Dragons -- Poetry; Epic poetry, English (Old); Monsters -- Poetry
55 Lay on my bosom. To the bottom then dragged me,
A hateful fiend-scather, seized me and held me,
Grim in his grapple: 'twas granted me, nathless,
To pierce the monster with the point of my weapon,
My obedient blade; battle offcarried
60 The mighty mere-creature by means of my hand-blow.
[1] It has been plausibly suggested that 'síð' (in 501 and in 353)
means 'arrival.' If so, translate the bracket: _(the arrival of
Beowulf, the brave seafarer, was a source of great chagrin to Unferth,
etc.)_.
[21]
X.
BEOWULF SILENCES UNFERTH.--GLEE IS HIGH.
"So ill-meaning enemies often did cause me
Sorrow the sorest. I served them, in quittance,
{My dear sword always served me faithfully.}
With my dear-lovèd sword, as in sooth it was fitting;
They missed the pleasure of feasting abundantly,
5 Ill-doers evil, of eating my body,
Of surrounding the banquet deep in the ocean;
But wounded with edges early at morning
They were stretched a-high on the strand of the ocean,
{I put a stop to the outrages of the sea-monsters.}
Put to sleep with the sword, that sea-going travelers
10 No longer thereafter were hindered from sailing
The foam-dashing currents. Came a light from the east,
God's beautiful beacon; the billows subsided,
That well I could see the nesses projecting,
{Fortune helps the brave earl.}
The blustering crags. Weird often saveth
15 The undoomed hero if doughty his valor!
But me did it fortune[1] to fell with my weapon
Nine of the nickers. Of night-struggle harder
'Neath dome of the heaven heard I but rarely,
Nor of wight more woful in the waves of the ocean;
20 Yet I 'scaped with my life the grip of the monsters,
{After that escape I drifted to Finland.}
Weary from travel. Then the waters bare me
To the land of the Finns, the flood with the current,
{I have never heard of your doing any such bold deeds.}
The weltering waves. Not a word hath been told me
Of deeds so daring done by thee, Unferth,
25 And of sword-terror none; never hath Breca
At the play of the battle, nor either of you two,
Feat so fearless performèd with weapons
Glinting and gleaming . . . . . . . . . . . .
[22] . . . . . . . . . . . . I utter no boasting;
{You are a slayer of brothers, and will suffer damnation, wise as you may
be.}
30 Though with cold-blooded cruelty thou killedst thy brothers,
Thy nearest of kin; thou needs must in hell get
Direful damnation, though doughty thy wisdom.
I tell thee in earnest, offspring of Ecglaf,
Never had Grendel such numberless horrors,
35 The direful demon, done to thy liegelord,
Harrying in Heorot, if thy heart were as sturdy,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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