http://www.arcamax.com/poetry/b-1057-10
Beowulf
{7a} There is no irrelevance here. Hrothgar sees in Beowulf's mission
a heritage of duty, a return of the good offices which the Danish king
rendered to Beowulf's father in time of dire need.
{7b} Money, for wergild, or man-price.
{7c} Ecgtheow, Beowulf's sire.
{8a} "Began the fight."
{8b} Breca.
{9a} Murder.
{10a} Beowulf, -- the "one."
{11a} That is, he was a "lost soul," doomed to hell.
{12a} Kenning for Beowulf.
{13a} "Guarded the treasure."
{13b} Sc. Heremod.
{13c} The singer has sung his lays, and the epic resumes its story.
The time-relations are not altogether good in this long passage which
describes the rejoicings of "the day after"; but the present shift
from the riders on the road to the folk at the hall is not very
violent, and is of a piece with the general style.
{14a} Unferth, Beowulf's sometime opponent in the flyting.
{15a} There is no horrible inconsistency here such as the critics
strive and cry about. In spite of the ruin that Grendel and Beowulf
had made within the hall, the framework and roof held firm, and swift
repairs made the interior habitable. Tapestries were hung on the
walls, and willing hands prepared the banquet.
{15b} From its formal use in other places, this phrase, to take cup in
hall, or "on the floor," would seem to mean that Beowulf stood up to
receive his gifts, drink to the donor, and say thanks.
{15c} Kenning for sword.
{15d} Hrothgar. He is also the "refuge of the friends of Ing," below.
Ing belongs to myth.
{15e} Horses are frequently led or ridden into the hall where folk sit
at banquet: so in Chaucer's Squire's tale, in the ballad of King
Estmere, and in the romances.
{16a} Man-price, wergild.
{16b} Beowulf's.
{16c} Hrothgar.
{16d} There is no need to assume a gap in the Ms. As before about
Sigemund and Heremod, so now, though at greater length, about Finn and
his feud, a lay is chanted or recited; and the epic poet, counting on
his readers' familiarity with the story, -- a fragment of it still
exists, -- simply gives the headings.
{16e} The exact story to which this episode refers in summary is not
to be determined, but the following account of it is reasonable and
has good support among scholars. Finn, a Frisian chieftain, who
nevertheless has a "castle" outside the Frisian border, marries
Hildeburh, a Danish princess; and her brother, Hnaef, with many other
Danes, pays Finn a visit. Relations between the two peoples have been
strained before. Something starts the old feud anew; and the visitors
are attacked in their quarters. Hnaef is killed; so is a son of
Hildeburh. Many fall on both sides. Peace is patched up; a stately
funeral is held; and the surviving visitors become in a way vassals or
liegemen of Finn, going back with him to Frisia. So matters rest a
while. Hengest is now leader of the Danes; but he is set upon revenge
for his former lord, Hnaef. Probably he is killed in feud; but his
clansmen, Guthlaf and Oslaf, gather at their home a force of sturdy
Danes, come back to Frisia, storm Finn's stronghold, kill him, and
carry back their kinswoman Hildeburh.
{16f} The "enemies" must be the Frisians.
{16g} Battlefield. -- Hengest is the "prince's thane," companion of
Hnaef. "Folcwald's son" is Finn.
{16h} That is, Finn would govern in all honor the few Danish warriors
who were left, provided, of course, that none of them tried to renew
the quarrel or avenge Hnaef their fallen lord. If, again, one of
Finn's Frisians began a quarrel, he should die by the sword.
{16i} Hnaef.
{16j} The high place chosen for the funeral: see description of
Beowulf's funeral-pile at the end of the poem.
{16k} Wounds.
{17a} That is, these two Danes, escaping home, had told the story of
the attack on Hnaef, the slaying of Hengest, and all the Danish woes.
Collecting a force, they return to Frisia and kill Finn in his home.
{17b} Nephew to Hrothgar, with whom he subsequently quarrels, and
elder cousin to the two young sons of Hrothgar and Wealhtheow, --
their natural guardian in the event of the king's death. There is
something finely feminine in this speech of Wealhtheow's, apart from
its somewhat irregular and irrelevant sequence of topics. Both she and
her lord probably distrust Hrothulf; but she bids the king to be of
good cheer, and, turning to the suspect, heaps affectionate assurances
on his probity. "My own Hrothulf" will surely not forget these favors
and benefits of the past, but will repay them to the orphaned boy.
{19a} They had laid their arms on the benches near where they slept.
{20a} He surmises presently where she is.
{20b} The connection is not difficult. The words of mourning, of acute
grief, are said; and according to Germanic sequence of thought,
inexorable here, the next and only topic is revenge. But is it
possible? Hrothgar leads up to his appeal and promise with a skillful
and often effective description of the horrors which surround the
monster's home and await the attempt of an avenging foe.
{21a} Hrothgar is probably meant.
{21b} Meeting place.
{22a} Kenning for "sword." Hrunting is bewitched, laid under a spell
of uselessness, along with all other swords.
{22b} This brown of swords, evidently meaning burnished, bright,
continues to be a favorite adjective in the popular ballads.
{23a} After the killing of the monster and Grendel's decapitation.
{23b} Hrothgar.
{23c} The blade slowly dissolves in blood-stained drops like icicles.
{23d} Spear.
{24a} That is, "whoever has as wide authority as I have and can
remember so far back so many instances of heroism, may well say, as I
say, that no better hero ever lived than Beowulf."
{25a} That is, he is now undefended by conscience from the temptations
(shafts) of the devil.
{25b} Kenning for the sun. -- This is a strange role for the raven. He
is the warrior's bird of battle, exults in slaughter and carnage; his
joy here is a compliment to the sunrise.
{26a} That is, he might or might not see Beowulf again. Old as he was,
the latter chance was likely; but he clung to the former, hoping to
see his young friend again "and exchange brave words in the hall."
{27a} With the speed of the boat.
{27b} Queen to Hygelac. She is praised by contrast with the antitype,
Thryth, just as Beowulf was praised by contrast with Heremod.
{27c} Kenning for "wife."
{28a} Beowulf gives his uncle the king not mere gossip of his journey,
but a statesmanlike forecast of the outcome of certain policies at the
Danish court. Talk of interpolation here is absurd. As both Beowulf
and Hygelac know, -- and the folk for whom the Beowulf was put
together also knew, -- Froda was king of the Heathobards (probably the
Langobards, once near neighbors of Angle and Saxon tribes on the
continent), and had fallen in fight with the Danes. Hrothgar will set
aside this feud by giving his daughter as "peace-weaver" and wife to
the young king Ingeld, son of the slain Froda. But Beowulf, on general
principles and from his observation of the particular case, foretells
trouble. Note:
{28b} Play of shields, battle. A Danish warrior cuts down Froda in the
fight, and takes his sword and armor, leaving them to a son. This son
is selected to accompany his mistress, the young princess Freawaru, to
her new home when she is Ingeld's queen. Heedlessly he wears the sword
of Froda in hall. An old warrior points it out to Ingeld, and eggs him
on to vengeance. At his instigation the Dane is killed; but the
murderer, afraid of results, and knowing the land, escapes. So the old
feud must break out again.
{28c} That is, their disastrous battle and the slaying of their king.
{28d} The sword.
{28e} Beowulf returns to his forecast. Things might well go somewhat
as follows, he says; sketches a little tragic story; and with this
prophecy by illustration returns to the tale of his adventure.
{28f} Not an actual glove, but a sort of bag.
{29a} Hygelac.
{29b} This is generally assumed to mean hides, though the text simply
says "seven thousand." A hide in England meant about 120 acres, though
"the size of the acre varied."
{29c} On the historical raid into Frankish territory between 512 and
520 A.D. The subsequent course of events, as gathered from hints of
this epic, is partly told in Scandinavian legend.
{29d} The chronology of this epic, as scholars have worked it out,
would make Beowulf well over ninety years of age when he fights the
dragon. But the fifty years of his reign need not be taken as
historical fact.
{29e} The text is here hopelessly illegible, and only the general
drift of the meaning can be rescued. For one thing, we have the old
myth of a dragon who guards hidden treasure. But with this runs the
story of some noble, last of his race, who hides all his wealth within
this barrow and there chants his farewell to life's glories. After his
death the dragon takes possession of the hoard and watches over it. A
condemned or banished man, desperate, hides in the barrow, discovers
the treasure, and while the dragon sleeps, makes off with a golden
beaker or the like, and carries it for propitiation to his master. The
dragon discovers the loss and exacts fearful penalty from the people
round about.
{31a} Literally "loan-days," days loaned to man.
{31b} Chattuarii, a tribe that dwelt along the Rhine, and took part in
repelling the raid of (Hygelac) Chocilaicus.
{31c} Onla, son of Ongentheow, who pursues his two nephews Eanmund and
Eadgils to Heardred's court, where they have taken refuge after their
unsuccessful rebellion. In the fighting Heardred is killed.
{32a} That is, Beowulf supports Eadgils against Onela, who is slain by
Eadgils in revenge for the "care-paths" of exile into which Onela
forced him.
{32b} That is, the king could claim no wergild, or man-price, from one
son for the killing of the other.
{32c} Usual euphemism for death.
{32d} Sc. in the grave.
{33a} Eofor for Wulf. -- The immediate provocation for Eofor in
killing "the hoary Scylfing," Ongentheow, is that the latter has just
struck Wulf down; but the king, Haethcyn, is also avenged by the blow.
See the detailed description below.
{33b} Hygelac.
{33c} Shield.
{33d} The hollow passage.
{34a} That is, although Eanmund was brother's son to Onela, the
slaying of the former by Weohstan is not felt as cause of feud, and is
rewarded by gift of the slain man's weapons.
{34b} Both Wiglaf and the sword did their duty. -- The following is
one of the classic passages for illustrating the comitatus as the most
conspicuous Germanic institution, and its underlying sense of duty,
based partly on the idea of loyalty and partly on the practical basis
of benefits received and repaid.
{34c} Sc. "than to bide safely here," -- a common figure of incomplete
comparison.
{34d} Wiglaf's wooden shield.
{34e} Gering would translate "kinsman of the nail," as both are made
of iron.
{35a} That is, swords.
{36a} Where Beowulf lay.
{37a} What had been left or made by the hammer; well-forged.
{37b} Trying to revive him.
{38a} Nothing.
{38b} Dead.
{38c} Death-watch, guard of honor, "lyke-wake."
{38d} A name for the Franks.
{38e} Ongentheow.
{38f} Haethcyn.
{39a} The line may mean: till Hrethelings stormed on the hedged
shields, -- i.e. the shield-wall or hedge of defensive war --
Hrethelings, of course, are Geats.
{39b} Eofor, brother to Wulf Wonreding.
{39c} Sc. "value in" hides and the weight of the gold.
{39d} Not at all.
{39e} Laid on it when it was put in the barrow. This spell, or in our
days the "curse," either prevented discovery or brought dire ills on
the finder and taker.
{40a} Probably the fugitive is meant who discovered the hoard. Ten
Brink and Gering assume that the dragon is meant. "Hid" may well mean
here "took while in hiding."
{40b} That is "one and a few others." But Beowulf seems to be
indicated.
{40c} Ten Brink points out the strongly heathen character of this part
of the epic. Beowulf's end came, so the old tradition ran, from his
unwitting interference with spell-bound treasure.
{40d} A hard saying, variously interpreted. In any case, it is the
somewhat clumsy effort of the Christian poet to tone down the
heathenism of his material by an edifying observation.
{41a} Nothing is said of Beowulf's wife in the poem, but Bugge
surmises that Beowulf finally accepted Hygd's offer of kingdom and
hoard, and, as was usual, took her into the bargain.