The Oldest English Epic/Chapter 1/Beowulf 00

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Beowulf (introduction)

The Oldest English Epic
by unknown author, translated by Francis Barton Gummere

Beowulf: Prelude

Beowulf 1

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1310225The Oldest English Epic — Beowulf: PreludeFrancis Barton GummereUnknown

BEOWULF

PRELUDE OF THE FOUNDER OF THE DANISH HOUSE

Lo, praise of the prowess of people-kings
of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,
we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!
Oft Scyld the Scefing^[1] from squadroned foes,
5from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore,
awing the earls.^[2] Since erst he lay
friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him:
for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve,
till before him the folk, both far and near,
10who house by the whale-path,^[3] heard his mandate,
gave him gifts: a good king he!
To him an heir was afterward born,
a son in his halls, whom heaven^[4] sent
to favor the folk, feeling their woe
15that erst they had lacked an earl for leader
so long a while; the Lord endowed him,
the Wielder of Wonder, with world’s renown.
Famed was this Beowulf:^[5] far flew the boast of him,
son of Scyld, in the Scandian lands.
20So^[6] becomes it a youth^[7] to quit him well
with his father’s friends, by fee and gift,
that to aid him, agéd, in after days,
come warriors willing, should war draw nigh,
liegemen loyal: by lauded deeds
25shall an earl have honor in every clan.
Forth he fared at the fated moment,
sturdy Scyld to the shelter of God.^[8]
Then they bore him over to ocean’s billow,
loving clansmen, as late he charged them,
30while wielded words the winsome Scyld,
the leader belovéd who long had ruled. . . .
In the roadstead rocked a ring-dight vessel,
ice-flecked, outbound, atheling’s barge:
there laid they down their darling lord
35on the breast of the boat, the breaker-of-rings,^[9]
by the mast the mighty one. Many a treasure
fetched from far was freighted with him.
No ship have I known so nobly dight
with weapons of war and weeds of battle,^[10]
40with breastplate and blade: on his bosom lay
a heapéd hoard that hence should go
far o’er the flood with him floating away.
No less^[11] these loaded the lordly gifts,
thanes’ huge treasure, than those had done
45who in former time forth had sent him
sole on the seas, a suckling child.
High o’er his head they hoist the standard,
a gold-wove banner; let billows take him,
gave him to ocean. Grave were their spirits,
50mournful their mood. No man is able
to say in sooth, no son of the halls,
no hero ’neath heaven,—who harbored that freight!^[12]

↑ English historians knew the story or myth of this Scyld (“Shield”), who as a helpless child drifts ashore in an oarless boat. The boat is filled with weapons, but a “sheaf” of grain serves as pillow for the little sleeper; and hence the people call him Shield the Sheaf-Child. They make him their king. He ruled, so William of Malmesbury says, “where Heithebi stands, once called Slaswic.” The term “Sheaf-Child” came to be misunderstood as “Child of Sheaf,” and Scyld was furnished with a father, Scef or Sceaf.
↑ An “earl” was the freeman, the warrior in a chosen band; though not yet indicating specific rank, the word carried a general idea of nobility.
↑ Kenning for “sea.” Tribes across the water, say in southern Sweden, or westward of the Danish lands in Zealand, became tributary to Scyld.
↑ Literally, “God.”
↑ Not, of course, Beowulf the Geat, hero of the epic. Genealogies of Anglo-Saxon kings name this son of Scyld as Beaw, Beo, Bedwig, Beadwig, Beowinus, etc., all shorter forms or corruptions of a common original name. The name Beowulf may mean “Wolf-of-the-Croft” (Gering), but its etymology is uncertain.
↑ Sc. “as Scyld did.” Beowulf’s coming fame is mentioned, so to speak, as part of Scyld’s assets, and the whole passage is praise of the “pious founder” of the Danish line.
↑ The Exeter Maxims, vv. 14 f., say
Let the atheling young by his honest comrades

be emboldened to battle and breaking of rings,—

i.e. liberal gifts to his clansmen.
↑ To heaven, the other world. Various metaphors are used for death; e.g. “he chose the other light.” See also v. 2469.
↑ Kenning for king or chieftain of a comitatus: he breaks off gold from the spiral rings—often worn on the arm—and so rewards his followers. In Ælfric’s famous Colloquy, early in the eleventh century, the huntsman says he sometimes gets gift of a horse or an arm-ring from his king.
↑ Professor Garnett’s rendering.
↑ The poet’s favorite figure of litotes or understatement. He means that the treasure which they sent out with the dead king far exceeded what came with him in the boat that brought him, a helpless child, to their shores.
↑ While the reader should guard against putting into these effective lines sentiment and suggestion which they do not really contain, he should compare this close with the close of Tennyson’s Morte d’Arthur. The classical passage for ship-burial among the old Germans is the description of Balder’s funeral in the prose Edda. On the “greatest of all ships” was laid the corpse of the god; and a balefire was made there; and rings, and costly trappings, and Balder’s own horse, were consumed along with the body.

[1] English historians knew the story or myth of this Scyld (“Shield”), who as a helpless child drifts ashore in an oarless boat. The boat is filled with weapons, but a “sheaf” of grain serves as pillow for the little sleeper; and hence the people call him Shield the Sheaf-Child. They make him their king. He ruled, so William of Malmesbury says, “where Heithebi stands, once called Slaswic.” The term “Sheaf-Child” came to be misunderstood as “Child of Sheaf,” and Scyld was furnished with a father, Scef or Sceaf.

[2] An “earl” was the freeman, the warrior in a chosen band; though not yet indicating specific rank, the word carried a general idea of nobility.

[3] Kenning for “sea.” Tribes across the water, say in southern Sweden, or westward of the Danish lands in Zealand, became tributary to Scyld.

[4] Literally, “God.”

[5] Not, of course, Beowulf the Geat, hero of the epic. Genealogies of Anglo-Saxon kings name this son of Scyld as Beaw, Beo, Bedwig, Beadwig, Beowinus, etc., all shorter forms or corruptions of a common original name. The name Beowulf may mean “Wolf-of-the-Croft” (Gering), but its etymology is uncertain.

[6] Sc. “as Scyld did.” Beowulf’s coming fame is mentioned, so to speak, as part of Scyld’s assets, and the whole passage is praise of the “pious founder” of the Danish line.

[7] The Exeter Maxims, vv. 14 f., say
Let the atheling young by his honest comrades

be emboldened to battle and breaking of rings,—

i.e. liberal gifts to his clansmen.

[8] To heaven, the other world. Various metaphors are used for death; e.g. “he chose the other light.” See also v. 2469.

[9] Kenning for king or chieftain of a comitatus: he breaks off gold from the spiral rings—often worn on the arm—and so rewards his followers. In Ælfric’s famous Colloquy, early in the eleventh century, the huntsman says he sometimes gets gift of a horse or an arm-ring from his king.

[10] Professor Garnett’s rendering.

[11] The poet’s favorite figure of litotes or understatement. He means that the treasure which they sent out with the dead king far exceeded what came with him in the boat that brought him, a helpless child, to their shores.

[12] While the reader should guard against putting into these effective lines sentiment and suggestion which they do not really contain, he should compare this close with the close of Tennyson’s Morte d’Arthur. The classical passage for ship-burial among the old Germans is the description of Balder’s funeral in the prose Edda. On the “greatest of all ships” was laid the corpse of the god; and a balefire was made there; and rings, and costly trappings, and Balder’s own horse, were consumed along with the body.

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