Beowulf / An Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem

Grendel comes, the great march-stepper,

Hrothgar, king of the Danes,

End-rhyme has been used occasionally; internal rhyme, sporadically.

I have been strand-guard, standing as warden,
Lest enemies ever anywise ravage
Danish dominions with army of war-ships.
55
More boldly never have warriors ventured
Hither to come; of kinsmen’s approval,
Word-leave of warriors, I ween that ye surely
He is struck by Beowulf’s appearance.
Nothing have known. Never a greater one
Of earls o’er the earth have I had a sight of
60
Than is one of your number, a hero in armor;
No low-ranking fellow4 adorned with his weapons,
But launching them little, unless looks are deceiving,
And striking appearance. Ere ye pass on your journey
As treacherous spies to the land of the Scyldings
65
And farther fare, I fully must know now
What race ye belong to. Ye far-away dwellers,
Sea-faring sailors, my simple opinion
Hear ye and hearken: haste is most fitting
Plainly to tell me what place ye are come from.”
[1] ‘From hám’ (194) is much disputed. One rendering is: Beowulf, being away from home, heard of Hrothgar’s troubles, etc. Another, that adopted by S. and endorsed in the H.-So. notes, is: B. heard from his neighborhood (neighbors), i.e. in his home, etc. A third is: B., being at home, heard this as occurring away from home. The H.-So. glossary and notes conflict.
[2] ‘Eoletes’ (224) is marked with a (?) by H.-So.; our rendering simply follows his conjecture.—Other conjectures as to ‘eolet’ are: (1) voyage, (2) toil, labor, (3) hasty journey.
[3] The lacuna of the MS at this point has been supplied by various conjectures. The reading adopted by H.-So. has been rendered in the above translation. W., like H.-So., makes ‘ic’ the beginning of a new sentence, but, for ‘helmas bæron,’ he reads ‘hringed stefnan.’ This has the advantage of giving a parallel to