Beowulf (Bilingual Edition)

by Seamus Heaney

Say, moreover, when you speak to them,

  they are welcome to Denmark.”

  At the door of the hall,

  390 Wulfgar duly delivered the message:

  “My lord, the conquering king of the Danes,

  bids me announce that he knows your ancestry;

  also that he welcomes you here to Heorot

  and salutes your arrival from across the sea.

  You are free now to move forward

  to meet Hrothgar, in helmets and armour,

  but shields must stay here and spears be stacked

  until the outcome of the audience is clear.”

  Beowulf enters Heorot. He gives an account of his heroic exploits

  The hero arose, surrounded closely

  400 by his powerful thanes. A party remained

  under orders to keep watch on the arms;

  the rest proceeded, led by their prince

  under Heorot’s roof. And standing on the hearth

  in webbed links that the smith had woven,

  the fine-forged mesh of his gleaming mail-shirt,

  resolute in his helmet, Beowulf spoke:

  “Greetings to Hrothgar. I am Hygelac’s kinsman,

  one of his hall-troop. When I was younger,

  I had great triumphs. Then news of Grendel,

  410 hard to ignore, reached me at home:

  sailors brought stories of the plight you suffer

  in this legendary hall, how it lies deserted,

  empty and useless once the evening light

  hides itself under heaven’s dome.

  So every elder and experienced councilman

  among my people supported my resolve

  to come here to you, King Hrothgar,

  because all knew of my awesome strength.

  They had seen me boltered in the blood of enemies

  420 when I battled and bound five beasts,

  raided a troll-nest and in the night-sea

  slaughtered sea-brutes. I have suffered extremes

  and avenged the Geats (their enemies brought it

  upon themselves, I devastated them).

  Now I mean to be a match for Grendel,

  settle the outcome in single combat.

  He declares he will fight Grendel

  And so, my request, O king of Bright-Danes,

  dear prince of the Shieldings, friend of the people

  and their ring of defence, my one request

  430 is that you won’t refuse me, who have come this far,

  the privilege of purifying Heorot,

  with my own men to help me, and nobody else.

  I have heard moreover that the monster scorns

  in his reckless way to use weapons;

  therefore, to heighten Hygelac’s fame

  and gladden his heart, I hereby renounce

  sword and the shelter of the broad shield,

  the heavy war-board: hand-to-hand

  is how it will be, a life-and-death

  440 fight with the fiend. Whichever one death fells

  must deem it a just judgement by God.

  If Grendel wins, it will be a gruesome day;

  he will glut himself on the Geats in the war-hall,

  swoop without fear on that flower of manhood

  as on others before. Then my face won’t be there

  to be covered in death: he will carry me away

  as he goes to ground, gorged and bloodied;

  he will run gloating with my raw corpse

  and feed on it alone, in a cruel frenzy,

  450 fouling his moor-nest. No need then

  to lament for long or lay out my body:

  if the battle takes me, send back

  this breast-webbing that Weland fashioned

  and Hrethel gave me, to Lord Hygelac.

  Fate goes ever as fate must.”

  Hrothgar recollects a friendship and tells of Grendel’s raids

  Hrothgar, the helmet of Shieldings, spoke:

  “Beowulf, my friend, you have travelled here

  to favour us with help and to fight for us.

  There was a feud one time, begun by your father.

  460 With his own hands he had killed Heatholaf,

  who was a Wulfing; so war was looming

  and his people, in fear of it, forced him to leave.

  He came away then over rolling waves

  to the South-Danes here, the sons of honour.

  I was then in the first flush of kingship,

  establishing my sway over all the rich strongholds

  of this heroic land. Heorogar,

  my older brother and the better man,

  also a son of Halfdane’s, had died.

  470 Finally I healed the feud by paying:

  I shipped a treasure-trove to the Wulfings

  and Ecgtheow acknowledged me with oaths of allegiance.

  “It bothers me to have to burden anyone

  with all the grief Grendel has caused

  and the havoc he has wreaked upon us in Heorot,

  our humiliations. My household-guard

  are on the wane, fate sweeps them away

  into Grendel’s clutches—

  but God can easily

  halt these raids and harrowing attacks!

  480 “Time and again, when the goblets passed

  and seasoned fighters got flushed with beer

  they would pledge themselves to protect Heorot

  and wait for Grendel with whetted swords.

  But when dawn broke and day crept in

  over each empty, blood-spattered bench,

  the floor of the mead-hall where they had feasted

  would be slick with slaughter. And so they died,

  faithful retainers, and my following dwindled.

  “Now take your place at the table, relish

  490 the triumph of heroes to your heart’s content.”

  A feast in Heorot

  Then a bench was cleared in that banquet hall

  so the Geats could have room to be together

  and the party sat, proud in their bearing,

  strong and stalwart. An attendant stood by

  with a decorated pitcher, pouring bright

  helpings of mead. And the minstrel sang,

  filling Heorot with his head-clearing voice,

  gladdening that great rally of Geats and Danes.

  Unferth strikes a discordant note

  From where he crouched at the king’s feet,

  500 Unferth, a son of Ecglaf’s, spoke

  contrary words. Beowulf’s coming,

  his sea-braving, made him sick with envy:

  he could not brook or abide the fact

  that anyone else alive under heaven

  might enjoy greater regard than he did:

  “Are you the Beowulf who took on Breca

  in a swimming match on the open sea,

  risking the water just to prove that you could win?

  It was sheer vanity made you venture out

  510 on the main deep. And no matter who tried,

  friend or foe, to deflect the pair of you,

  neither would back down: the sea-test obsessed you.

  Unferth’s version of a swimming contest

  You waded in, embracing water,

  taking its measure, mastering currents,

  riding on the swell. The ocean swayed,

  winter went wild in the waves, but you vied

  for seven nights; and then he outswam you,

  came ashore the stronger contender.

  He was cast up safe and sound one morning

  520 among the Heathoreams, then made his way

  to where he belonged in Bronding country,

  home again, sure of his ground

  in strongroom and bawn. So Breca made good

  his boast upon you and was proved right.

  No matter, therefore, how you may have fared

  in every bout and battle until now,

  this time y
ou’ll be worsted; no one has ever

  outlasted an entire night against Grendel.”

  Beowulf corrects Unferth

  Beowulf, Ecgtheow’s son, replied:

  530 “Well, friend Unferth, you have had your say

  about Breca and me. But it was mostly beer

  that was doing the talking. The truth is this:

  when the going was heavy in those high waves,

  I was the strongest swimmer of all.

  We’d been children together and we grew up

  daring ourselves to outdo each other,

  boasting and urging each other to risk

  our lives on the sea. And so it turned out.

  Each of us swam holding a sword,

  540 a naked, hard-proofed blade for protection

  against the whale-beasts. But Breca could never

  move out farther or faster from me

  than I could manage to move from him.

  Shoulder to shoulder, we struggled on

  for five nights, until the long flow

  and pitch of the waves, the perishing cold,

  night falling and winds from the north

  drove us apart. The deep boiled up

  and its wallowing sent the sea-brutes wild.

  550 My armour helped me to hold out;

  my hard-ringed chain-mail, hand-forged and linked,

  a fine, close-fitting filigree of gold,

  kept me safe when some ocean creature

  pulled me to the bottom. Pinioned fast

  and swathed in its grip, I was granted one

  final chance: my sword plunged

  and the ordeal was over. Through my own hands,

  the fury of battle had finished off the sea-beast.

  Beowulf tells of his ordeal in the sea

  “Time and again, foul things attacked me,

  560 lurking and stalking, but I lashed out,

  gave as good as I got with my sword.

  My flesh was not for feasting on,

  there would be no monsters gnawing and gloating

  over their banquet at the bottom of the sea.

  Instead, in the morning, mangled and sleeping

  the sleep of the sword, they slopped and floated

  like the ocean’s leavings. From now on

  sailors would be safe, the deep-sea raids

  were over for good. Light came from the east,

  570 bright guarantee of God, and the waves

  went quiet; I could see headlands

  and buffeted cliffs. Often, for undaunted courage,

  fate spares the man it has not already marked.

  However it occurred, my sword had killed

  nine sea-monsters. Such night-dangers

  and hard ordeals I have never heard of

  nor of a man more desolate in surging waves.

  But worn out as I was, I survived,

  came through with my life. The ocean lifted

  580 and laid me ashore, I landed safe

  on the coast of Finland.

  Now I cannot recall

  any fight you entered, Unferth,

  that bears comparison. I don’t boast when I say

  that neither you nor Breca were ever much

  celebrated for swordsmanship

  or for facing danger on the field of battle.

  Unferth rebuked. Beowulf reaffirms his determination to defeat Grendel

  You killed your own kith and kin,

  so for all your cleverness and quick tongue,

  you will suffer damnation in the depths of hell.

  590 The fact is, Unferth, if you were truly

  as keen or courageous as you claim to be

  Grendel would never have got away with

  such unchecked atrocity, attacks on your king,

  havoc in Heorot and horrors everywhere.

  But he knows he need never be in dread

  of your blade making a mizzle of his blood

  or of vengeance arriving ever from this quarter—

  from the Victory-Shieldings, the shoulderers of the spear.

  He knows he can trample down you Danes

  600 to his heart’s content, humiliate and murder

  without fear of reprisal. But he will find me different.

  I will show him how Geats shape to kill