Dragons -- Poetry; Epic poetry, English (Old); Monsters -- Poetry
20 So the carle that is young, by kindnesses rendered
The friends of his father, with fees in abundance
Must be able to earn that when age approacheth
Eager companions aid him requitingly,
When war assaults him serve him as liegemen:
25 By praise-worthy actions must honor be got
'Mong all of the races. At the hour that was fated
{Scyld dies at the hour appointed by Fate.}
Scyld then departed to the All-Father's keeping
Warlike to wend him; away then they bare him
To the flood of the current, his fond-loving comrades,
30 As himself he had bidden, while the friend of the Scyldings
Word-sway wielded, and the well-lovèd land-prince
Long did rule them.[3] The ring-stemmèd vessel,
Bark of the atheling, lay there at anchor,
Icy in glimmer and eager for sailing;
{By his own request, his body is laid on a vessel and wafted seaward.}
35 The belovèd leader laid they down there,
Giver of rings, on the breast of the vessel,
The famed by the mainmast. A many of jewels,
Of fretted embossings, from far-lands brought over,
Was placed near at hand then; and heard I not ever
40 That a folk ever furnished a float more superbly
With weapons of warfare, weeds for the battle,
Bills and burnies; on his bosom sparkled
Many a jewel that with him must travel
On the flush of the flood afar on the current.
45 And favors no fewer they furnished him soothly,
Excellent folk-gems, than others had given him
{He leaves Daneland on the breast of a bark.}
Who when first he was born outward did send him
Lone on the main, the merest of infants:
And a gold-fashioned standard they stretched under heaven
[3] 50 High o'er his head, let the holm-currents bear him,
Seaward consigned him: sad was their spirit,
Their mood very mournful. Men are not able
{No one knows whither the boat drifted.}
Soothly to tell us, they in halls who reside,[4]
Heroes under heaven, to what haven he hied.
[1] For the 'Þæt' of verse 15, Sievers suggests 'Þá' (= which). If
this be accepted, the sentence 'He had ... afflicted' will read: _He_
(_i.e._ God) _had perceived the malice-caused sorrow which they,
lordless, had formerly long endured_.
[2] For 'aldor-léase' (15) Gr. suggested 'aldor-ceare': _He perceived
their distress, that they formerly had suffered life-sorrow a long
while_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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