Dragons -- Poetry; Epic poetry, English (Old); Monsters -- Poetry
Fell and frantic, and forced from their slumbers
Thirty of thanemen; thence he departed
10 Leaping and laughing, his lair to return to,
With surfeit of slaughter sallying homeward.
In the dusk of the dawning, as the day was just breaking,
Was Grendel's prowess revealed to the warriors:
{A cry of agony goes up, when Grendel's horrible deed is fully realized.}
Then, his meal-taking finished, a moan was uplifted,
15 Morning-cry mighty. The man-ruler famous,
The long-worthy atheling, sat very woful,
Suffered great sorrow, sighed for his liegemen,
[6] When they had seen the track of the hateful pursuer,
The spirit accursèd: too crushing that sorrow,
{The monster returns the next night.}
20 Too loathsome and lasting. Not longer he tarried,
But one night after continued his slaughter
Shameless and shocking, shrinking but little
From malice and murder; they mastered him fully.
He was easy to find then who otherwhere looked for
25 A pleasanter place of repose in the lodges,
A bed in the bowers. Then was brought to his notice
Told him truly by token apparent
The hall-thane's hatred: he held himself after
Further and faster who the foeman did baffle.
30 [2]So ruled he and strongly strove against justice
Lone against all men, till empty uptowered
{King Hrothgar's agony and suspense last twelve years.}
The choicest of houses. Long was the season:
Twelve-winters' time torture suffered
The friend of the Scyldings, every affliction,
35 Endless agony; hence it after[3] became
Certainly known to the children of men
Sadly in measures, that long against Hrothgar
Grendel struggled:--his grudges he cherished,
Murderous malice, many a winter,
40 Strife unremitting, and peacefully wished he
[4]Life-woe to lift from no liegeman at all of
The men of the Dane-folk, for money to settle,
No counsellor needed count for a moment
[7] On handsome amends at the hands of the murderer;
{Grendel is unremitting in his persecutions.}
45 The monster of evil fiercely did harass,
The ill-planning death-shade, both elder and younger,
Trapping and tricking them. He trod every night then
The mist-covered moor-fens; men do not know where
Witches and wizards wander and ramble.
50 So the foe of mankind many of evils
Grievous injuries, often accomplished,
Horrible hermit; Heort he frequented,
Gem-bedecked palace, when night-shades had fallen
{God is against the monster.}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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