Fortunately an early Anglo-Saxon poem, recounting the adventures of the chieftain Beowulf, is preserved to us, and gives us a valuable and highly graphic and interesting description of the ceremonies attendant on his burial; the lighting of the funeral pyre, the burning of the body of the hero, the raising of the mound over his remains, and the articles placed beside him in his last home. Dying he bæꝺ̣ þæꞇ ᵹe ᵹe-ƿoꞃhꞇon æꝼꞇeꞃ ƿineꞅ ꝺæꝺū in bǽl-ꞅꞇeꝺe beoꞃh þone heán, micelne anꝺ mæꞃne.-- Which is translated:-- “he bad that ye should make, according to the deeds of your friend, on the place of the funeral pyle, the lofty barrow large and famous.” His request was carried out, the funeral pile raised, and every preparation befitting his deeds was made. The pile was-- “hung round with helmets, with boards of war,[49] and with bright byrnies,[50] as he had requested. Then the heroes, weeping, laid down in the midst the famous chieftain, their dear lord. Then began on the hill, the warriors, to awake the mightiest of funeral fires; the wood-smoke rose aloft dark from the fire; noisily it went mingled with weeping.” The body of the hero having been consumed by the wood-fire, in the midst of weeping friends, the people began to raise the barrow over his ashes. This mound-- “was high and broad, by the sailors over the waves to be seen afar. And they built up during ten days the beacon of the war-renowned. They surrounded it with a wall in the most honourable manner that wise men could desire. They put into the mound rings and bright gems, all such ornaments as before from the hoard the fierce-minded men had taken; they suffered the earth to hold the treasure of warriors, gold on the earth, where it yet remains as useless to men as it was of old.”