beowulf's father. His father was called Healfdane (which probably means "half Dane"). Hrothgar's name might mean "glory spear" or "spear of triumph."

Unferth: one of Hrothgar's courtiers, who is reputed to be a skilled warrior. His sword, called Hrunting, is used by Beowulf in a later battle.

Welthow: Hrothgar's wife, queen of the Danes.

Wiglaf: a Geat warrior, one of Beowulf's select band, and the only one to help him in his final fight with the dragon. Wiglaf might be related to Beowulf.

Page from the Beowulf manuscript (c. 1000).

British Library.

Beowulf 13 I

I

From

TRADITIONAL EPIC

Translated by Burton Raffel

The epic Beowulf had been told by the Anglo-Saxons for over five hundred years before it was finally written down. As you read, see if you can understand why it has remained popular.

Prologue

Hear me! We've heard of Danish heroes,

Ancient kings and the glory they cut

For themselves, swinging mighty swords!

How Shild1 made slaves of soldiers from every

Land, crowds of captives he'd beaten

Into terror; he'd traveled to Denmark alone,

An abandoned child, but changed his own fate,

Lived to be rich and much honored. He ruled

Lands on all sides: wherever the sea

Would take them his soldiers sailed, returned

10

With tribute and obedience. There was a brave

King! And he gave them more than his glory,

Conceived a son for the Danes, a new leader

Allowed them by the grace of God. They had lived,

Before his coming, kingless and miserable;

15

Now the Lord of all life, Ruler

Of glory, blessed them with a prince, Beo,2

Whose power and fame soon spread through the world.

1. Shild, a Danish king. He arrived in Denmark alone in a ship when he was a child. The ship was loaded with many treasures.

2. Beo, grandfather of Hrothgar, a Danish king.

108 THE ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD

Carved wooden head from a ship's tentpost, Gokstad ship-burial.

Copyright ? University Museum of National Antiquities, Oslo, Norway.

Shild's strong son was the glory of Denmark;

His father's warriors were wound round his heart

20

With golden rings, bound to their prince

By his father's treasure. So young men build

The future, wisely open-handed in peace,

Protected in war; so warriors earn

Their fame, and wealth is shaped with a sword.

25

When his time was come the old king died,

Still strong but called to the Lord's hands.

His comrades carried him down to the shore,

Bore him as their leader had asked, their lord

And companion, while words could move on his tongue. 30

Shild's reign had been long; he'd ruled them well.

There in the harbor was a ring-prowed fighting

Ship, its timbers icy, waiting,

And there they brought the beloved body

Of their ring-giving lord, and laid him near

35

The mast. Next to that noble corpse

They heaped up treasures, jeweled helmets,

Hooked swords and coats of mail, armor

Carried from the ends of the earth: no ship

Had ever sailed so brightly fitted,

40

No king sent forth more- deeply mourned.

Forced to set him adrift, floating

As far as the tide might run, they refused

To give him less from their hoards of gold

Than those who'd shipped him away, an orphan

45

And a beggar, to cross the waves alone.

High up over his head they flew

His shining banner, then sadly let

The water pull at the ship, watched it

Slowly sliding to where neither rulers

so

Nor heroes nor anyone can say whose hands

Opened to take that motionless cargo.

Then Beo was king in that Danish castle,

Shild's son ruling as long as his father

And as loved, a famous lord of men.

55

And he in turn gave his people a son,

The great Healfdane, a fierce fighter

Beowulf 109

Who led the Danes to the end of his long

Life and left them four children,

Three princes to guide them in battle, Hergar

eo

And Hrothgar and Halga the Good, and one daughter,

Yrs, who was given to Onela, king

Of the Swedes, and became his wife and their queen.

Then Hrothgar, taking the throne, led

The Danes to such glory that comrades and kinsmen

55

Swore by his sword, and young men swelled

His armies, and he thought of greatness and resolved

To build a hall that would hold his mighty

Band and reach higher toward Heaven than anything

That had ever been known to the sons of men.

?o

And in that hall he'd divide the spoils

Of their victories, to old and young what they'd earned

In battle, but leaving the common pastures

Untouched, and taking no lives. The work

Was ordered, the timbers tied and shaped

75

By the hosts that Hrothgar ruled. It was quickly

Ready, that most beautiful of dwellings, built

As he'd wanted, and then he whose word was obeyed

All over the earth named it Herot.

His boast come true he commanded a banquet,

so

Opened out his treasure-full hands.

That towering place, gabled and huge,

Stood waiting for time to pass, for war

To begin, for flames to leap as high

As the feud that would light them, and for Herot to burn, ss

m

Though the poetic form of the Beowulf story may seem foreign to you, the hero himself should seem very familiar. He embodies many virtues we still admire in the heroic "dragon-slayers" of today. Beowulf has superior physical prowess, he is supremely ethical, and he risks his own life to save the lives of those who are in mortal danger and cannot protect themselves.

The setting of the first part of the epic is Herot, a guest-hall or "mead-hall." (Mead is a fermented

drink made from honey.) The hall had a central place in Anglo-Saxon society. Here the lord's warriors could feast, listen to the bard's stories, and sleep in safety.

You'll notice that Grendel is immediately identified as a spawn of Cain. In the Bible, Cain is the first murderer. His crime was fratricide--the murder of his own brother. For an account of Cain's murder of Abel and of the curse put on Cain's descendants, see page 30.

from Beowulf

Translated by Burton Raffel

The Monster Grendel

A powerful monster, living down In the darkness, growled in pain, impatient As day after day the music rang Loud in that hall, the harp's rejoicing 5 Call and the poet's clear songs, sung Of the ancient beginnings of us all, recalling The Almighty making the earth, shaping These beautiful plains marked off by oceans, Then proudly setting the sun and moon 10 To glow across the land and light it; The corners of the earth were made lovely with trees And leaves, made quick with life, with each Of the nations who now move on its face. And then As now warriors sang of their pleasure: 15 So Hrothgar's men lived happy in his hall Till the monster stirred, that demon, that fiend, Grendel, who haunted the moors, the wild Marshes, and made his home in a hell Not hell but earth. He was spawned in that slime, 20 Conceived by a pair of those monsters born Of Cain, murderous creatures banished By God, punished forever for the crime Of Abel's death. The Almighty drove Those demons out, and their exile was bitter, 25 Shut away from men; they split Into a thousand forms of evil--spirits And fiends, goblins, monsters, giants, A brood forever opposing the Lord's Will, and again and again defeated.

14 The Anglo-Saxons

30

Then, when darkness had dropped, Grendel

Went up to Herot, wondering what the warriors

Would do in that hall when their drinking was done.

He found them sprawled in sleep, suspecting

Nothing, their dreams undisturbed. The monster's

35 Thoughts were as quick as his greed or his claws:

He slipped through the door and there in the silence

Snatched up thirty men, smashed them

Unknowing in their beds and ran out with their bodies,

The blood dripping behind him, back

40 To his lair, delighted with his night's slaughter.

At daybreak, with the sun's first light, they saw

How well he had worked, and in that gray morning

Broke their long feast with tears and laments

For the dead. Hrothgar, their lord, sat joyless

45 In Herot, a mighty prince mourning

The fate of his lost friends and companions,

Knowing by its tracks that some demon had torn

His followers apart. He wept, fearing

The beginning might not be the end. And that night

50 Grendel came again, so set

On murder that no crime could ever be enough,

No savage assault quench his lust

For evil. Then each warrior tried

To escape him, searched for rest in different

55 Beds, as far from Herot as they could find,

Seeing how Grendel hunted when they slept.

Distance was safety; the only survivors

Were those who fled him. Hate had triumphed.

So Grendel ruled, fought with the righteous,

60 One against many, and won; so Herot

Stood empty, and stayed deserted for years,

Twelve winters of grief for Hrothgar, king

Of the Danes, sorrow heaped at his door

By hell-forged hands. His misery leaped

65 The seas, was told and sung in all

Men's ears: how Grendel's hatred began,

How the monster relished his savage war

On the Danes, keeping the bloody feud

Alive, seeking no peace, offering

70 No truce, accepting no settlement, no price

In gold or land, and paying the living

For one crime only with another. No one

Waited for reparation from his plundering claws:

That shadow of death hunted in the darkness,

75 Stalked Hrothgar's warriors, old

And young, lying in waiting, hidden

In mist, invisibly following them from the edge

Of the marsh, always there, unseen.

16 The Anglo-Saxons

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